Meet our Undergraduate School Rep: Lucilla Luprano

Lucilla Luprano has been elected Undergraduate School Rep for the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC).

Each School at the University elects two Representatives (Reps): an Undergraduate School Rep; and a Postgraduate School Rep. Their role is to represent the views of LLC students to the School, the wider University and the Students’ Association. The Undergraduate School Rep represents the needs of Undergraduate students, from first year to final year of study, dealing with school-wide issues, ranging from teaching to facilities provision.

Lucilla is a third year joint honours student of Scandinavian Studies and Politics and will be starting her new role in September. In this interview, she chats to us about her motivations in running for the position, and what she would like to achieve during her time in post. 

'A great opportunity'

Lucilla worked for over two years as a programme rep, in which she represented over 10 courses. She applied for the Undergraduate School Rep position to learn more about the School as well as collaborate with staff and students.

"I wanted to work on a higher scale to reach goals and implement changes not only on a programme level.  I think it's also important to understand how processes work at a school level, which will give me great insight into how I can more effectively collaborate - and also give more guidance to programme reps - on the most efficient way to collaborate with staff."

During her time as a programme rep, Lucilla spent a lot of her time planning activities and campaigns - the Undergraduate School Rep position was the perfect opportunity to turn these into reality.

"I was a student rep across multiple subject areas last year - I like to do as much as I can. The role really gave me an insight into the School and gave me an awareness of the processes involved."

Focusing on mental health and the LLC community

"I want to make sure that students’ wellbeing is a priority for LLC, especially with regards to mental health, and hopefully be able to create events that involve more departments to give students an opportunity to meet new people, as this might be something they struggle with."  

Along with mental health, Lucilla wishes to work on the communication between schools that offer joint honours degrees.

"As someone who has experience with the system, I want to work alongside LLC staff to make this as efficient as possible, both for staff and students."

"Depending on what next year is going to look like, I would also like to organise some in-person meeting with programme reps... I want to make sure that they feel heard and that they are able to create a community/network. This is a great opportunity to make sure that students and staff at LLC work together to ensure that coming back on campus is not traumatic and is as stress-free as possible." 

Four years are shorter than they seem

Towards the end of our interview, we asked Lucilla what kind of advice she would give school leavers this year. 

"No matter how scary it seems, just jump into all the opportunities you find interesting. Sometimes you will not get a second chance, or you won’t have time to do it later on... Four years are actually shorter than they seem."

Related Links

Find out more about the role of School Rep from the Students' Association

Find out more about undergraduate Scandinavian Studies at Edinburgh