How it began
From the Bolognese Italian sun, ice creams and Aperol Spritz to finishing my study International Business Administration in the rainy Netherlands online behind my desk: it doesn’t sound like a dream how my board year started. However, in September 2020 I was really excited to begin with the portfolio Internationalisation, Communication and Well-Being at the Student Union, and I have never regretted it ever since!
When I started with my study at the UT I loved how students where involved in everything. From organising a study group activity to the entire introduction period: nothing seemed impossible. I really liked to see how easy one could make a change by just simply putting some time and effort on it; which was exactly why I wanted to do a board year at the Student Union.
Lessons learned
As board member for the Student Union you work together with an enthusiastic team of students that all have the same goal; doing what we can to make the student life for UT students as nice as possible. What surprised me the most is that everywhere at the UT our opinions are taken serious. In the beginning, as sweet ‘unknowing’ board member, I was a bit afraid of raising my arguments and opinions in meetings with employees or professors of the UT. However, I quickly learned that your opinion is yours and that you often can provide insights otherwise not thought off.
What else did I learn? Well, certainly that together you can make so much possible! Just thinking about how the Student Union communication team together handles all the Student Union Social Media and still always has time and energy to come up with cool new ideas for inspirational campaigns. Or, how a group of students and UT employees from all different associations, departments, and committees could join forces to organise several activities, events, and a buddy programme for all UT students that could not go home for Christmas.
Next to this, I learned that an agenda and clear communicated action points are very necessary and handy to structure my meetings – credits to our Student Union communications manager for this one.
Shout-out to the SU: thank you!
When leaving the Student Union I am certainly going to miss the interesting discussions with the Shaping 2030 expert group on Inclusion, the walk call moments for updates about the international community with UniTe, the energy I get from my meetings with the Well-Being groups, the thinking along moments on the UT’s Internationalisation policy with Platform International Affairs, the score counting ‘Ommetje’- app messages from our world sector officer, the enthusiastic calls with the TedX and buddy committee, the chitchatting moments with Office, and of course, my amazing fellow board members. Along with, before I forget, the great cappuccino’s from the coffee machine around the corner.