Puk Willemoes, Aarhus University

I am an outgoing and socially engaged person, that is driven by seeing what collaboration does for finding durable solutions.

Puk Willemoes

What is your role in you university?

Currently I am studying Social Anthropology with a minor in Addressing Global Challenges at Aarhus University. Besides studying I have dedicated a lot of time to student representation. I sit as a General Assembly member of my local student council. I am also a board member of Aarhus University Research Foundation, among other roles.

What is your role in the Circle U. Alliance?

I am a Student Ambassador in Circle U Student Union, and in connection to that I sit in WP2, and I am newly elected representative to the General Assembly, where I try to represent about 500.000 students. I am especially focusing on making sure we are developing programs and initiatives that has something to offer for all our students. I am also the coordinator of the Legal Taskforce in CUSU, where we through our work try to ensure a strong foundation for the best student union in the EUAs.

What do you particularly like about your work at Circle U.?

I enjoy learning new ways of working across cultures. It has been a very fun hands-on experience to build a student union up across, now counting, 9 universities. Solving the task of creating a robust and impactful EUA takes a lot of work and cooperation from different partners, who has various opinions on the discussed matters. As you can imagine, it takes quite a bit of diplomacy.

Have you had any experience abroad?

As a Dane, I did the ‘obligatory’ gap-year between high school and university where I backpacked for a few months through South-East Asia. I have Interrailed through the European capitals in 2015, while we were experiencing the refugee surge. That really made an impact on me in understanding how interconnected we are in Europe and with the rest of the world. Later, I literally slowed down my travelling by switching out the train with walking the Camino de Santiago starting in Spain.

Now, I have the opportunity to visit our partner universities’ cities in my work with Circle U. Recently we have visited Bruxelles, Berlin and Louvain la Neuve. I really appreciated experiencing the cities, not as a tourist, but with the local students, which gave the cities completely new dimensions.

If you had a sabbatical year, what would you do?

It has been a long time ago since I had a whole consecutive year at hand. I would really like to use the time to trek the Pacific Crest Trail running across the US from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada. If I had to go with a more relaxed approach, I would like to spend a year either in a German speaking country or a French speaking country to improve either language.

Published June 22, 2022 11:01 AM - Last modified June 22, 2022 11:01 AM