AIESEC, the international student organization with 45,000 active members and 800,000 alumni in 110 countries, is holding its 62nd international congress in Hyderabad, India, Aug. 23-Sept. 2.

Priya Nakra and Kate Wharton are Georgia Institute of Technology students, who are actively involved in the university’s AIESEC chapter. They have been selected to attend the congress and they want to go, but each needs to raise $2,000 for the $1,600 airfare and $400 living expenses to participate.

"An investment in AIESEC members is an investment in the creation of a generation of positive change agents," Ms. Nakra told GlobalAtlanta. "By seizing the opportunity for such unique, international experiences, you would enable us to form relationships leading to positive global agendas."

Both are scholarship recipients who anticipate graduating next year. Ms. Nakra is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering with a minor in pre-law and has received a full-tuition HOPE scholarship for four years.

Ms. Wharton is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in economics and international affairs with a minor in Spanish and is a recipient of a President’s Scholarship, which provides her with full tuition and living expenses. She has maintained a 4.0 grade point average.

Currently Ms. Wharton is the president of Georgia Tech’s AIESEC chapter and was selected as a delegate to the conference by the New York-based national staff from among the presidents of 40 U.S. chapters.

The congress organizers selected Ms. Nakra out of 70 applicants from 25 countries to be a team leader for media content development.

As a team leader for 10 fellow AIESEC members, each from a different country, she is to be responsible to develop press releases, articles and presentations about the conference.

This year’s congress will focus on issues of sustainability, the use of new technologies, youth-led movements, emerging markets and ethical business practices.

It also will include presentations by business and civic leaders including Adil Zainulbhai, who heads the consulting firm McKinsey & Co.’s India office; Atul Singh, president of Coca-Cola India; Richard Baird, who heads the Global Human Capital arm of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Stephan Le Camus, global human resources branding director for the Anglo-Dutch multination firm Unilever.

The congress is being sponsored by an array of multinational companies including the ABN-Amro Group, the financial organization owned by the Netherlands’ government; the British confectionary company Cadbury plc; the logistics and delivery company DHL; the Indian information technology firm Infosys; the software developer Microsoft Corp.; the Indian conglomerate TATA Group, among many others.

Ms. Nakra said that these sponsors are not paying for the travel and the living expenses of the attendees in view of their support for the congress itself.

Since its inception, AIESEC has provided internship experiences for its members, with the members from one country finding positions for their counterparts in other countries.

The Georgia Tech chapter has gone further to provide an exchange track for work abroad opportunities for the entire Georgia Tech student population. It also is involved in the development of other local chapters at Georgia State University and the Atlanta University Center.

For more information, Ms. Nakra may be reached by calling (630) 738-1190 or by email at pnakra@gmail.com

To learn more about AIESEC, go to http://www.aiesec.org/

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