UCAA Newsletter May 2013

Dear alumni,

Welcome to the UCAA Newsletter for May 2013! Here’s some of what’s going on in the world UCU alumni affairs right now:

Lustrum
Life after UC?! We’ve all been through it! Do you have an interesting perspective on how your Liberal Arts & Sciences background at UCU has affected your prospects on the labor market? We’re looking for participants to attend UCU’s Lustrum conference “Liberal Arts & Sciences and the Labor Market” this September. E-mail ucu.lustrumucu@uu.nl to let us hear your story!
Please note that attendance to the Lustrum is limited. If you are invited and cannot meet the costs of your attendance, we may be able to support you.

Summer event coming up June 22^nd
Summer is almost there! Will you be in or near the Netherlands in June? Come celebrate the scarce warm weather with us at the UCAA Summer Event on campus on June 22. There will be drinks, fun and a barbecue – there’s no reason to miss out on seeing your old friends again. More details will follow soon, save the date!

New treasurer
The UCAA is very happy to welcome its newest board member, Babak Mohammadzadeh (UCU class of 2010), who is serving as our new treasurer. We’re very happy to have him on board!

Donation withdrawals
As you may or may not have noticed if you’re a UCAA contributor, the donations for 2013 (that are usually withdrawn in December) have not happened yet; this because of the transition period that took place between treasurers. Now that we do again have an awesome new treasurer, we are putting him to work and the withdrawals for those who filled out a contribution form before the start of 2013 will take place in early June. Should you wish to become a contributor starting next year (and why wouldn’t you?), the information on how to do so can be found here.

Sincerely yours,
The UCAA Board

UCAA Newsletter February 2013

Dear alumni,

Welcome to the UCAA Newsletter for February 2013! Here’s some of what’s going on in the world UCU alumni affairs right now:

New Board Members

Though we are sad to have said goodbye to our awesome former board members Iris Otto & Leonie Hussaarts (and we thank them for all the great work they did), we are also very happy to be able to announce two great new additions to our board: Indra Spronk-Baas (’06) has taken over the Secretary position, while Luisa Kühlmann (‘09) is now our new PR/External Representative.

Open board position

As our treasurer Sarah Carmichael will soon be taking her leave as well, this means we also have a new vacancy waiting to be filled. If you’re interested in joining our board, have affinity with numbers and are looking for a good addition to your network and CV, get in touch with us through info@ucaa.nl or click here for more information

Pub quiz

It’s time for the annual UCAA Pub Quiz again. Friday March 1st at 20:00 in
the UCSA Bar is your chance to show off with everything you’ve learned after you left UC. We hope to see you there!

Spring break to your future

Have you always wanted to show current UCU students how amazing your city or university is? Are there things you wish you had known before you went there? Here’s your chance to help out future generations. The UCAA offers students the opportunity to spend a few days of their spring break (March 18-22) with UCU alumni abroad, so that they can get insider’s information and a clearer view on their prospective studies. Would you like to help out and have some fun by showing students around or offering a couch for a night? Reply to this newsletter or send an email with your city and current studies to info@ucaa.nl.

Alumni Award

What UCU alumnus or alumna has impressed you? Who do you think deserves the 2013 UCAA Alumni Award? Any suggestions? Drop us a line at info@ucaa.nl! We’re also looking for people to help pick this year’s winner. Let us know if you’d like to be on this jury! You won’t have to meet up in person in Utrecht, contact can be purely digital, so anyone can sign up!

Sincerely yours,

The UCAA Board

Treasurer Vacancy

The UCAA is looking for a new Treasurer! Are you an enthusiastic alumnus/alumna who wishes to remain involved with the UCU alumni community? Read on! The UCAA board is responsible for representing alumni affairs on campus and tries to ensure the maintenance of an active alumni network through reunions, events, the annual magazine Post, and more.

The Treasurer is responsible for paying the bills, maintaining the budget, keeping track of all money that goes in and out of our accounts, and has traditionally represented the UCAA in the team of UCU students and staff that are responsible for organizing the annual Career Day event. We are looking for someone with an affinity for numbers, who is a team player, but also able to work independently on tasks and projects.

Other tasks, like becoming a part of the Post editorial board, helping organize events, and any other ideas or projects you might think of yourself can always be discussed, for any position.

Being a Board member gives you valuable and demonstrable experience in many important areas, like team work, organizational skills, and project management. Plus, you’ll be able to give back to your alma mater, expand your network and have fun (we promise).

Board members are partially reimbursed for the hours they spend on alumni affairs. Involvement in the board also allows you to participate in UCU’s international student recruitment with the possibility to visit educational fairs abroad. Time spent working at these fairs is also reimbursed.

As the Board is seated in Utrecht, it’s preferable if candidates either live in the area or have the ability to regularly travel there (should this not apply to you, having a working Skype connection also goes a long way). There are no fixed terms, though we ask Board members to expect to want to stay on for at least one year. Time investment is approximately 5 hours per week, plus a monthly Board meeting and attending the occasional UCU, UCAA and UU events and meetings.

