Carolina Leote: Representing CGA students

Carolina, what made you interested in becoming a CGA student representative?

On the one hand I was excited and grateful to have joined the CGA programme and benefit from all it could offer; on the other hand, I had some ideas I wished to see implemented, mainly to foster the scientific communication between PhD students spread across the different partner institutes. Shortly, I saw a way I could help improve an already excellent programme I am happy to be part of, and went for it!

What are your duties and how do you and your fellow students benefit from this role?

My duties are to, together with my partner student representative, voice any ideas from the side of the CGA doctoral candidates and represent their interests in the decision-making process of the CGA Steering committee. This means, for instance, collecting feedback and proposing alterations to parts of the CGA programme, where students see potential for improvement. Since students are quite happy with the programme, my role is more focused in being an additional contact person and in implementing new initiatives to complement the core CGA programme.

In your position as student representative, what are the most relevant insights to the CGA management you detected so far?

It has been very interesting to witness the thoroughness of the recruitment process of new CGA students among the applicants and how all parties involved make an effort to improve the fairness and efficiency of this process every year. Recruiting the best and most motivated students for the programme, and assuring they are provided with all necessary training to become excellent researchers are the management’s top priorities - in my opinion this is well reflected in every meeting and decision made.