news from the swimsa family
WE WANTED TO KNOW: WHY DID YOU GET INVOLVED? Text: Benedikt Reuthebuch | Vice-President for Communication “Spending even more time for things having to do with university - why would you do this?” This is certainly a frequently asked question to ever yone who is doing more apart from their every day studies or other occupations. At first sight, all the people steadily questioning getting invol ved must be right: more leisure time, less online meetings, less responsibilities and no deadline to keep an eye on. But - why are there so many peo
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ple out there still getting involved and still dedi cating their time and their capacities to such a huge association like swimsa? One could get the impression that there must be something mag netically attracting about working for and with swimsa. So we went out and asked the people directly to find an answer. And to conclude, we might have to revise our introductional question: “Why wouldn’t you do this?”
A friend of mine was involved in the LC of Bern. I was always asking him about the stuff he did with swimsa exchanges, so one day he just invited me to a LC meeting. I met a lot of cool people there, and that’s basically how my swimsa journey started. I met many amazing people who inspire me with their commitment and their positive energy, and I also made many valuable and useful experiences for myself, for example how to work more efficiently, how to lead an online meeting, how to use excel and so on. - Céline Ueltschi, National Exchanges Treasurer
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I joined the national swimsa Meeting in February and thought that swimsa was a great oppor tunity to get in touch with medical students from all over Switzerland as well as on an international Level. Additionnaly, I’ve always wanted to go on an exchange so I thought my chances to get in there would be higher if I started as a LEO. First of all, I learned how to cooperate with the hospital and other institutions. Then I joined the swimsa exchange weekend which was a great experience and I already organized a Fondue with an incoming! :) - Rahel Aeschbacher, Local Exchange Officer Fribourg
It was over Zoom that I first heard about swimsa. Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention as I first wanted to focus on my studies just like most freshers. A year went by before I attended a VSAO Zürich meeting (mostly because of the apéro ;) where I randomly met the Vice President for Exchanges. What started as a casual conversation, ended up being an encouragement to run for the open position of General Secretary. Wanting to do more than just study, I applied for the position and I met the minds and the energy behind swimsa. The motivation and determination of my fellow swimsa Internals (es pecially of the EB) & the kind of work done at swimsa taught me lessons I couldn’t have learned from books and lectures. That’s when I truly understood swimsa. - Adnan Kareem, General Secretary 21/22 swimsa
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