International University - IU Student Council Corner

Welcome to IU Student Council Corner

Dear Students,

As your student council there are many things which are important to us including your academics, student life and events, as well as your support, friendship and trust. We are always ready to listen, and we’re more than willing to try and assist you with anything we can that falls within the realms of our mandate as your representatives, representatives of IU and intermediaries between you and our IU Administration. However, these are not the only things we stand for. As your student council we also want your suggestions and input for things you are interested in, or are interested in doing. For example, help us make the IU student community more active by suggesting or helping to organize different groups, events or educational trips. To date, IU students have already organized sports teams, which are currently battling for wins on a weekly basis, and an international human rights group. Therefore, we are always glad to welcome existing and new volunteers who want to get involved in fostering a better student community at IU. However, we understand that many of you are very busy and can barely find a spare moment for yourselves, let alone creating a group of working as a volunteer. So instead, we invite you to contribute to your student community by just participating in the events, especially since they are organized specifically for you.

In closing, we would like to thank you again for selecting us to represent you. We hope that by the end of our term we will have been able to meet your expectations and our expectations as your student reps.

Sincerely,

IU Student Council
2009 / 2010

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Student Council Representatives

Billy Batware, President
Billy studies electronics and economy at the University of Applied Science of Vienna; global business and International Relations at the International University of Vienna. With his broad experience in multiple countries, Billy considers himself as a citizen of the world because he believes that we live in a small global village. Along side student council presidency, Billy serves as the founding member of the United for Education and Development (UED) - a vol-unteer organization based in Vienna that helps children from developing countries to have access to education. He is also the founder of the International Human Rights discussion group at the International University of Vienna. His hobbies include playing tennis, jogging, and engaging in intercultural discussion among others. Billy’s desire is to work in an interna-tional environment and his long term goal is to one day write an educational book on a range of issues such as the importance of life experience.

Marie-Theres Rünzi, Vice President
Hallo Everyone, my name is Marie-Theres. I was born in Germany but never really lived there. Instead I grew up in Libya, USA, China, Russia and now Austria. Mostly I went to German or American schools. I was always interested in politics and different cultures. Since I was 7 years old I wanted to work for UNICEF and/or the UN, since then nothing has changed. I love to travel, to explore new cultures and their cuisine. To relax after University, work and some work I like to cook, read or just to meet up with friends. I would consider myself as a friendly, open-minded and easy going person to whom you can talk to concern-ing any matter.

Anna Scheithauer, Secretary
Anna Scheithauer is from Vienna, Austria and graduated from Handelsakademie, a Viennese business School in 2008 after having spent a semester at Riverton & District High School in South Australia in 2005/2006. Currently she is pursuing a BA program of Global Business & International Relations at the International University as well as an additional BA program of Political Science at the University of Vienna. Moreover, she is an active member of the Hu-man Rights Discussion Group of the International University and enrolled in a French course at the University of Vienna as she envisages completing parts of her studies in a francophone environment. Among others, she is very interested in traveling and cultural exchange, litera-ture and theatre. For future studies and career perspectives her ambitions are within the fields of diplomacy, politics and international relations and the institutions related with these areas.

Sandrine Picot, Treasurer
My name is Sandrine, I am French and I am currently finishing my MBA at the International University. I have lived and worked in France, Brazil, Canada and Morocco and I have an undergraduate degree in International Business and Management from EPSCI, a school from the French ESSEC Group. I don’t have a dream job yet, but I know that I would love to work in the non-profit sector one day. I enjoy travelling, cooking, reading and, for the sake of my team members, counting money.

Kyle DeFreitas, Masters Representative
Kyle DeFreitas is from Toronto, Canada and completed his bachelor's degree at Ryerson Uni-versity in the Arts and Contemporary Studies program. At Ryerson, Kyle specialized in history and political science, and was employed as a Teaching Assistant in two history courses dur-ing his final year. After graduating, Kyle worked as a Research Assistant for Prof. Arne Kislenko of Ryerson University and University of Toronto, and as a National Fraud and Kiting Analyst for the Royal Bank of Canada. Then, in preparation for completing an MA in diplo-macy and international relations, Kyle travelled to different parts of the developing world, volunteer taught English in Vietnam and then entered IU as both a student and English in-structor. And in addition to being immensely interested in IR, teaching and travelling, Kyle is also an avid guitar player and music lover. Following his MA, Kyle plans to complete his PhD in Negotiation and Conflict Resoltuion with a minor in International Development.