4 questions to

Iga Podgorska (19), the first president of the new Erasmus University College Student Association.

What is the primary goal of your association?

“All 85 current students of the University College are a member of it. Several commissions are concerned at the moment with sports, cooking, media, music, and organizing events. The association functions as an umbrella for the separate commissions, to make sure they all feel included.”

So it’s primarily about ‘gezelligheid’, as the Dutch say?

“Yes, at the same time however, we plan on organizing lectures and workshops for our students. In addition, the treasurer and I discuss the current state of academic life with the dean every two weeks. For the future, we aim to establish an independent body of student representation for this.”

The students of the University College are doing so much together already. Why the need for a separate association?

“Since not everyone meets in person during classes, we aim to establish a community. Yet, the primary reason is that it is a formal organization. As a result, students know who to approach in case they plan to organize extracurricular activities. We receive a budget for this, which would not have been possible without organizing things formally.”

Why did you become president?

“I think of myself as a rather organized person and I like to establish new things. I very much want to be involved in student life, and this time is extra special as we are the first class. It depends on us how the future for EUC-students will look like. These are the best 3 years of your life and this way I make the best of it, both for other students and for myself.” TF