Hi!

I hope you find my (first ever!) blog informative – please feel free to email me: luciana.berger@nus.org.uk with any suggestions of additions/amendments.

Well, I can’t believe we’re already in October – where did the summer go? It was certainly a busy one, with Convention, summer training, and various other courses and fresher events I’ve attended. I’ve also attempted to balance my NEC responsibilities with 2 new jobs, as I have to finance my Masters somehow….

Convention was great, and it was really good to catch up with 2nd year term sabbaticals, as well as getting to know some great new officers in the student movement. We ran some very successful Anti-Racism workshops which were well attended, and it was really positive to see so many officers engaging with the campaign, and signing up for our newsletters.

I got to meet even more officers at summer training. Participate and Develop at the TUC, and Present and Facilitate in York were really great events, and learnt some really interesting/practical stuff, which was fab, as well as embarrassing myself at the karaokes…..

I also attended 2 other external seminars this summer. In July, I went to the International School for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem (www.yadvashem.org) where I completed their 17-day Seminar for Educators from Abroad on “The Holocaust and Antisemitism”. While I had studied the Holocaust at school, the course provided me with a deeper knowledge and understanding of both the history of the Holocaust and the lessons that should be learnt, coupled with a pedagogical ideology with which to impart it. I am now much better equipped to educate about all aspects of the subject, and effectively counter Holocaust denial. I will be feeding in a lot of the material into this year’s NUS Holocaust Memorial Day packs.

In August, I was a participant at L’Institute (www.linstitute.org) Graduate School on Economic Development and Industrial Policy, at the University of Ferrara in Italy. The ten day summer seminar was a fusion of academic and social, as we studied, lived, ate, discussed and debated with each other 24 hours/day - during which time I made friends with people from 10 countries, on 3 different continents. The democratic collaborative ethos of the School offers a rare academic experience which I am extremely grateful for having been given the opportunity to be a part of, and look forward to being involved with in the future.

During the summer, alongside all the training and seminars, a lot of planning has gone into the Anti-Racism/Anti-Fascism campaign. Please see this term’s report and plan to see all that we’ve been involved with.

And then the time came to get some paid employment. I have now been working at the Commission for Racial Equality for the past 3 months, where I am a part-time policy researcher on the Safe Communities Initiative. I am also working part-time at the Stone-Ashdown and Uniting Britain Trusts, where I am the projects and policy officer. Will update you with more very soon,

Luciana

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