New Year, New Continent, New Life....

Recently graduating from Wilfrid Laurier University I have officially completed my degree in Business Administration (Co-op), specializing in International Business with a minor in Spanish. My 4.5 years at WLU seemed to fly by, and I was so lucky to do so many things during my time at university, everything from getting real life working experience through the Co-op program (both in and out of province), an international study exchange in Spain, as well as being a Teaching Assistant for a 1st year Business (BU111) and a 2nd year Spanish course (SP201). As my time winded down, it was time to think seriously about what I was going to do starting January 2011. Through my time at Laurier, I really started to figure out what I wanted to do post-university, and that was to live and work abroad, and hopefully incorporate my Spanish language abilities in my job. So i started to apply for jobs in the fall and participate in graduate recruiting. There were some potential jobs, but nothing that really wowed me, or I saw myself seriously doing as they didnt really align with my goals of working abroad. So then I started to seek other options and one of them was AIESEC - an international student organization that I had been involved with since my first year at Laurier.


AIESEC - for those of you that don't know - is the largest student run organization, which facilitates global internships for undergraduate and graduate students. It has been around for over 50 years and is comprised of young individuals from 1,600 universities in over 107 different countries. The global internship program of AIESEC is just part of the overall experience, AIESEC also provides its members with an integrated development experience comprised of leadership opportunities, local and international conferences and the ability to partake in a global learning environment.


So through AIESEC I started applying for international jobs. It was like AIESEC was the gateway to achieving my goal of working and living abroad, and gaining some pretty invaluable experience. I applied to mostly hispanic countries but also other countries that sparked my interest from their job postings. I got 2 interviews for a job in Colombia and for another with Cadbury in London, UK. I made it to the final round of both interviews, and during that time I honestly didnt know which job I was going to choose. On one hand the Colombia job was my dream job, since it dealt with International Business on a consulting side of things, and Id be able to use my Spanish in my job, but Cadbury has such a special meaning to me since my family is all from England and I have fond memories of getting Cadbury chocolates from my relatives, so the chance to work for them would be an amazing job as well. I ended up hearing back from the Colombia job first, and decided to take it after much consideration. I will be working as an International Business Consultant in El Centro Para La Innovación, Consultoría y Empresarismo (CICE) in EAFIT Universidad. EAFIT University is a private university and one of the best in Colombia. Ive been told the campus is absolutely beautiful. My job will be focusing on working with Colombian countries to enhance their international presence, especially that in the Canadian business environment. I will also be working with international business projects, international marketing, market analysis etc etc. My contract is for one year and will be in the city of Medellín, which is north of Bogotá (the capital city of Colombia).

Ive been waiting to get my visa for about two months, and I FINALLY received it yesterday after returning from a weekend of partying in Toronto. So naturally today I booked my plane ticket, and am leaving on Thurs Feb 24th !!! Everything is happening so fast, and my basement looks like a bomb went off in it with the amount of clothes and other items I have spewed on the floor ready to organize and pack tomorrow.

People keep asking me if Im scared about leaving Canada for Colombia, and honestly Im really not. Im more anxious than I am scared, and above all EXCITED! I just want to get there and start the next chapter of my life. I feel confident about travelling there since I speak the language and also my experiences from my two exchanges I did in Mexico in 2008 and Spain in 2010.

So over the course of the next year I will be blogging again about my adventures and experiences while in South America - just like I did while in Spain. It's just a great way for people to keep tabs on me, as well as it allows me to journal my experiences to look back on later.

Colombia here I come.... :)