One of the many benefits of being apart of the @cems_alliance, is that our @IveyMScStudents get the opportunity to travel the world, take part in unique events and participate in a global network. In this post, Christina Lomazzo (@crlomazzo) shares her experience attending the CEMS Annual Event and Graduation, and her final CEMS Student Board meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia last month.
Culturally Aware. Intellectually Curious. Multi-Lingual. Global Citizens. These are only a few words that describe CEMS students across the world. CEMS is an alliance of thirty top business schools around the world. Each CEMS student partakes in an international internship, as well as a semester abroad. We all take a pledge to be responsible leaders, being accountable and responsible to society and the environment. Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of representing Ivey on the CEMS Student Board. In this position, I acted as the voice of students on global issues. The CEMS Student Board supports local CEMS Club at Alliance schools, but also works on large global projects. Most recently, the Student Board launched cems-forest.org to offset the carbon emission created by our travels. The Student Board works year-round on these projects, and meets in-person tri-annually.
Graduation
In November 2015, I travelled to St. Petersburg, Russia for my final Student Board meeting, the CEMS Annual Event and Graduation. Every year CEMS graduation is held at a different Alliance school. In 2015, 1,078 students graduated from the CEMS Master in Management program and nearly 600 attended graduation in Russia. This year’s graduation was particularly emotional. A fellow CEMS student wrote and shared an incredible article entitled How a Global Alliance of Graduating Students Is Combating Terrorism, Fear and Injustice . Arthur Brun, mentioned in the article, was an exchange student at Ivey in the Fall of 2014. Congratulations to all the 2015 CEMS graduates!
Ivey CEMS graduates Omar Itani, Asha Vyas, and Aaleesha Jamal on stage at the graduation ceremony in St. Petersburg Russia. (Photo courtesy of the Graduate School of Management SPbU).
CEMS Student Board meetings generally run between three and five days and are jam-packed, easily lasting fourteen hours a day. Throughout the year between meetings, each Member works diligently on their assigned projects. Though we put in a lot of hard work, it is extremely rewarding. During my tenure, some of my highlights were the launching of the CEMS Instagram account (@cems_alliance), assisting in planning and running an open discussion on the refugee crisis , and co-founding the IT and Knowledge Management Team within the Student Board. More than that, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of the brightest students from around the world and am lucky to call them my friends. The Student Board provided me the opportunity to work on projects I felt passionate about and to make a difference in the CEMS Community.
Given the nature of our program, many of us are dispersed around the world. Despite our constant movement, we’ve formed a bond that keeps us connected. I look forward to seeing my Ivey CEMS classmates and fellow Alliance school friends once again at graduation in Stockholm in November 2016!