Get My Blog On

Yo-yo-yo!!

Greetingz from Brattleboro, VT. Based on the fact that I re-started this blog in January 2005 and did not get too far, (I lay the blame on my Master's degree work - and well a bit of laziness too) I thought I would make another more dynamic effort to create something cool here. And as I am aiming this at family, friends and people I have both recently been in touch with as well as those who I have had a lack of connection with in the past several years, I'll provide you with a short review of what I have been up to in more recent years as it will illustrate quite well the path I have followed to my latest job. (This is my condensed version of the last almost 7 years.)

In 1998 while completing my degree at UW Wisconsin Eau Claire, I accepted a US Fulbright opportunity as a teaching assistant in a "gesamtschule" in the heart of Germany in the city of Giessen about 40 minutes north from Frankfurt. The Fulbright program is now currently administered by the Council for International Exchange (CIE) Please see www.fulbright.com for more.

While in Giessen, initially from August of 98 until August of 99 teaching English and computer topics to students ranging from the 5th to the 13th classes, and working as a teaching assistant in the TEFL department at the University of Giessen, I further continued my international exchange activities with the local committee of AIESEC in Giessen (you may recall I had been active with AIESEC in Eau Claire, Wisconsin previously.)

AIESEC (www.aiesec.org) also provided me the unique experience to attend and facilitate a diverse assortment of regional, national and European-wide conferences in this timeframe. And I lived together with three of the best roommates I have ever had. (non-AIESECers) Eventually, and because I was thoroughly enjoying what I was doing and as I found myself improving my German, I re-applied to Fulbright for a second year and was granted a rare opportunity to stay at the same local school and university through October 2000.

By Oct. 2000, I was ready, somewhat reluctantly, to head back to the US and after a damn chilly re-integration concert with Pearl Jam live outdoors at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin, I found myself relocated back to Eau Claire, WI. at my undergraduate University for a short period. While continuing my activities with AIESEC locally in Eau Claire as well as nationally in organizing several semi-annual national conferences in Milwaukee, Phoenix and Detroit, I picked up some Spanish classes and decided I would be a product of AIESEC and apply for an internship abroad and hopefully, in Southern Africa.

Within weeks I was placed for 6 months to an NGO called LINK based in the middle of Maputo, Mozambique. LINK ONG basically worked in capacity building and as a link to all NGOs throughout Mozambique. I lived with a Mozambican and a Lithuanian together in a place called Baixa (meaning low place) as it was situated just blocks from the coast of the Indian ocean. Before leaving for my internship, I had also decided to pursue working for AIESEC full time on a national basis in Switzerland. After writing an application and attending the national election conference in Switzerland in January 2002, I was selected for a position focusing on outgoing exchange and membership learning activities.

After completing my African internship at the end of June 2002, I started working in Berne, Switzerland with four colleagues from India, Slovakia, Turkey and Switzerland. We collectively worked closely with nine local AIESEC committees based from nine Universities throughout the French, German and Italian areas of Switzerland. This one year position was with out a doubt the highlight of nearly eight years, mostly voluntary, of my AIESEC work. It brought me through a new level of cultural immersion, intercultural understanding and of course all over Europe and as far as away as the World Earth Summit 2002 in South Africa as well as an annual International Congress in Calgary Canada, which brings the global association of 85 plus countries together to plan the future of the organization.

In 2003 while still working for AIESEC in Switzerland I started an additional role chairing the Global Development Traineeship Taskforce which focused on the further expansion of the Development sector of traineeships AIESEC facilitates globally. This opportunity offered me the chance to facilitate and lead AIESEC's annual International Development Congress hosted in India in November 2003 after I had finished my work with AIESEC in Switzerland. After the Development Congress I was able to enjoy traveling and playing tourist for some weeks and visiting several cities in India. In this timeframe and based upon my earlier desire to pursue a Masters degree in International Education, I confirmed my plans to attend the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont which I had applied for earlier in 2001 and deferred until this point.

As I had nine months before my Master's degree academics would start, I decided to live in Zürich for a month before beginning one final role within the AIESEC organization. Starting 2004, I shifted to the former German capital, Bonn and accepted a Vice President Logistics position within a core team of nine to organize the annual AIESEC International Congress to be hosted by AIESEC in Germany in the World Trade Center in Hannover. I was based in Bonn until nearly mid July 2004 when we shifted our office to Hannover. There we expanded our organization team to include nearly 60 people and in order to implement the ten day Congress together with AIESEC International as we brought the global organization to Hannover.

Immediately after the Congress in Hannover, I returned to the States and started my Academic Year at SIT (www.sit.edu) in the profound town of Brattleboro located in the South-East corner of Vermont right on the border of New Hampshire and not-so-far-away Massachusetts. There I joined a variety of global nomads who all had their own story to tell, some having been involved in Peace Corp and others with as unique stories, international work and experiences abroad and a desire to pursue a very different kind of experiental degree as I myself had. My SIT academic experience proved to be just what the Doctor ordered and has helped me start to digest my recent year's experiences. My SIT academic term which lasted through the end of May 2005 provided me with a specialized content in International Education which fit well with the initial direction I had started to take at UW Eau Claire in 1997.

That brings this "condensed" blog to the near present. After an enjoyable summer RAing on "the hill" as it is known amongst SITers and supporting various on-campus-based-short-term exchange programs I took a short trip to French Canada and to Europe to explore some opportunities for the second phase of my degree, a required practicum or job which leads to the third phase, my thesis. I briefly visited Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Poland from September to nearly November before returning to Brattleboro.

And after some interviews and reflection I accepted an International Coordinator position. Thus as of Dec. 5th, 2005 this dude can no longer drink white Russians all day long and say "F*ck it! let's go bowling". :-( Yes, I am a "Big Lebowski" fan ;-)

I will now be leaving the recent enjoyable night life in the new Flat Street pub in Brattleboro behind in order to start a full-time position in the International Programming Office at Cardinal Stritch University (http://www.stritch.edu) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm rather excited about this opportunity as it will also prove a personal re-integration adventure being back in the Brewcity! In 2006 I expect to be focusing on my thesis given my eventual, positive discovery of a concrete rocking topic I can devote nearly 9 months towards.

For those of you who have had the grand experience of living working or traveling in the great cheese state or who may already know Milwaukee, I expect to be living in the Riverwest area close to downtown and will welcome your visit any time in the next 1.5 years! Please don't forget to bring good local beer from where-ever you are coming from ;-)

E-Mail: scott.lehmann@mail.sit.edu
E-Mail: scottmeister@gmail.com

If you use MSN Messenger you can find/add me as: chaiesecer@hotmail.com or if you are one of the 60 million regular worldwide Skype users you may also find/add me as: chaiesecer as well.

Additionally, you can link to me on either of these two networking platforms:
LinkedIn; www.linkedin.com (an International Social Networking/Job Finding Tool)
OpenBC; https://www.openbc.com/ (Europe's foremost online networking platform)

I have also re-started my personal blog at: http://scott.nomadlife.org/ (what you have likely started to read and then already fallen asleep) and will make every effort to keep it current as my Brewcity re-integration-adventure unfolds.