When I started at this university slightly less than 4 years ago, I was definitely very excited to start my student life. As I left the prison we call high school a bit bored, the endless opportunities and freedom of being a university student appealed to me. Not only living on my own, but also to study a subject that I really liked. That subject became Computer Science and two months ago I finished my bachelor, having had a truly amazing time here.
Ever since I started studying here, I have been amazed about what you as a student can do at this university. Look at the campus and the city centre: every day hundreds of students are developing themselves while organizing all kinds of activities, playing sports and arts, having their own companies, working or just having a fun together.
During the Kick-In, which is of course also completely organized by students, I was thrown into this marvellous student life. The last years I had an great experience organizing various activities for both my study as social student association, but I have also been a teaching assistant, wrote the assignments to organize the Netherlands largest technical competition for high schools and had my own masterclass in the Pre-University program on hacking.
In my third year, I even got the chance to become a board member of Fact, the umbrella of social student associations. And two months ago, after finishing my bachelor, I had the amazing opportunity to become the new president of the Student Union. Now I have the honour of leading an organization of over 120 people that aims to support our (and your!) student life as much as possible.
What I want to achieve this year? As president of the Student Union I have a very simple goal: Improve the functioning of the Student Union as a whole, both in the way we shape our strategy and policies as how the Union functions as an organisation. With that plenty of challenges exist, ranging from moving to more data-driven policy to getting closer to students and from implementing HR-policy to being more transparent.
This year, I am looking forward to face these challenges and with that, hopefully, make student life at this university even better. In the meantime, I’d like to encourage you to follow your passion and enjoy everything that’s possible here. Make the best of your student life!