Lincoln University Students’ Association (LUSA) President Sam Blackmore recently had a taste of overseas student life with which to gauge his own experiences.
He was among a quartet of students who travelled to Europe last month to participate in the annual Euroleague for Life Sciences (ELLS) conference in Sweden, of which Lincoln is a partner.
“The ELLS Conference was an excellent opportunity for me as a student rep. and advocate to get to see a different way of students being involved in the academic world.
“I was part of the ELSA (Euro League Student Association) group, which provides a student representative to sit on every board within the ELLS network.
“As this was my first interaction will ELLS and ELSA, I was going in with eyes open and looking to see how Lincoln students can be best involved.
“The main learning that I can take away from the conference is that we have it really good in New Zealand, however we can do more to encourage our students studying abroad,” he said.
This was commonplace in Europe due to the accessibility of other countries, he added, but we have many opportunities for our students to get grants and other financial support.
Other students were presenting research at the conference
Anna-Kate Goodall talked on green infrastructure, ecosystem services, and the enablers and barriers for their implementation within wine-grape vineyards.
Xiaodan Hui presented a poster called Interactions between Oat Bran and Blackcurrant/Blueberry: Effects on Glycaemic Properties and Antioxidant Activities.
Melissa McMullan also created a poster, Protecting productive land and allowing urban growth. Can we have our carrots and eat them too?
They were supported by staff members, Professor Nicholas Dickinson, Professor Geoffrey Kerr and International Director Roger Shew.
It was the largest cohort to attend an annual ELLS Conference from Lincoln.
• ELLS is an exclusive network of seven leading European universities established to promote educational collaborations in fields such as animal, agricultural, food and environmental science; ecological engineering; natural resources management; and landscape architecture and spatial planning.
• Lincoln was part of the first intake of partners in 2013