Jack Butterly | Faces of FEB
The Faculty of Economics and Business is a faculty with great diversity of people. But who are these people? Within ‘Faces of FEB’ we talk to different students of the faculty and give a little peek into the world of these FEB students. This week: Jack Butterly who is student ambassador at FEB.
Written by Jessica Paas
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Hello, my name is Jack. I am 24 years old, I am from Ireland and I am studying for a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Economics.
So you are from Ireland?
Yes, I am an international student and I am here for my entire Bachelor's degree, which will be for three years. I hope!
Why did you choose to do your Bachelor’s degree in Groningen?
I wanted to do something different. I remember coming over, traveling to the Netherlands for the first time. As soon as I got to Groningen, I kind of fell in love with it immediately and thought it was a beautiful place! I really liked the atmosphere and just the general vibe. And here is the funny thing. I had on my list that I was going to go to Groningen first and then work my way back to Leiden and Maastricht. However, I actually never made it to the other two.
But you are three years away from home, isn’t that hard?
Yes and no. It is strange. A lot of students I talk to say the longer they are away from home the more they miss it. But I am kind of the opposite: the longer I am away from home, the less I miss it. Of course there are a lot of things I do love and miss about Ireland. I miss the social aspect. Irish people are very open and chatty. And there is always music and a great atmosphere! However, I think it’s because Ireland is not the busiest place. Groningen for example is a small city with around 200.000 people, but that would make it one of the bigger cities in Ireland.
And now you are even a student ambassador right?
Yes, I have been working there now since September. There are 5 of us and we are all international student ambassadors. We deal with things like campus tour requests from students that come and visit the city. Also we run the prospectives inbox for answering the questions the students have from programmes and living in the city to final application. And we also do newsletters and we gather testimonials as well. So we are pretty busy, but it is a nice team though! I am very lucky!
Could you tell me a little bit more about your role?
Yes! I am in charge of the email inbox, so I am responsible for answering queries. At this stage I must have emailed a thousand emails. And it’s to people from all around the world asking all types of questions.
How did you come to this position?
I saw an advertisement on Nestor and I thought the job would be perfect, since I am Irish and there is one thing Irish people are good at, which is talking to people! Also I really like the campus and I really like the university and I thought it would be nice to do work like that and represent the university. And so I applied and here we are.
What do you like about it?
I like how it is different every day and it is very nice to feel like you are helping. Probably the best thing I have done so far though is that I was asked to do a university fair in Dublin. In January I flew out back to Dublin to work at the university fair that was organized by this organization that tries to encourage UK and Irish students to study abroad. It was really nice talking to students and kinda seeing their eyes light up a bit about your own story and to make them enthusiastic.
If someone would like to be a student ambassador as well, what do you advise them to do?
If you like to be a student ambassador you have to be passionate, not just about representing the university, you actually have to be passionate about the idea of talking to prospective students. You have to be passionate about what you are doing here and be able to translate that experience you have here to encourage students to come here, cause we do have a wonderful university!
What are your plans for later?
I was thinking about Masters, if not here, maybe somewhere else in the Netherlands or Belgium. But I am not sure just yet.
| Last modified: | 31 January 2021 3.48 p.m. |