Personal experiences of a QA board member
Tom is a full degree student at the University of Copenhagen. He is just about to wrap up his two years of studying in Denmark. For the past semester Tom has been a board member and enjoyed it tremendously. Read about Tom’s positive experiences and consider running for the board at the General Assembly on March 17.
Tom Fletcher
My name is Tom Fletcher and for the last five months I have had the privilege to be a board member for the QA programme. I love QA for its ability to bring Danish and international students together. So after being a mentor I decided at the General Assembly to put myself forward for election to the board. After joining I soon found out what was involved and I assigned myself to become one of the coordinators of the Academic Platform and part of the Administration team for the duration of my term. As an admin team member I had two main jobs: to help set up and carry out interviews with potential mentors and to help be in charge of the programme’s email.
At first this was daunting as I had never interviewed anyone before but i soon learnt to rely on my friends who had done board work before to guide me. They helped me and told me what was involved and we soon set up interviews and invited students to apply. I loved this experience because I grew in confidence about communicating QA and its values and workings and began to engage with potential mentors. Whilst an admin team member, I began to see that looking after the QA email was an important part of the job as queries and questions began to come into view. However, I always had someone to ask if I was not sure how to respond. This process of admin helped me to get to know the workings of QA and I liked helping other mentees get the most of of their experience in Copenhagen.
As a board member I helped run the Academic Platform during the autumn term. I helped set up a James Bond Marathon to watch as many films as possible before Spectre (The newest release staring Daniel Craig ) came to the cinemas. I presented on the link between the author Ian Fleming, his work in naval intelligence and the Cold War in which the early films were released to present an academic approach to the film franchise. Fun was had by all involved and the final trip to see Spectre at the October was very successful as well.
So how would I summarise my experience as a QA board member? The last five months have been a huge amount of fun. The board members and I have become very close and I have enjoyed seeing the inner workings of the programme up close. The work of a board member is never boring but diverse, fun and even in the stressful times I could always count on the support of everyone to see me through. Therefore, I am very grateful for the help of my fellow board members for helping me during the process.
Please consider standing for election this term as it is an amazing opportunity not to be missed. Even after stepping down, I will look forward to seeing how the next elected members will take this excellent project into the future, but will also be on hand to answer questions and offer advice on issues whenever they arise. Involvement in QA has been a lovely part of my stay in Denmark and I am very grateful that in running for board election I was able to be involved in its workings and help it continue to support international students upon arrival even in a very small way.
