Best oGIP

Vrushali OhatkerLCVP oGIP

AIESEC in Hyderabad

The Ballistae

After this department’s (the Ballistae) roaring success at the awards night in December lcong, a lot of people came up to me and asked me what

drove this department the way it did expecting some revolutionary strategy for an answer . I simply looked at them and smiled, “love drives

this department.”

That really is the essence of oGIP 2013 in AIESEC hyderabad. Love combined with will power and determination; the absolute belief in one

another and the immense desire to succeed and rise against all odds.

What is it to not have an identity? We knew. A little more than a year from now i stood there was one thing i had realized about oGIP in AIESEC

hyderabad: this portfolio needed to be established. What was it to the local chapter? Inconsequential, because it was new and had barely made its place. While constantly fighting different battles of understanding the portfolio, member retention and connect and screaming for its existence to be acknowledges, there came a day when the head of this department

was told, “both oGIP and iGIP are not doing well but everybody is only questioning iGIP and not oGIP. You know why? Because nobody cares! And if you’re going to want to change that you will have to wake up and smell

the coffee.”

That was right. oGIP in hyderabad needed an identity.

The Ballistae walked into JNC with literally 1 tangible: 1 match and a bucket of guilt and disappointment. But then there was Medha Agarwal,

who asked us to forget the past and work toward the future. A new found hope surged through and through this department. Post JNC, with a

revolutionary operational structure where every member had a unique job description, hyderabad took off. And how!

Different innovations were tried during this period, CRM team, work abroad opportunities page. Most of them didn’t work. The

ballistae fell flat to their faces a million times. But never, ever failed to get right back up. Why did everybody work as hard as they did? Their strength was their bonding, their values, their

accountability and most importantly - their love for each other. Because they believed their vice president was interested in their personal growth (which by default is the department’s

growth) and because she had tuned herself to love her members unconditionally so what she asked them to do was

out best for them and they in turn did the same for each other.It was days of hard, hard work, nights of endless analysis and matching mails, weekends spent with exchange participants

solving their problems and working late evenings at the office before there was actual growth.

Voila! Our dreams were coming true. Before we knew it they were the leading local chapter at national strategic conference.

We had also won the juggernaut campaign plus had been bumped up to cluster A from cluster B for exponential growth!

The next quarter passed in another set of innovations and strategies. Failing miserably, giving in, giving up then getting right back up and giving it ALL we had! Yes there were match breaks (which the ballistae call heart-breaks) but we just kept

going. We had each other, and we had things to prove to ourselves. We’d succeed or die trying. That has always been the

attitude.

December 22nd, 2013 was the date of the last LCong of the year and the annual awards were going to be announced. When your heart goes "THUD-THUD-THUMP-THUD" instead of the regular lub-dub,

you know you're winning the award you had dreamt of for the longest time! From collapsing to my knees and bursting into a fit of tears to being hugged by a 100 people in the crowd rejoicing for us.

Us. The ballistae, oGIP. The dept. whose existence was barely noticed in the beginning, won the ultimate award in AIESEC hyderabad. The

dept. that screamed for its presence to be acknowledged in the beginning of 2013 in a crowd oblivious to its plight, the dept. that

went unnoticed most times won by the end of 2013. Now when this same dept. stood in front an LC that looked at only them, MY

ballistae, screaming our roll-call out, cheering us, I silently said to myself, "..And now they're finally, finally looking at us Vrushali."

That's all I wanted to do in 2013. Establish oGIP in AIESEC hyderabad. On the way I met these beautiful individuals who have now become

SUCH an integral part of my life. My management body who's helped me lead my newer members to being the best of what we can be:

being a ballista. All that passion, discipline and hard, hard work had finally crystallized into something we could hold in our hands: best

department exchange award. Who would've thought? “Miracles happen, dreams do come true because my dearest ballistae, god is watching over you,” were my last words to my department as their

vice president, 2013. There are some people who live in a dream world and some who

face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.

December 22nd, 2013 was the date of the last LCong of the year and the annual awards were going to be announced. When your heart goes "THUD-THUD-THUMP-THUD" instead of the regular lub-dub,

you know you're winning the award you had dreamt of for the longest time! From collapsing to my knees and bursting into a fit of tears to being hugged by a 100 people in the crowd rejoicing for us.

Us. The ballistae, oGIP. The dept. whose existence was barely noticed in the beginning, won the ultimate award in AIESEC hyderabad. The

dept. that screamed for its presence to be acknowledged in the beginning of 2013 in a crowd oblivious to its plight, the dept. that

went unnoticed most times won by the end of 2013. Now when this same dept. stood in front an LC that looked at only them, MY

ballistae, screaming our roll-call out, cheering us, I silently said to myself, "..And now they're finally, finally looking at us Vrushali."

That's all I wanted to do in 2013. Establish oGIP in AIESEC hyderabad. On the way I met these beautiful individuals who have now become

SUCH an integral part of my life. My management body who's helped me lead my newer members to being the best of what we can be:

being a ballista. All that passion, discipline and hard, hard work had finally crystallized into something we could hold in our hands: best

department exchange award. Who would've thought? “Miracles happen, dreams do come true because my dearest ballistae, god is watching over you,” were my last words to my department as their

vice president, 2013. There are some people who live in a dream world and some who

face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.

THANK YOU!