Euram Candidate Interview: Diana Glebova

Interview by Maria Linares

Please introduce yourself

My name is Diana Glebova and I was born in Donetsk, which is in the east side of Ukraine and shares a border with Russia. My mom married an American man and we moved to Minnesota where I lived for 12 years, so the majority of my life. You could consider me an American, I would say. I applied for the Dual BA programme with Sciences Po and Columbia after doing the IB programme and now I’m here! I really enjoy sports, which is one of my passions. Outside of school, that was one of my main interests while I was in high school, as well as volunteer organizations.

What do you think the role of a student representative at Sciences Po Reims is/should be?

It should be an example for other students: someone to look up to. It should also be to really have initiative on the problems on campus, to really have a vision, and to have communication with both the administration and the student body.

Why are you running to be a student representative?

I’m running because I feel like it is my duty to talk to people on campus, to see what their views on different issues are, and to be the medium that expresses these views to the administration. Also to start talking to all the various associations on campus, and finding a way that we can work together. I feel like I enjoy leadership and that initiative, and I really have a voice to express those things.

What makes you qualified for this position?

Back in high school, I was on the committee of student representatives for four years, so we talked to the principal and sports association manager on campus to try to implement reforms on the student body. For one year, I was on the anti-bullying and harassment committee in the school district. I was also the captain of three sports on campus, and I had leadership in the school through volunteer organizations.

As a student representative what would be your mission/main goals (i.e. explain your platform)?

I have three points that I’m focusing on.

The first one is cohesiveness of campus – really creating a community between the 1As and the 2As, Eurams and Eurafs, and Anglophone and Francophone speakers on campus. To do this, we really need to focus on the similarities that we all share and not the differences that we have between each other. For this, we need a lot more communication between students and the administration. I feel like we all feel in the dark, especially the foreign 1As, with regards to administration. We also need to work together with associations to make the campus more cohesive in terms of different people with different interests working together. Also, maybe having more events to introduce students to each other throughout the year rather than just Integration Week.

My second point is having a bigger focus on the community of Reims itself – having more volunteer opportunities like food drives and clothes drives, and working with SPE to clean up some parts of the city.

My third point deals with freedom of expression, because I feel like people can’t share their voice if it is outside of the “mainstream” beliefs on campus.

What is the one thing that as a student representative, you’d like to change or reform?

Overall, it would be how people see each other on campus. Trying to help students not see each other with aggression if someone doesn’t believe in your views, or if someone is different than you. A sense of understanding between all students should be implemented.

Finally, if could be any living person for a day, who would you be and why?

Probably Leonardo DiCaprio because of how he used his success for the betterment of the world. He’s an amazing actor, and once he got to the top, he started focusing on issues in the world, like environmental change. He’s a big inspiration for me.

Photo: Marie Reboud

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