AUCSA Board Elections 2021-2022

Lola Collingbourne

Hey everyone! My name is Lola and I’m a first year Social Sciences student. Throughout my first year here, I’ve taken every opportunity I can to get more involved in the AUC community, particularly through my positions in InPrint and TEDxAUCollege. I have learnt a lot about the different committees, teams and what people would like to see more of. I love to meet and talk to new people all the time, and I have a lot of experience in organisation
and management. Any of you who know me personally have probably seen my study
planners, and know how much of a fan I am of my Excel sheet organisation.

I’m excited to be running for President of the AUCSA Board for next year! My main goal in this position is to bring us all back together as we start to come out of Covid restrictions. We all are craving committee events and are hungry for some real life, in-person experiences! I plan to start next year with a fully packed event schedule and reignite community life as quickly as possible. Creating more committees will also give incoming first years more opportunities to throw themselves head-first into life here at AUC! I would also like to assist the Change Makers team in their anti-racism initiative’s continued expansion within the community, by helping to organise more events and programs throughout the year.

This past year, there has definitely been a visible distinction between the year groups. I would like to give more opportunities to the current AUC students to get involved in the introduction week and welcoming events for the new year coming in, so that there is more bonding between all AUC students. I hope that we can make this year a more fun and inclusive environment for everyone!

Kayna Duport-Govindin

Hi everyone,

My name is Kayna Duport-Govindin, I am a second-year pre-med student from France. My journey at AUC has been memorable owing to the AUCSA, its students and faculty. I am therefore running for president as I know that I will best be able to give back to its students and advocate for its members with this position.

Currently, I am the Academic Committee Chair and Secretary of the UCSRN, a student organization responsible for the representation of over 4000 University College students throughout the Netherlands. I also hold the position of Public Relations manager for the AUCSA’s acquisition commission. I believe that my work with the UCSRN and acquisitions commission has provided me with important skills needed to run the AUCSA, such as organization, effective communication, problem-solving and open-mindedness. What matters most however, is what I can achieve with the AUCSA and its students once elected.

The AUCSA should be more involved in supporting its student initiatives. The global pandemic forced us indoors and radically changed our experience at AUC, but it also enabled many of us to develop new skills and work on projects that would have otherwise never happened. We must therefore facilitate the development of such ideas and initiatives. Additionally, I want to increase the involvement of the AUCSA and its students in the UCSRN. It would enable us to share issues and best practices with other University Colleges to improve and solve problems within our student association. Furthermore, our involvement can increase the social and educational resources we possess and provide more opportunities for self-initiatives which could be greatly beneficial to our community. Lastly, a suggestions box should be implemented to increase student’s involvement in the development of our community.

Clelia Venturin

Hello everyone! I’m Clelia Venturin, a second year majoring in science, biomedicine. I grew up in a small city in Italy and two years before moving to Amsterdam, I moved to Brussels with my family. As it is for many of us, one of the main reasons I applied to Amsterdam University College is the community aspect and almost two years later, our lovely bubble is still one of my favorite elements of my life here. During my first year, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and became a board member. I did not have the needed experience but the rest of the board believed in me and gave me a chance. Thanks to this experience, I learned and grew as a person more than I could have ever imagined. This type of experience is unique and valuable.

I’m very excited to run for the position of President of the AUCSA Board ‘21-’22. My role would include keeping an eye on the goals established at the beginning of the year and the internal dynamics of the board. At the same time, my personal aim would be to make sure everyone in the community has the opportunity to live to the fullest the board experience, as I did. To increment inclusivity in our lovely bubble, I would work on supporting and incrementing awareness for cultural minorities and disabilities. Moreover, I would like to work with the rest of the board to create the opportunity for committees to organize events in collaboration with other University Colleges to give the chance to students to explore the rest of The Netherlands.

Ankita Brahmachari

Hi Everyone! I am Ankita Brahmachari, a second year biomedical student, and I’m running for the position of AUCSA Secretary. I want to facilitate your creativity and help you immerse yourself in committee life. We have had an incredibly difficult year, one where I learned we need each other to lean on but also put our well being first. Thus, I want to be more creative with solutions to foster meaningful connections in our community.

Being Head of Logistics for AUCMUN, Secretary of UCSRN Tournament Team and Acquisitions Commision as well as PR Manager of ZEN has taught me how to carry myself professionally- understanding board dynamics, and developing a diverse outlook and knack for organization, communication and problem solving.

My main goal is visibility and centralization to optimize engagement. I will do this by taking advantage of and improving existing practices and tools. Moreover, I want to change the format of the weekly newsletter to a newscast. I believe more students are likely to engage with this, increasing the engagement of the AUCSA and its committees. Additionally, with the launch of the new AUCSA website, I want to add a page dedicated to showcasing committee events in more detail, and I hope to centralize everything students may need to access.

It’s easy to get stuck in a funk in your dorm room alone, but it is also easy to take advantage of what this bubble has to offer. There is truly something for everyone, and I want to help you find it. I wanted AUC to be my home away from home, and the AUCSA made that possible for me. I am ready to carry that forward and do so for others.

Feel free to reach out for more on me, my plans, or just a chat!

Sam de Jong

Hey everyone! My name is Sam and I am a second year Social Sciences student following the pre-law track. In these first two years at AUC, I have attended many events hosted by the AUCSA and its committees – from Solace parties, to Catch’s weekly hockey practice, AUCafe’s weekly borrels, CUT film screenings, TEDX Pitch Nights, Junket’s (unofficial) ski trip and many, many more. These events are what brought the AUC experience to life for me and I would love to get the opportunity to work on the structure behind all this. Moreover, I would be very eager to take on a significant role in making it possible to organize events like this to give current and future AUC students as good of an experience here as I had. This is why I am running for Secretary for next year’s AUCSA board.

