Interviewed by Mark Narusov, photographed Emma Jean

First off to introduce yourself, three facts about you.

The first fact is that I’ve never lived in France. Indeed, I’ve lived in Hong Kong and New York for basically all my life. Another interesting fact would be that I enjoy negotiating with people and debating controversial subjects. The third fact about me is that I am a perfectionist, which would translate in pushing projects to the end and not dropping these projects if I believe in them.

Why would you like to be a Student Rep?

I’d like to be a student representative because it can make a difference at Sciences Po. The administration is organized around the student body and students are considered as much more on par rather than as simply children. I believe that being a Student Rep I can really implement change and improve people’s lives.

Do you have previous similar experience?

No, because I did not believe in the role of student representatives at my high school — the representatives were put in place as mere “figure heads”. But I strongly believe that the Student Reps here at Sciences Po are given a voice by the administration and have an important role to play for the campus.

What would be your main aims and missions as a Student Rep?

The main emphasis would be on communication between the administration and the student body. Before I arrived at Sciences Po I didn’t believe the 2A’s when they said that the communication is horrible here, but then I personally experienced this myself. I truly believe that what we need to focus on as student representatives is, first of all, the demands of the students but especially improving communication campus-wide.

Why do you think you would be the most suitable for this position?

As I said before, I think that would be most of all because of the fact that I enjoy negotiating — I’ve already done two MUN’s and simply adore the idea of debating and negotiating with other people that have different interests. It can be applied to student representation because the administration is also an actor that sometimes has interests that are different from those of the students — as we’ve seen during this week, it has been at times quite uncooperative. I’m ready to fight for measures on which there is a consensus in the student body.

Miscellaneous question: If you were a famous political leader, who would you be and why?

I’d be Deng Xiaoping because he was very pragmatic and down-to-earth about solving problems. He had a long-term vision and understood how his project had to be developed progressively and slowly. That’s what is important for Student Rep’s: we need to propose measures in an orderly fashion, by taking our time to think them through and let the administration think about it instead of simply flooding them with different propositions that would be simply impossible to implement all at once.

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