Have you ever felt an inconvenience at LSE? Do you have any brilliant suggestions to make LSE a better place for students? Well, “Get to Know LSE leaders and your School community” on Thursday 29 February 2024 was an amazing session designed to share these experiences with senior leadership and student leaders of LSE. I hope that by the end of this post, you too will be motivated to look out for more opportunities to shape your experience and share your voice at LSE.
Structure of the event
This was pretty much laissez-faire. In other words, the Great Hall on the ground floor of the Marshall Building turned into an active site of free networking, open to all students. Not only were there key senior leaders of the School, but also representatives of the LSESU. As soon as the key figures were introduced at 10.30am, everyone was free to mingle in the hall and discuss topics with leaders and peers.
Of course, I have to mention the free lunch! Throughout the whole event, pastries, fruits, and drinks were provided as appetisers, and pizza boxes were piled high by lunchtime. The pizzas seemed to accommodate various dietary requirements, so I managed to get slices of vegetarian pizza. Thanks to the food, everyone could easily participate in conversations in a casual, relaxed atmosphere.
Sharing my time at LSE
As a wheelchair user, I have had some accessibility issues on campus – not only in terms of certain buildings, but also in terms of accessing office hours. And the thing is, I didn’t know who I should directly flag these issues to. Yes, I knew there was a Disability and Wellbeing Services team, but I wasn’t quite sure if they also oversee the accessibility issues outside of classes.
So guess what, as soon as I arrived at the venue, I went straight away to the senior leaders and shared the saga that I’ve been dealing with to use rooms booked for office hours. To be honest, I was extremely nervous at first – what if they regarded these issues as something minor? Thankfully, each and every person I spoke to during this session genuinely listened to my needs, and they promised to follow-up with these inconveniences.
In addition, I loved how we could discover the roles of LSESU representatives in detail. I talked with Sarah, the Welfare and Liberation Officer. Not only did she tell me that she would flag the accessibility issue to the relevant department, but also connected me to Archie, the Neurodiversity and Disability Officer, to request specific disability-related services. I was grateful for this opportunity to figure out how to improve my experiences at LSE, so that I won’t have to go through another accessibility saga in my final year.
And more networking rolls in…
In fact, it wasn’t just the senior leaders and student representatives that made this event special. I loved how I could network with other students who attended the session as well.
As the event was open to all students, there were also postgraduate students from various departments. I managed to talk with a student who was studying international development, and it actually encouraged me to consider applying to the same program next year. I got a sense of how practical or theoretical certain modules were, and how it might help me to pursue my dream career afterwards.
In addition, I finally caught up with some of my MUN-mates who attended Model United Nations conferences last year! You know, networking doesn’t have to be formal and career-oriented all the time. It was a nice refresher that reminded me of the moments I’ll cherish whenever I think of my time at LSE.
I’d strongly recommend that you attend any events where you can meet the leaders of LSE, because any points that you raise and share could be practically implemented for a positive change in the school community.
