He couldn’t pronounce Garrett. He couldn’t say Gravesen.

So, the 9-year-old Kenyan orphan with AIDS called his American friend by his initials.

“He looked up at me and said ‘GG, GG, everyone says they’ll be back. Will you really come back and see us?’” said Garrett Gravesen, a senior from Marietta.

From then on, Gravesen took the one-hour “crazy bus ride” from his flat in Nairobi to visit the Kenyan orphanage once a week.

Gravesen was working as an intern in Kenya from May to September 2002 through the University’s AIESEC program.

AIESEC, a French term promoting international student exchange, is the world’s largest student-run organization that connects students with business internships throughout the world, said Nick Hambridge, president of the University’s chapter.

“Our mission is to create cultural understanding through our program,” said Hambridge, a junior from Atlanta. “It’s a better way to immerse yourself compared to study abroad.”

Students pay $450 to use the service, but the company pays to accept an intern. The companies are located across the world, but primarily in Latin America and Eastern Europe, he said.

Internships are available in business, computer technology, social work and even teaching English as a second language to other students or business people, Hambridge said.

“The more experience you have, the better,” Hambridge said. “It really differentiates you from other people in the job market.”

It also allows students to make an impact.

Gravesen made friends with children abandoned by their 14-year-old mothers.

He watched funerals attended by 12-year-old kids.

“And that’s how the whole thing started,” he said.

When Gravesen returned to the states, he and his friend Ryan Gembala, a senior from Lawrenceville, started a new international non-profit organization, “A Day To Remember,” which kicks off this summer.

The two hope to visit orphanages of abandoned children across the globe and encourage the process of “love and support” to continue through AIESEC interns.

“We want to give hope, happiness and this network of support because otherwise they wouldn’t have it,” Gembala said. “These days of activities bring fun things that we grew up with … but they’ve never seen anything like that.”

There will be an informational meeting about AIESEC tonight at 8 in the Sanford Hall Auditorium (Room 213).