Fall 2018 Student Board Retreat

In this month of gratitude, we are thankful for our Student Board. The FIUTS Student Board is an elected group of student leaders who support our work on campus and represent the student perspective as voting members of the Board of Trustees. In addition to serving as Board Members, the Student Board produces events, takes part in ongoing leadership development, and provides strategic leadership to the staff and organization.

Student Board Retreat

The Student Board recently had a board retreat to kick off the year. They reflected on the mission of FIUTS, encouraged each other’s leadership styles, and embraced their team’s diversity as the core of their strength. Read reflections from our board to learn what they valued about their retreat, and what they hope to see in their group within the coming year.

A student board gathers people who have passion and time for the international community together. The more the student board members communicate and help each other, the more we can do for international students in UW as a group.

- Molly Ye, Global Gala Co-Chair

I believe we have a well-balanced team this year. We are almost evenly distributed between four leadership styles: driver, analyst, amicable and expressive. I wish [for us] to collaborate as a team and conquer challenges through diverse approaches.

- Yuxuan Chen, Leadership Committee Co-Chair

Bonding

I really enjoyed having a board retreat because it gave us a time to bond and get to know each other better.

- Lufei Wang, Programming Committee Co-Chair

[The board retreat] provided us with a meaningful opportunity to share our own backgrounds with others and gain new perspectives of the unique backgrounds that diversifies a committee.

- Amber Wu, Marketing Committee Co-Chair

Each person brings such unique experiences and talents to the board and it’s exciting to watch that come together. Regardless of our backgrounds, we’re all a part of FIUTS to help build this amazing community and contribute to cross-cultural understanding on the UW campus. The retreat really helped cultivate that notion of shared goals and will certainly be instrumental in setting us up for success in the year to come.

– Rachel Greenwood, CulturalFest Expo Committee Co-Chair 

Synergy

Among many valuable retreat takeaways, there are a few that stood out as fundamental building blocks for our upcoming 2018/19 student board year. We [participated in] multiple activities to understand our individual leadership personalities and it contributed to building our board’s synergy. Another fruitful aspect was learning more about FIUTS’ history, mission and structure. Overall it was a clarifying and inspiring retreat that I’m sure everyone valued a lot.

- Nicolas Pronin & Wasfia Hoque, Fundraising Committee Co-Chairs

What made the retreat worth the time is that we took the time off and focused purely on FIUTS and getting to know the fellow student board members We not only felt more prepared working together as a team for this academic year, but also bonded very well with each other. The value of the retreat is tremendous on preparing the team to work better and more efficiently in the long run.

- Sunny Cai, Student Board President

As these Student Board members grow as a group this year, every step in that journey contributes to a stronger FIUTS. We’re grateful that they are putting their time and energy into working with us! Stay tuned for more information on student committees and how to get involved!