During my time here, I have learned a lot about the managing of e-mails, chairing meetings, handling social media and much more in my positions as PR-manager for AiMUN, co-chair of the Ambassadors team, and logistics manager in last year’s Winter Formal team. If I get elected as a member of the AUCSA board, I want to work on the visibility of the AUCSA, both internally and externally. Since all AUC students are automatically members of the AUCSA, they should feel engaged and included and it should be easy to keep up to date with the events happening. There are a lot of opportunities for this through Instagram. Furthermore, I would want to collaborate with other University Colleges in the Netherlands and create a stronger network to give all students the best experience they could have.

Rein Bernard

Hello everybody, my name is Rein Bernard, and I am hoping to be your AUCSA treasurer next year. I am currently in my second year of studying physics at AUC, and next year I will be doing a minor in sustainable development. If you attended a Pub Quiz in the last year you might remember me as the host with terrible humour, or if you went to Catch’s basketball practice (when we still could) you will know me as the lanky guy helping organize those.

In the past two years I have been lucky to participate in the awesome community that is the AUCSA, and I realised I wanted to take on a more active role within it. It is always a rewarding feeling to work on something that is bigger than yourself, and I believe that the AUCSA board is the best place to do so. As treasurer I would oversee the budget for next year. I want the transition to in-person activities to go as smoothly as possible, and as treasurer I will constantly be working behind the scenes to make sure of that. My main goal is to ensure that the money left over from this year will be spent on the students, as it was intended to. Once restrictions let us, I want our community to be up and running as soon as possible, so I aim to make the budget creation process easier and more transparent, from draft all the way to the GA. When life has returned to normal again, I will focus on other points that I think can use improving, such as increasing the role of DivCom and SusCom within our community, expanding the platforms of committees on the AUCSA website, and general improvement in efficiency.

Sarah Lange

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah, I was born and raised in Amsterdam and am currently a first year Social Science student, focusing on Cognition with a bit of Film and Programming. In my free time, you can often find me doing something creative, or at least trying to… I love making clothes and playing the ukulele. Besides this, I am also part of Lustrum, Merch Team and Barcrew. After getting a taste of committee life, I decided to run for the position of CAO for the next AUCSA board. If I were to be elected, my goal of the year would be to help committees create fun events, regardless of the development of the Coronavirus. I think I speak for everyone when I say that this year has heavily impacted our lives, it has especially influenced committee life and the contact with and between the students. I want to help the committees adapt to the changing circumstances and guide them through these tough times. Furthermore, I think it is important to create a more open and diverse atmosphere in this community. I aim to achieve this by raising more awareness on these matters, for example by giving someone an open platform to talk about something that is important to them. On top of this, I would like to revive Pressteam, which photographs and films the events organized by the committees. I really enjoy photography/film and I think having Pressteam again would be a great addition to the community, because who doesn’t love to see after movies/pictures of a fun event? In conclusion, I would love to be part of the AUCSA Board this year and work together with the fellow board members and the committees to create the best year possible.

Lena Riss

Hi everyone!
My name is Lena and I am running for CAO for next year’s AUCSA board.

I am a first-year Social Science student from Austria who, like many of us, started to feel at home here in our dorms. The AUCSA makes life here amazing, and I am super motivated to keep introducing future students to life on our campus and help them feel as comfortable and welcome here as we all do.

Being on the Lustrum Board and having helped organize our Winter formal, I’m learning so much about committee dynamics, I’m working closely together with many creative and motivated individuals and most importantly, I’m having fun. I realized how valuable the AUCSA is to our college years. This inspires me to get even more involved and to keep the good work up.

As your CAO, it is most important to me that all committees get to develop all their ideas and have my full support. I want to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard and that we can communicate effectively and work together to make our Student Association even more vibrant. Being CAO, I look forward to meeting all of you in meetings, at parties and at events.

By frequently attending your events, I hope to establish a good and approachable atmosphere between the AUCSA and all its bodies. I believe I am a good fit for this position because I am quite talkative per se and enthusiastic about working together to organize great things. I am approachable and a good listener and will do my best to facilitate a good working environment. Moreover, it is beautiful to see how hard work pays off and how our community is strong even in uncertain situations. This motivates me to be your CAO.

Oliver West

Hello, my name is Oli and I am running for CAO. I grew up in the UK and I am currently in my first year at AUC combining a study of economics and sustainability. Throughout my youth, I have strived to be involved in the community. I continued this engagement at AUC by joining the Dormfest team as Secretary which is an exciting celebration to look forward to towards the end of the year and also becoming a committed member of AUC’s football team. For me, joining the AUCSA is an incredible opportunity to involve myself even further within this community alongside an invested team.

It has been very difficult this academic year for everyone to adapt to new regulations and maintain their enthusiasm in such draining times. However, with all the innovative minds and passionate people at AUC, I think we could organise a much busier calendar. It would be a personal goal to encourage committees to embrace these new times and make the most out of them rather than wait for less strict COVID-19 rules. Another motivation to apply for the AUCSA was the desire to be heavily involved with the re-ignition of the student life at AUC. I have a great sense of optimism for the next academic year with increasing numbers of vaccinations. Although it is not something I am relying on, I think, slowly but surely, regulations will lessen which allows AUC to be experienced in a way that two years of the school will have never experienced before. It would be such a privilege to help facilitate the ‘new’ beginning at AUC and a task I am very passionate about. It would be a great opportunity to rejuvenate current committees and a novel possibility to assist new committees in starting up.