The entire European Institute would like to share their thanks to those alumni who gave up their time to support us in the academic year of 2022-23: through speaking at events, connecting with students one-on-one, and much more! Your support makes a huge difference to our wider community and does so much to enhance the strong community spirit of the Institute.
Some of our community share their testimonials below about their experiences with our alumni volunteers:
Natalie Grace (Student Experience and Engagement Coordinator ) - “This is my first year working at the European Institute, and I’ve been hugely impressed by the fantastic EI alumni! The alumni I’ve worked with this year have been incredibly generous with their time and expertise and always willing to go the extra mile to help the latest additions to the EI community achieve their potential. Through advice panels, networking evenings, delivering professional skills workshops, and informal chats via LinkedIn and email, our alumni continue to be core to the work we do in the European Institute. We are lucky to have you all.”
Morgane Foret Brayer (current student) - “After being selected for the Blue Book program I was desperately looking for advice from the LSE alumni community. The EI department helped me getting in touch with former Blue Book trainees and I also directly contacted some of them via LinkedIn.
The alumni community has been highly responsive, helpful and considerate. I received more feedback than I hoped for. Many thanks to all who kindly offered their help during this stressful time. Among others, I am grateful to Fabrice Terrac (1999, European Political Economy), Gilles Thirion (2013, European Political Economy), Anne-Sophie Diehl (2015, European Politics and Governance), and Robert van Geffen (2010, European Politics and Governance) for dedicating a bit of their time."
Lukas Martini (2020, European Affairs) - "It was great to see the various responses I received from EI Alumni after the EI put me in touch with former students now working at the EU Commission (Brice Reguimi (2015, Political Economy of Europe), Tim Jacobs (2020, European and International Public Policy), and Kayrin Gauci (2019, Political Economy of Europe)).While some of them had already graduated from LSE a while ago, they were curious about how the Institute has developed since. The conversations helped me to better understand the structure of the Commission and what different work profiles and topical areas exist in this large organisation.
While getting specific advice is always helpful, the most interesting part for me when speaking to alumni is always to learn about their different stories and what roles they now pursue. This gives me a glimpse of whether or not this could be a career I could see myself in."
Floris Bosscher (2021, Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe) - "I specifically gained a lot from speaking to a Spanish graduate (Roberto Gimenez Llamas (2020, European and International Public Policy)). He was amazing in explaining me the (many) intricacies of the Council of the EU. It was through him that I avoided some basic mistakes in my interview and had a good grasp of what the Council of the EU (not the Council of Europe or European Council...) does. He gave me tips on what to look into to prepare well for the interview. He was amazingly kind and helpful and even gave me some further career advice in case the council traineeship would not work out, which it fortunately did."
Mathieu Coget (current student) - "I'm grateful for the accessibility and the friendliness of the EI alumni network and the support provided for by the EI professional services in reaching out to them. I believe that engaging in phone conversations to discuss career paths is crucial for postgraduate students, as it expands their horizons and emboldens them to pursue their aspirations. The sincerity of the alumni provided for very valuable discussions which facilitated my decision-making process, making my career choice more straightforward."
Find out about the 2021-22 volunteers here.
Are you interested in volunteering with the European Institute? Just get in touch at ei.alumni@lse.ac.uk if you are interested in finding out more about supporting our community.