When we were toasting to the new year 2020, no one could prepare us for what this year had in store. Not just for me, my family and my school, but for the entire humanity.

My work as the External Relation Coordinator at AISB is about relationships with the public, and we often envision just one way of doing our job: going to work, meeting people, organizing events and networking with various members of the community. The global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic brought so much change in what we do and how we do it. This period showed us how much we can actually achieve and how resilient we are.

In our day to day life, in normal circumstances, we always  know who or where our tribe, our family and community is. In normal circumstances, we do not think too often about our wider community, because in our busy lives we do not have so much room for that. Some of us are involved in charity and social projects but I had been observing how many of those projects are stand-alone, they do not connect with each other, or do not get so much visibility, thus allowing them to gain momentum and participation.

The crisis generated by this pandemic, saw “our tribe” reach completely different sizes and boundaries. Such a roller coaster of emotions, in such a short timeframe: worry, overwhelm, uncertainty, nervousness, fear, to then experience excitement and happiness seeing how people were coming together, in such a short time, people were turning their resources and businesses into serving and supporting others. I witnessed and was part of projects in which people were reaching out to people, that in other circumstances they would not.

I witnessed how in a matter of days, a relatively small community of Romania - the  AISB community - was made aware, part of and collected more than 150 thousand Euro to support the call for help from The Colentina Hospital, to purchase personal protection equipment, monitoring equipment, medical devices, and so on. I watched how donations kept gathering and, in the meantime, how our alumni team was sharing news of other alumni and businesses that they either owned, managed or were working with, who had become part of the huge  COVID 19 - support structure developing before our eyes.

I saw how businesses that were shut down, put their facilities and resources to use and in support of the community by preparing and delivering meals to medical staff in various hospitals, or meals for public order forces serving on the streets of the city, for the ambulance drivers and paramedical staff, for SMURD, guards, and other support staff. I saw a whole school “move” to learning online and still being a school, being a community - online!

I saw teachers, counselors, coaches getting online with students at all hours of the day,  I saw our alumni reaching out to our seniors, getting ready to “take off” to whatever reality after high school. Watching all this, and despite the inevitable feelings of nervousness and uncertainty that most of us were feeling in the middle of this pandemic, I immediately thought of the thousand of sheets and cardboard hanging in the balconies and windows all over the world: #allisgoingtobealright! Yes, we will be fine, we will be alright because we care, because we react, because we reach out, because we are resilient. I knew, while watching all this unfold in front of my eyes, that this community is made to survive, is made to stick together, and care for one another. I knew right away that we are this organic body that is “mutating” to adapt to whatever we were moving to.

The Alumni Association events at AISB around this part of the year centered around our seniors. In the past, we had waited for them to be done with all their IB exams and we would welcome them to a brunch, treat them to some yummy food, while we introduced them to the new stage of Vampire life: AISB Alumni life!

Every year Seniors’ Brunch is such a lovely event, bringing us all out in the school park, enjoying brunch, enjoying the weather and each other’s company, playing some games, introducing them to the alumni world and, finally, presenting them an alumni gift. This is when the Alumni Association showed seniors who we are, engaging them in the very first networking event that they will do as young adults.

We introduced them to other generations of alumni, talk to seniors about what alumni do, where they are, how and why networking with them all is key, how this benefits them and our entire community, how this network is creating little by little this web of contacts and connections that insures the flow of opportunities, exchange of information and support through various generations of alumni.

The second event we organize with senior students and parents is the Letting GO day. We have some of our alumni studying or working in different areas of the world sharing with parents and the brandnew alumni experiences, tips and information on settling in a new country, in university, offering  tips on needs when away from the daily family care and support.

None of that was possible this year, and just like all AISB classes and meetings moved online, we followed suit and moved our events on the Zoom platform. We knew we could not have the same structure, so we decided to merge these two events: Introduction to alumni world & Letting GO, splitting participants in separate rooms, as per the various places where our seniors are planning to and live.

These events turned out to be exceptionally well received and useful. Our alumni in the US, UK, Canada and The Netherlands – in lockdown in these countries, studying and taking exams online, very generously, made some room in their schedules and got on these zoom sessions with our seniors and their parents.

Questions came from both parents and seniors and our alumni gave very detailed, honest, and structured feedback and information on the respective countries, characteristics of life in these countries, dos and don’ts when at university abroad. 

We were so proud to see our alumni lead discussions in very delicate topics like emotional, mental and physical health aspects, being mindful, as well as about opportunities to address them properly by professionals in the respective country, or exploring the opportunity to fly home and take care of them with the support of the family.

The energy exchanged was amazing, it was a great break for our alumni who were busy with work projects or exams – some of them on babysittingduty for their new-born nephew!

The message to all our alumni parents, students and teachers was loud and clear: the AISB Alumni are very committed to serving the community also after they leave AISB. We offer some very precious connections, projects,internship, study or work opportunities for our ASIB students and alumni, and we look forward to seeing everyone enjoy these connections and contribute to increasing this network even further.

If you would like to know more about the AISB Alumni Association, please visit our alumni portal (alumni.aisb.ro) or get in touch with us via email. (alumni@goaisb.ro)

ONCE A VAMPIRE, ALWAYS A VAMPIRE!

Fabiana Papastefani
External Relations & AISB Alumni Coordinator


 

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