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Your new MCR President 2019-20

March 2, 2019

At the end of May the results of the first set of elections for the 2019/20 MCR Committee, were announced.

Congratulations to the following students who will be taking on their new roles over the coming weeks:

President: Dominique Fortes
Vice President: Simona Sulikova
Treasurer: Barney Williams
Secretary: Giuseppe Spatafora
Welfare and Equality Officer: Ekin Genc
Social Secretaries: Chamil Thanthrimudalige, Jiarui Zhang, Kevin Treder, Tim Hakki, Nicholas Devito
Part time Representative: Lemuel Valdez
International Students Representative: Siyang Zhou
Academic Officer: Neil Suchak
IT Officer: Andy Nguyen

We asked incoming MCR President, Dominique Fortes (MPhil Modern Chinese Studies) to tell us a bit about herself and what she and her fellow Committee members hope to achieve during their tenure.

Dominique, who hails from New Jersey, graduated in 2017 with a degree in Business Accounting, with Asian Area Studies and Chinese Language.

On graduating she wanted to explore all her options so, as well as applying for a Fulbright Scholarship, with the intention of teaching in Taiwan, she applied to Oxford “on a whim”, to see if she could get in – she did.

As she didn’t want to miss out on the experience of living and working in Taiwan, Dominique deferred her place at Oxford and began her studies in 2018.

When asked why she ran for MCR President, she said “Because I really love Kellogg and its environment.”

A regular face around College, Dominique is a great believer in experiencing life and meeting new people, something she found easy to do at Kellogg, thanks to its welcoming and friendly atmosphere. Dominique now wants to pass on her experience to new students and help them settle in and feel comfortable in their new home. Especially part-time students who are only in College for a few weeks each term and who don’t always get the chance to connect as easily with College life.

As one of her first tasks in the role, Dominique intends to restructure the Committee and make each role responsible for its own area. For instance, making the International Student Representative responsible for International student events, rather than the Social Secretaries organising them.

Also, having worked with the Oxford University’s Innovation’s Social Enterprise project, Dominique is aware that our College members, including students, are an untapped resource of expertise and experiences, both inside and outside of College. She hopes to tap into this resource and create a network to help benefit students both now and after graduation.
Dominique loves to keep busy – “quiet makes me uneasy” – and is always happy to chat, so feel free to approach her if you see her around College – she’ll be the one in the amazing shoes (100 pairs at last count) or the inflatable dinosaur costume (honestly, she has three!) And if that doesn’t give you enough to start a conversation, you can email her at dominique.fortes@kellogg.ox.ac.uk.

Dominique’s tips for new students:

• Make the most of the Welcome Weeks – I met most of my friends in those first few weeks
• Meet the MCR members
• Be open and not afraid to talk to others
• Attend the Guest Night Dinners – they’re a great way to meet new and interesting people, from across all disciplines
• Speak to the staff – they are really friendly and approachable, and here to help