Interested? Send your CV and a short motivation to info@ucaa.nl (also for any questions you might have).

Oliver Wyman Workshop Update

Back in November, the UCAA hosted a workshop by consultancy firm Oliver Wyman. During the workshop, three Oliver Wyman employees, who fill various positions within the company, came to Utrecht to discuss with both UCU students and alumni what a job at the firm entails, with a specific focus on financial services. For us, it was the first time hosting such an event outside of Career Day, and we were glad to see that so many of you attended – the classroom was overcrowded! The atmosphere was quite relaxed which resulted in a very open discussion, in which attendees were specifically interested to hear what a typical case looks like, and to find out whether Oliver Wyman, which is not officially based in the Netherlands, is planning to open an office here. The consultants explained that the cases are very diverse, and if you’d like to work for the firm, the most important requirement is that you’re smart, and preferably a bit quirky. And yes, a certain affinity with numbers would help as well. The firm plans to open an Amsterdam office in the future. Interested to find out more? Visit http://www.oliverwyman.com/financial-services.htm.

Speech to the graduates of the class of 2012 1/2

Read the speech our Chair, Kiran Coleman, gave to the newly graduated class of 2012 and a half at UCU’s December graduation ceremony on December 21st, at the Academiegebouw in Utrecht.

Dear graduates of the class of 2012 and a half, family, friends, teachers, tutors, staff, other people who just really enjoy attending graduations for some reason,

I wanted to acknowledge and address you all at the top here, but I’m mostly going to be talking to the new graduates right now. (The rest of you are allowed to listen as well, just know that maybe not all of it will apply as much to you as it will to them.)

Graduates: congratulations on making it through all your courses, papers and finals and on becoming UCU alumni. I sat where you are sitting when I graduated from UCU seven and a half years ago already now. (I wasn’t actually sitting exactly where you are sitting, I was in the Stadsschouwburg, where they hold the summer graduation ceremony, but this room is much nicer and I never got a personalized speech from my tutor, so I think you got the better deal.)

In those years since then I’ve experienced what it’s like to go from class rooms of 20 people to ones with 200 people, what the whole 9 to 5, going to an office everyday thing is like and how it feels to be that graduate who’s back in the UCSA bar every now and then, while the current students are all wondering why anyone would want to be that guy after they’ve graduated. And while those subsequent experiences all have had their pros and cons (receiving a steady pay check can be much more fun than seeing your student loan debts go up), my main take away that I wanted to impart onto you is that being an alumnus, and being an alumnus from UCU in particular, is a pretty special thing (I don’t even have to lie to tell you this, it really is).

And that’s because, whether you liked it or not, living on a campus and being in such close proximity to each other all the time, it gives you a shared connection between all of you. After graduating I’ve ran into a number of people, in different cities, and asked them how they were doing and what they were up to then, even though I had really never talked to them before and I just recognized their face from sharing the same campus and going to the same Dining Hall.

I’ve also ran into people who I’d never seen before but who were wearing a UCU sweater and, if I wasn’t in too anti-social a mode, I’d go up to them as well and say “hey, you went to UCU? Cool! Me too!” And, on the whole, a lot of people that wear that sweater are proud to wear that sweater. And I believe they should be.

Because even though more Liberal Arts & Sciences colleges seem to be popping out of the ground every year, UCU really is still quite a unique place. Just in my immediate group of friends that I made while I was at UCU, some have gone on to become lawyers, teachers, researchers, scientists and people that have started their own companies. And I think there are very few places where that’s the case. And it also makes for much more interesting dinner party conversations than most other university programs.

And that’s also something I’ve found very satisfying in the other work that I’ve been doing since graduating that I didn’t mention before, and that’s being a board member of the University College Alumni Association, first as Secretary, and now as Chair. I’ve been a part of this board and attending these graduations for almost two and a half years now and in that time I’ve heard a huge number of stories and the great thing is that almost all of those have been different.

The friends you made here at UCU will most likely be your friends for a long time to come (I mean, I’m assuming. Maybe some of you have friends who are happy to be rid of you now that you’ve graduated, I don’t know, I don’t know most of you very well), but, what I’m trying to say is, though you’re all different, you also all share that bond. Not just with those that are beside you and on the same graduation stage with you right now, but with all those that came before you as well.

And keeping that connection alive is what we’ve been trying to do as an association, and, assuming the world doesn’t actually end today, it’s what we’ll continue to do going forward. It’s not something my board and I are able to impose from the top down though, we can only help it along. Because, in the end, having a vibrant alumni community is largely up to you as alumni. And to that end, I am glad to see our community growing with each graduating class and am very glad to see all of you joining our ranks.

So, I’d like to finish by saying: welcome. You are part of a really great group now. Let’s work together to make that group even greater.

Thank you.