Introducing: Student Committee (StuCo)

Anna Kindlová, Lukas Zähringer, Francisco Yzusqui and Hannah Selbach 

Introduce yourself and tell us about your position in the StuCo and your tasks.

Francisco: I’m Francisco and I’m the current president of the Student Committee. My task is to have an overview over all internal and external activities that are going on at the ESB. Furthermore I’m also responsible for the supervision within the StuCo, like communication and finance. I would meet our student coordinators, Mrs Walker and Mrs Küster and our faculty adviser Mrs Werdich from time to time, in order to coordinate and organize events like the freshmen introductory day and some other events concerning the IB program. I also give each of the students a voice that is heard when major decisions for the ESB are made, coming together with other representatives from the Student Network, which is formed by the StuCo (IB), the Stubue (IMDD) and the StuVe (IOM). We meet once or twice a semester to discuss issues that concern the whole ESB in order to solve them and to present them in a meeting with the Dean, which takes place once a semester. 

Lukas: I’m Lukas, I’m the vice president and now in my 2^nd semester. My task is to get an overview of all our resorts, like the sports or the party resort. This semester a big task will be to help organizing the Champions Trophy in Hamburg. Another task is supporting the president and my other team members with their activities.

Anna: I’m Anna, I’m the head of finance and my tasks are to keep the cash and distribute it accordingly to where it’s needed. If the resorts need money, I discuss this with the team and see if we’re able to give them as much as they need or if they need to cut expenses. I also prepare the budget for the semester. The head of finance who starts in the winter semester is also responsible for negotiating with the university how much money we could get for the next year.

Hannah: My name is Hannah and I do what I like to do most: communicate. That’s why I’m head of communication. I’m responsible for creating the MoMa (Monday Magazine, sent to all students every Monday). So everybody gets all the information they need, like upcoming seminars but also the parties. All the StuCo information goes through me, so if people send questions to the StuCo page, I’m responsible for answering them. Furthermore, I’m the direct contact person for the Freshmen. So if there is anything they need, they can contact me.

Why did you choose to be part of the StuCo. What was your motivation?

Hannah: I remember going to the interview and they asked me what the “ESB Spirit” was. I had no clue at the time. It didn’t take long until I did though - I’ve benefited from the whole network and from students engaging themselves in ESB activities to help others from the very first moment on. So I figured that I wanted to give back and get involved myself. The former head is also a good friend of mine and he encouraged me to apply for this position. The work is time consuming but I love who I’m working with, it’s for a good cause and I really enjoy it.

Anna: For me it was quite the same as for Hannah. In my first semester I experienced the student network in the same way, so I wanted to get involved, too. Secondly, the last head of finance encouraged everyone on Facebook to apply for the position. So I wrote him, asking what the job was about and he said “You should apply for the position. You would make a great head of finance”. That was a big influence. Lastly, I’m a rather shy person and I was hoping, thanks to StuCo, that I would get to know more people and to get more self-confident.

Lukas: One reason I joined the ESB was the many student activities. I knew beforehand that there are many things to do and that I would want to contribute as much as possible. For this semester, I think it was a great time to take over responsibility and I think with the work of the StuCo, you can influence many things and make student life better at the ESB. It’s also a great opportunity to get in contact with all the people at the ESB, which I highly enjoy.

Francisco: When I joined the ESB I was surprised how the activities, the parties and events were organized here. The students organize everything, not the university. I wanted to be part of this organization team. My predecessor when I first joined the StuCo last semester, was the last vice-president and also my mentor, so he had a big influence on me. He also wanted me to be his successor, that’s why he would explain me the whole job throughout the last semester, which was a good preparation. I always loved to be involved and to be part of something bigger. I’m also proud of the success that the ESB has. So if I can contribute to this success – why not do it?

What are your goals for this semester?

Francisco: Last semester, when I was vice president in the StuCo, I realized that here at the ESB, between the study programs, we need more cooperation. We don’t really know each other. So I thought, if I were president, I would try to bind all ESB students.

Lukas: My goal is also the connection with the other programs. We started a few new things. We will have more parties with the study programs. In addition, we created the StuCo calendar which is also accessible to Stubue and StuVe, so that everyone knows what’s going on and what is planned throughout the semester.

Hannah: The main part of my work is the MoMa. I would love to make it a little more informal and casual. More easy-going and showing the spirit. It is a good source of information and if students can identify themselves with it, it will be read more frequently.

Anna: I would like to make the connection between professors and students closer. It would be nice to get in contact on an informal basis. We might even create some events where we all could do something together.