Ambassador portraits: Max Piron and Rémi Graille (BBA EDHEC 2018) from the EDHEC Junior Alumni club, on visits to Amsterdam

Can you explain your backgrounds?

[Max]
I’m 20 years old and in my 3^rd year on the EDHEC BBA programme in Nice, specialising in marketing. I’m currently on a 6-month internship in Amsterdam with DDB (Omnicom). I always promised myself that I would do all of my internships abroad in order to acquire international added value.

So we are both ambassadors with the EDHEC Junior Alumni club, and my ambition with Rémi is to make the most of this period abroad and organise an event with the alumni community in Amsterdam. We will be organising the Welcome Party on 10 November at Café Tapmarin. We are jointly arranging the event with Gilles Domartini, Ambassador for this international club.

But first, what is the EDHEC Junior Alumni club? It’s a professional club from the EDHEC network which aims to raise awareness and bring together the student community. At the moment there are 10 ambassadors with some great plans for the months to come.

[Rémi]
Having completed my scientific baccalaureate, I joined the EDHEC BBA programme. That decision was driven by my desire to get closer to the professional world, which I achieved in my first year by setting up an association as part of our project workshop module.

Then, in my second year, I joined the EDHEC Junior Alumni club. The aim was to bring students and the wider EDHEC community together.

I am currently completing a term on a university exchange in Amsterdam for the third year of my curriculum, for which I have chosen to specialise in finance, auditing and management control. I am also continuing with my work as an ambassador, and Max and I are organising a meeting where we hope to bring together the EDHEC graduates living here in Amsterdam.

What motivations resulted in you taking on the role of volunteer ambassador? What personal or professional benefits do you get from this experience?

[Rémi]
The idea of representing a network and making students aware of it, which is something that was already present during our years as students but also through the former students in the group.

It’s really rewarding to connect the whole community, students react very positively to our events on campus, and graduates are on hand to meet the new generation and share their experiences with them.

[Max]
We took on this mission over a year ago with just one goal: make things happen for our student community on the Nice campus. We found that we had the resources but that nothing was being done, everything remained to be done. So we decided to change things. Also, at the age of 20, we don’t have a professional network, so this was our first avenue to make new contacts (alumni & students).

What are your best memories as club ambassadors? What are you most proud of?

[Max]
We organised a conference as an introduction to entrepreneurship to present this world to first and second year students. We managed to bring together around 100 people. And I think our best memory is working together for months to organise the event and then presenting the conference in front of 100 people. The students had a good time and we rose to our first challenge.

[Rémi]
I would say it was our first recruitment. We knew that we would all be heading off on university exchanges or internships and that it was important for us that the club would keep going and to keep the community active on campus. So at the end of last year we recruited six new members with the objective of finding students who were as motivated as we are and to pass on our enthusiasm to them.

That’s also what I’m most proud of, our new team is very energetic and has loads of plans for the coming year. Our objective has been reached, several projects have been put forward to keep our community active on the Nice campus. It’s been a successful first recruitment experience.

What’s next for your work as ambassadors?

[Max]

What’s next? Organising the event for 10 November with the community in Amsterdam in less than a month. This community isn’t very active, so we’re going to try to get it going again, but it’s above all about having a good time on the banks of the canals with people we want to meet.

[Rémi]

As Max said, we are currently organising the Welcome Party for the Amsterdam club in collaboration with Gilles Domartini and the EDHEC Alumni/BBA Alumni association. It will be an opportunity for us to meet with the expat community and build on our work as ambassadors to keep the EDHEC network alive.

What advice would you have for students on exchange programmes?

[Rémi]

Take the time to prepare yourself properly before you leave. Once you arrive, discover everything you can about your host city to live like the locals, and above all enjoy every minute of it, it’s a unique experience!

[Max]

Do an internship! No, just kidding, starting out with a long-term internship abroad is not easy at the beginning, I really struggled.

What are your expectations from the community of EDHEC graduates or the EDHEC Alumni association?

[Max]
I don’t really have any expectations, it’s our role to find ways to bring this community together!

[Rémi]
I would just say that our collaboration should remain open and beneficial for every member of the network and the EDHEC Alumni association.

To register for the Amsterdam Welcome Party on 10 November: 

http://www.edhecbbaalumni.com/shortUrl/7i8b

https://www.edhecalumni.com/shortUrl/7i87