School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies Society (SSEES): Events Officer

Hi, my name is Melissa and I am currently a Politics and Sociology student at SSEES. As a Romanian student, I feel especially connected to the cultural richness, political complexity and diversity that shapes our region. I have always valued the wide range of events SSEES hosts each year, these play a pivotal role in building a sense of community, and I would love to contribute to that further.

This year, I have strengthened my organisational, financial, and communication skills through two key leadership roles. As Treasurer of the UN Women society, I was responsible for overseeing expenditure and securing resources for successful events. As Head of Outreach for BBI, I created promotional strategies to boost event attendance, liaised with external partners, and helped build collaborations. Both of these roles involved co-planning events, which have equipped me with the confidence and practical knowledge to independently organise well-structured and engaging events.

If elected, I pledge to:

• Organise, budget, and administer inclusive and engaging social events.
• Ensure all relevant Student Union guidelines and requirements are carefully met.
• Work collaboratively with the committee to deliver both professional opportunities and enjoyable social events.

I am passionate about strengthening our community, celebrating our regional identities, and creating events that bring us closer together. I would appreciate this opportunity to represent you. Thank you :) 

Hello, my fellow SSEES students and SSEES-region fans!

I appreciate our current events schedule, and believe that it has taken us so far. However, sometimes I (and some of my SSEES colleagues) feel that SSEES Society is missing a certain spark, one that elevates a mind above cookie-decorating and pub socials into a deep love and appreciation of our SSEES region. Therefore, if elected, I will:

• Bring back discussion-based and interactive activities: Online, we currently advertise such past delights as roundtable debates and crisis simulations. While there are deeply held disagreements and traumas related to some situations these events bring up, that makes it even more important that we bring them back to more fully understand each other and learn to “agree to disagree”.
• Improve promotion and collaboration on individual SSEES-area cultural societies’ events: While societies representing individual SSEES countries do so much that interests SSEES-region fans, their events are poorly advertised across SSEES. I will push to have more of these as joint events (or at least cross-advertised) so we can enjoy all our region has to offer.
• Improve coordination with SSEES departmental events: Similar to above, we have such delights like the Post-Soviet Press Group that are severely underadvertised. Eventually, the outputs of such events will make our own events even more interesting.

Let’s draw from our past and future to deliver the best events yet!