On the 22nd of April, student representatives from all EELISA members gathered in Pisa to meet one another and to formally constitute the EELISA Student Council, the voice of their peers in the Alliance. In this brief interview, student representative from ENPC Julie Kleinhans shares her experience in this first face-to-face meeting that has promt great progress for this important body of the EELISA Governance.
Q.The EELISA Student Council has an important role in EELISA, could you describe it in a few words?
A.Since the Alliance is built for students, the voice of students is essential and the goal of the EELISA Student Council is to make sure all the opinions of students from all partners are heard.
Q. This was the very first face-to-face meeting of the EELISA Student Council. How was it meeting in person some of the students you have been working with (online) for months?
A. Meeting in person with the people we’ve been working with for almost a year was an incredible experience. First of all, it was exciting to share cultures and ways of learning. Secondly, it was a productive moment for EELISA. In just three hours of face-to-face meetings, we made far more progress than in several months of remote meetings. And we still had so much to discuss after the board!
Q. Beyond the Student Council, there were other important meetings happening at the same time in Pisa, such as the EELISA Executive and Governing Boards. How did these meetings interact with yours?
A. First, some of the EELISA Student Council members act as student representatives within the EELISA Executive and Governing Boards. These boards are key to the governance of EELISA so it was important for them to have as much student input as possible. Then, in more “informal” moments, I had the opportunity to talk with the members of these boards and it was very interesting to share our visions on what is happening in EELISA, the future of the Alliance, and how we can increase student participation.
Q. Finally, any personal outcomes you would like to share with us?
A. Yes. I met a lot of very inspiring people and, honestly, it was the first time in my life that I had such an “academic experience.” I am very excited to see how the EELISA Student Council has evolved, and this first face-to-face meeting has helped us build a stronger team spirit. I am sure that our future cooperation will be very fruitful!
The EELISA Student Council, briefly introduced.
By Julie Kleinhans.
EELISA Student Council is a group composed of students from all the EELISA partners. In that group, for all 9 partners there are 17 student representatives/council members.
The Student Council basically has the purpose of explaining EELISA to the students in the EELISA partners, establishing local student groups to make the students a part of EELISA, and acting as a bridge between the EELISA consortium and EELISA students. In addition,
the EELISA student council aims to take an active role in all EELISA operations (for example, in EELISA work packages), both to assist these operations and to convey accurate information to students by having more detailed information. In order to ensure that the definition of European Engineer is permanently in the minds of all EELISA students, EELISA Student Council members will continue to work more and more motivated both as a group and individually in the institutions they belong to.
During the first in-presence Student Council which took place in Pisa, two co-chairs were elected: Julie Kleinhans from ENPC and Atakan Ege Savaş from ITÜ. Their role consists in organising the councils (agenda, subjects, etc) and in making the link between the representatives involved in EELISA boards and the other students. The first in-presence meeting helped us to better organise ourselves and to highlight concrete actions to help EELISA grow.