Two CEMS Clubs on two continents - a flag and an ambassador that unites them

Csilla Virág is the first ambassador from Budapest to help set up a new CEMS community in Santiago de Chile

Csilla is taking the brand new CEMS Club Santiago flag with herself as a present from the Hungarian CEMS Club

It is the very first time in the history of our CEMS Club to send a CEMS Ambassador to a foreign university. This freshly elaborated programme of the Global Alliance aims to help non-European CEMS Clubs in the early phase of their lifecycle to kick-off their activities and build up their structures by sharing knowledge and implementing best practices from more mature European CEMS communities. Given that young member schools of the Global Alliance in the Far East or South America are very popular exchange destinations among European students, this knowledge transfer happens in a natural way: European CEMSies currently on their exchange at those universities join the local CEMS Club and enrich the initial activities with ideas from their home schools.

Csilla Virág, from MIM class 2014 was delighted to combine her exchange term in Santiago with this noble mission. I was talking to her on the day before her flight to Chile about her expectations.

Why South America, why Chile?

I have always been passionate about the Hispanic world: I spent a fantastic term in Madrid during my undergraduate studies where I totally fell in love with their culture, Spanish is actually like a second mother tongue for me. What’s more, one of my best friends in Spain was a Chilean girl, so when the opportunity came to apply for CEMS, I was not hesitating at all and put Santiago on the top of my exchange list.

How did you get to know about the Ambassador programme?

I believe it was during the CEMS summer camp when I first encountered this possibility from the CEMS Club. After some motivation coming from the Board 😉 and learning a bit about the conditions of the ambassadorship I decided to go for this venture. Anyway, I had been in contact with the Chilean CEMS Club president in order to get some information about the school and the club so I was pretty well updated about their current issues. They joined the Global Alliance not a long time ago so there is much to do and every helping hand is needed. And after all, I want to get the most out of my exchange term, so why not to do it in a way that I can actively influence where we go and what programmes we organize? It is fun and beneficial for the community at the same time. 

Many might be unfamiliar with how the ambassador programme looks like. What tasks did you get from the Student Board?

My primary goal as an ambassador is to help set up the activities of the club. It was founded a couple of months ago: they have no corporate partners, no established practices and no experience. I think one of the key objectives of this semester will be to share some of our practices currently working well in Budapest and try to replicate them taking into consideration the local characteristics. I could imagine to organize a running dinner or a cultural evening in social and a company cocktail in corporate relation terms. First of all though, we need to make people at the university and companies in the city familiar with the programme and all the benefits embedded.

In order to guide me through this semester, the Student Board provided me with the CEMS Club Toolkit to get inspiration for potential programmes. Furthermore, we have been discussing the project with members of the CEMS Club Budapest board as well. My semester will end by reporting all our efforts and results to the Student Board but in the meantime I will share my experiences through the CEMS Club Budapest blog as well, so stay tuned! 😉

To commemorate your mission as an ambassador and this intercontinental link between our CEMS Clubs, we have decided to produce a CEMS Club Santiago flag that you can take with yourself to Chile as a little present from Budapest. We are very proud that you will be the one to represent our club at the youngest member school of CEMS and I am sure that your efforts will have a huge impact on the development of the Chilean CEMS Club. Hasta luego and keep up the CEMS Spirit!

I will, Gracias!

No matter where you are, keep up the CEMSpirit!

An interview with Csilla Virág by Dániel Drácz

Developing business for OMV in Vienna

The summer of 14 was all about new adventures in both professional and cultural senses. I spent three months at OMV as intern of the strategy and business development team. The office – in contrast with all the general opinion – was not located in the Schwechat refinery, but near to the centre of Vienna, just next to the Prater and the WU campus, in a recently built 23-floor glass building. During the summer I was assigned to two fully-owned projects and also supported the colleagues with the strategy review presentations to the supervisory board and the investors.

Despite the neighbouring location to Hungary and the common history of long centuries, some cultural differences became visible already in the office. All the administrative processes were simplified as much as possible. The colleagues were much more relaxed than I had previously experienced it in Central Europe, even though they were able to manage the same amount of business projects. And finally (and a bit surprisingly), I was strongly recommended several times by my managers to leave the office immediately after the 8-hour working day ended, and the appropriate length of working hours was also in the focus of the general management.

I stayed the three months in a rented flat next to the Prater, so the first trip with my friends visiting me was always organized to the amusement park. During the weekends, the city offered numerous concerts, performances, and also nice places to experience Austrian specialities – which are anyway not far from the Hungarians. Other possibility to spend the weekend was to travel to the countryside for some hiking or city tours as we were free to leave after 2 pm. on Friday. Overall, the atmosphere of the entire city was peaceful, relaxing, and very liveable.

Sometimes minor accidents happen:  

View from the flat on Prater and on the OMV office:  

Story and photos: Etele Bosits