My name is Louis and I’m cur­rent­ly study­ing process engi­neer­ing at UTC. Dur­ing my stud­ies, I had the chance to chair the Pôle Vie du Cam­pus (PVDC ‑Cam­pus life Pole) last semes­ter. This expe­ri­ence has proved to be invalu­able both per­son­al­ly and pro­fes­sion­al­ly and I hope to share some of it with you in this article.

To begin, what is the PVDC? The Pôle Vie du Cam­pus is an asso­ci­a­tion under the French law of 1901, fed­er­at­ing some forty clubs and com­mis­sions with a wide range of activ­i­ties. These include the stu­dent accom­mo­da­tion hos­tels (the famous Pic’Asso), the induc­tion asso­ci­a­tions for new stu­dents, trav­el asso­ci­a­tions, for­eign cul­ture asso­ci­a­tions, board game asso­ci­a­tions, oenol­o­gy asso­ci­a­tions, sewing asso­ci­a­tions, bath­tub rac­ing asso­ci­a­tions, run­ning asso­ci­a­tions, fish­ing asso­ci­a­tions, char­cu­terie asso­ci­a­tions, etc. As pres­i­dent of the PVDC, I was respon­si­ble for over­see­ing the activ­i­ties of these dif­fer­ent enti­ties and advis­ing them as best I could to ensure that their activ­i­ties took place with the best pos­si­ble con­di­tions. This role enabled me to devel­op skills in man­age­ment, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and orga­ni­za­tion. On a per­son­al lev­el, I’ve real­ly flour­ished in this role, cen­tered as it is on exchanges with stu­dents, each more moti­vat­ed than the oth­ers. I’d like to make it clear that my com­mit­ment to the clus­ter would have been mean­ing­less with­out the com­mit­ment of all the stu­dents I worked with, with­in the Pole, the BDE (stu­dents’ union) and all the federation’s clubs and commissions.

As part of the «asso élite» (elite) course, my involve­ment in asso­ci­a­tions was val­ued in the same way as that of stu­dents enrolled in the «sports» or «music élite» cours­es. These path­ways rec­og­nize and high­light stu­dents’ com­mit­ment to asso­cia­tive life, the­o­ret­i­cal­ly offer­ing adjust­ments to their timetable for exam­ple. Although in my case such arrange­ments were not nec­es­sary, this recog­ni­tion tes­ti­fies to the impor­tance attached by UTC to stu­dent involvement. 

This com­mit­ment has been a real school of life, pro­vid­ing me with valu­able skills and con­crete expe­ri­ence of team­work and project man­age­ment. I can only urge every stu­dent to get involved in the university’s asso­ci­a­tions and clubs. Not only is it a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet excit­ing peo­ple and devel­op new skills, but it’s also a great way to con­tribute to the dynam­ics and spir­it of the UTC campus.

In con­clu­sion, my expe­ri­ence as Pres­i­dent of the PVDC has been one of the most for­ma­tive peri­ods of my stu­dent life. It enabled me to grow and devel­op, and to pre­pare calm­ly for my entry into the pro­fes­sion­al world. I’d like to take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to thank the clubs and com­mit­tees of the Pole for plac­ing their con­fi­dence in me, the mem­bers of the BDE for the warm, fam­i­ly-style wel­come they offered and UTC for allow­ing this asso­cia­tive life to flour­ish. And let’s not for­get, there is life after school!

LV