On October 22, 2004 I, along with my fellow national executive board members of AIESEC in Germany, had the honour to meet and discuss with the President of Germany - Horst Köhler (front, middle).
The meeting was granted in recognition of our team's achievements and the growing positive perception of AIESEC in Germany. This was due in no small part to the success of AIESEC's International Conference - IC 2004*, which took place in Germany under our executive management.
Seen as the voice of the students, we discussed the future of Germany as the "Land of Ideas", as well as the political views, impressions, and involvement of university students. A member of AIESEC in Germany's National Board of Advisors, Dr. Friedbert Pflüger (back, second to left), assisted us with the arrangement of the meeting.
We were all impressed by the charm, presence and intelligence of President Köhler, who not only spontaneously extended the length of the meeting to continue the interesting discussion, but also for the photograph (above) and a further copy with a personal signature, which proudly hangs on my wall.
Not everyday can one claim to meet one of the most powerful politicians in Europe and I will forever be touched by this meeting, both for it's personal value, but also as a recognition of our executive board's professional achievements.
*IC 2004 - the annual meeting of all national executive boards members from all AIESEC countries worldwide, each year in a different country and involving politicians, executives and their companies, the media, as well as selected students and the member of the local public.
As further recognition of our performance during our term in the National Executive Board, our Board of Advisors issued the following certificate:
- AIESEC Urkunde (Deutsch)
- AIESEC Certificate (English Translation)
- Example: Newspaper Article - a newspaper article about AIESEC in a German newspaper (Stuttgarter Zeitung), which mentions my name at the end.
In recognition of my work on my Master Thesis topic at the Fraunhofer Institute in Freiburg, I was given the following reference from the Head of the Biophotonics and Integrated Optics Department:
As a result of my 9-month internship with HP in Germany (near Stuttgart), I was able to obtain a number of references and document. In fact, the company even wrote a case study about me and the successful integration of students into Hewlett-Packard in cooperation with AIESEC.
Noted as one of the top technical universities in Europe and often placed on the same academic level with MIT, this degree was extremely challenging, but the results speak for themselves. In Germany, the grading system is quite different, where 1,0 (yes, with comma) is the absolute best and 6,0 is such an insult that it is rarely seen. My thesis was graded as a 1,0 and my overall performance for my two-year program was 1,4 or roughly 3.8/4.0 in a North American scale.
In a four-year program at the University of Windsor I graduated with honours in Electrical Engineering, plus a minor in Mathematics, while also completing all requirements for further degree certificate in the Coop Internship Program. My four internships in each of the four semester breaks are described in my résumé (Siemens, Nortel, Visteon, IBM). Included is also a sample of one "Dean's List" certificate for excellent academic performance in a semester.
Without further explanation, here is a list of further certificates, references, awards, distinctions, etc. from my past academic and professional life: