Timothée des Robert, President of the Student Office, presents the teams’ latest actions and orientations, all taken with one clear goal in mind: to bolster student cohesion, despite the distances imposed by COVID restrictions.
To ensure continuity in its leadership, the Vatel Bordeaux Student Office members are now elected for two years, instead of one. This allows the division leaders to train their successors, which improves the transmission of information. As Timothée puts it, ‘This principle is based on one of the strengths of our training here at Vatel. Second-year students explain how their roles work to first-year students who are just discovering them. Thanks to the support of Chloé Cassagne, Student Affairs Manager, François Chambon and I have been able to set up an organization that is more efficient and that offers more variety. We did this, too, in the interest of representing all of our students’ nationalities and classes.’ Read on for the presentation.
Organizing activities that are of interest to all students, especially those who have been the most isolated during the pandemic
The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has motivated the Student Ofice to opt for particularly entertaining activities, so as to bolster student cohesion, even at a distance, including:
– The Burger Quiz, inspired by France’s famous game show of the same name, hosted by actor Alain Chabat
– A “name the movie” quiz
– A Halloween make-up contest
– A cocktail challenge, in which the drink that gets the most votes has its recipe posted on the Student Council’s Instagram account and, to Timothée’s delight, “The participants also swapped recipes amongst themselves.”
– A Secret Santa for international students, for which the students were invited to come pick up a surprise gift box full of holiday treats, to be opened only on Christmas Eve, and to drop off a Secret Santa present for one of their classmates. Then, they all celebrated Christmas together on Zoom, joined by our President & Founder, Régis Glorieux, and our School Director, Ludovic Glorieux.
Secondary mission: Improving representation
The Student Office is made up of students from different class years: 50% of the team is in the third year of their Bachelors, 25% in their second year and 25% are doing MBAs, Timothée tells us.
The Student Office comprises students taking classes both solely in French and solely in English. Its members include, for example:
– Antonia Feldmann of Hamburg, Germany
– Arjun Jaswal of Una, India
– Zac Lacarin of Nelspruit, South Africa.
Student Office members like these ensure good representation for Vatel Bordeaux students, who come from 52 nationalities and five continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America.
A division-based organization for increased efficiency
Timothée explains the Office’s structure: “Whatever the type of activity or the composition of the Student Office, it is essential that it should be arranged to offer even more events for the student body.
With that in mind, we have created a number of divisions:
– The Charitable Division handles everything related to humanitarian actions, like with the food aid charity Les Restos du Cœur
– The Communication Division is responsible for our posts on social media, in particular
– The Event Division handles the logistics for our events
– The Partnership Division is in charge of the agreements signed by the Council to benefit the student body
– The Sport Division creates dedicated sporting events
– The Executive Division includes the President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, who are tasked with coordinating, uniting and driving the team. This division is the primary point of contact for Vatel’s administrative teams.
Each division has its own Messenger group. The Division Head determines his/her team’s weekly calendar, by joint agreement. In other words, this is a great personal and professional opportunity for management experience.”
You, too, can join the Student Office team when you enter Vatel Bordeaux!
