Interview conducted by Maalavika Hareesh.

*Responses have been edited slightly for clarity

Nathan Gehin

Q: Could you quickly introduce yourself?

Nathan: My name is Nathan. I’m a Sciences Po student in 1A, and I’m running for the post of National Coordinator of SPE.

Q: Why are you running for the position you’re running for, and what makes you the best candidate for it? 

Nathan: I’m running for SPE as the national coordinator because I love talking to people, and I love to spread the message in every Sciences Po. I think I can be good at that because I’m always enjoying it, and I’m always happy to talk to new people and to try to organize new things, in partnerships with Sciences Po universities. I think I have a lot of ideas for this job. For example, trying to find new partnerships with other universities, maybe in a more global, European way.

Q: What are your top three priorities for this year?

Nathan: To make SPE a major association on this campus because we need to be everywhere and to promote sustainability. Secondly, I think organizing more fun stuff around sustainability can be a great thing to promote sustainability. And finally, as I already said, trying to organize new partnerships with other European or world universities can be a great thing. Like they organize the MUN, we can organize a COP. It can be fun.

Q: If viewers could take away just one thing from this interview, what should it be?

Nathan: Just one thing. Vote for me, vote for ecology!

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Sylvain Sainte-Marie

Q: Could you quickly introduce yourself? 

Sylvain: I’m Sylvain. I’m running for SPE as the Local Coordinator. I’m pretty much interested in everything, but especially in the environment, and the political question related to the environment; how can we make people involved in this, find solutions, debate and the relation between democracy and environment. I’m also interested in concrete actions, and that’s why I want to run as a local coordinator.

Q: Why are you running for the position you’re running for, what makes you the best candidate for it? 

Sylvain: For SPE, we don’t really run for any position specifically, but I think the position that suits me the best will be local coordinator; the one who is in charge of the relation between the campus, the student community, and the global LH events, activities, and different initiatives taking place there. So, I think what makes me the best or good enough for this position is because I already had the opportunity to create contacts with a lot of associations around LH. For instance, Hangar Zero, where I’m volunteering right now and where I plan on organising some events. And, also, Havre de Vers and some other associations. I think that’s what helps me mostly for this position. And, well, I speak French, and I like to connect with people.

In this position, I’d like to establish long standing links between those different associations around LH and the campus so that people throughout the years have easy access to those associations. 

Q: What are your top three priorities for the next year? 

My top three priorities, I think first would be to have a sort of a program for SPE for the next year; a program based on the next board that will be elected and also what people want so that SPE maybe feels more open, more people can join, propose their ideas, and we can go ahead like this. 

Second will be, I think really the link between Hangar Zero and the campus is something interesting and maybe improving this.

Third, contributing to more sustainable products available on campus. We already have the Veggie Baskets, but maybe further those types of initiatives for the next year.

Q: If viewers could take away just one thing from this interview, what should it be? 

Sylvain: It’s not “vote for me”. I think that SPE is important, and you can do whatever you want with it. It’s also your association.

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Thomas Landerretche

Q: Could you quickly introduce yourself?

Thomas: My name is Thomas Landerretche. I’m a 1A, and I’m running for SPE’s head of communications position.

Q: Why are you running for the position you’re running for? What makes you the best candidate? 

Thomas: I feel that SPE’s voice deserves to be heard more on campus. I want this association to have as much attention and love as other associations such as the BDE or the BDA and I feel that my attention seeking personality and my creative mindset regarding problems and promotion would serve SPE greatly.

Q: What are your top three priorities for the next year? 

First of all, having a greater social media engagement with SPE which includes more stories, more posts, more promotion of our events because the events of SPE are really interesting and cool. I feel that with more social media promotion, it could be accessible to more people. 

Secondly, I would love to propose this campus and other Sciences Po campuses to use green energy. I feel that would be a great policy to implement. 

And thirdly, I’d love to organize more events with local LH grassroots organizations. For example, Hangar Zero where we could organize a day where we all go to and help them with their renewable wall projects and other projects that they have.

Q: If viewers could take away just one thing from this interview, what should it be? 

Thomas: I hope that viewers can take away the message that SPE deserves more love, respect, and attention, and I feel that I could bring that to this association.