What does it mean to be a class or a course representative at Bocconi? We talked directly with the ones who fill these roles. While some of them had to fight for their place, others were more fortunate, yet each of them dedicates considerable effort to enhance our university experience, striving to make it smoother and, perhaps, more enjoyable for the class they represent. This impression emerged from our conversations with the following representatives at our university:
- Luca Ortona, BIG ‘27 class representative (half Italian, half American – between Rome and San Francisco)
- Ipek Varlik, BEMACC ‘26 class & course representative (Istanbul, Turkey)
- Aleks Nowacki, BESS ‘26 class & course representative (near Poznan, Poland)
- Natali Dzneladzne and Sveva Morini, BEMACS ‘26 class & course representatives (Georgia; Mantova, Italy)
- Sofia Brunetti, BESS ‘25 class & course representative (United States)
- Fabio Caccamisi, EMIT ‘25 class representative, former class representative in CLEAM and former residence representative in Spadolini (Cefalù in Sicily, Italy)
All of them work in teams as there are two representatives for each class. Some of them collaborate with bigger teams as course representatives. The main difference between the two is the fact that as class representative you get elected directly, and deal with fellow students’ issues and questions, usually by mediating between them and the professors, while as course representative you have a general view of, and a say in, how the whole course proceeds.
Motivation
When it comes to motivation, most of them have some kind of prior experience, usually from high school. They started as class presidents, student council presidents, or members of the student government. They came to Bocconi and realized there were a lot more people to represent, but the enthusiasm remained, nonetheless.
Starting with a funny story from her first day ever, there’s Ipek recounting: ‘We decided to have a class picnic in the park to meet each other. We were like 40-50 people and I was trying to group everyone. Nobody asked me to do it, I just intuitively did it. I was trying to direct them to the park from the class. I took the water bottle they gave us and I lifted it up like a tourist guide, so they were walking after me. While I was walking people started to think, “Oh my God, that’s our class representative!”’ The rest is history. She also mentions that ‘There are no benefits to becoming a class rep. Not even for the CV, nobody cares. So, if you’re doing this, you’re solely doing it because you want to help people.’
Luca also puts people at the center. ‘I think the most important thing from university — while we learn a lot of things — is the people you meet.’ He’s not the only one saying that knowing a lot of people and being a class representative go hand in hand. He also adds that with the idea of becoming a point of reference for those he represents, it would be nice to go for something bigger soon. ‘I’m interested in the CNSU [Consiglio nazionale degli studenti universitari — National university student council], an organization made of university representatives where you can bring forward motions or concepts which then go to the Minister of Education.’ Being a BIG student, one might wonder if he has set his mind on a political career, but he aims to become a diplomat, as being in politics with a double citizenship can be complicated. ‘Take Elly Schlein, she’s half Swiss and she lived a lot of her life in Switzerland, and everyone uses this against her.’
‘I was thinking about it, there were so many people running that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put my name in. But at some point there were ten guys running and not a single girl, so I decided; you know what, let’s represent.’ And that’s what Sofia (BESS) did. On the other hand, Fabio (EMIT)’s main drive was ‘To create a positive environment in class.’ That’s because he and his colleagues were part of the unfortunate year that started university with COVID lockdown. ‘By second year some people had never even come to Milan. So, for me it was important that we could meet each other.’
Competition
Elections can sometimes get very heated. Not in BEMACC ‘26, where Ipek was born for the role, and chosen along another active classmate of hers. As for her second year (this autumn), she says ‘We had absolutely zero drama because we have the nicest people in BEMACC. We did a class aperitif, and I sent a message to the group just to let everybody know I was running. They already knew me from last year. There was just a slight competition between the other candidates because the other position opened up.’
Sending messages is a common and simple way to do a campaign, if it can be referred to as such. Most candidates want to keep it clean and professional by choosing this way to convince their peers. Fabio gives an explanation that many would agree with: ‘For me, the election is not something aggressive, I don’t like doing a real campaign. For me, this is not a service, it’s a pleasure. I feel that if people trust me, they can vote for me and I’m happy if they do. But I’ve never been overly attached. I really like doing it and I feel that everyone should run just because it’s great.’
However, in some situations more effort is required than just typing in a really long text message. Sveva makes a comparison between BEMACS ‘26 (where she’s representative) and BEMACS ‘27 saying ‘We just sent very long messages, but they actually took action. The one who got elected organized a whole night out at a beer place. The other one built a website with his notes and notes we shared with them to access them more quickly. That was quite impressive. Then there was also another girl, who organized movie nights.’ Natali (her co-representative) jokes ‘Next time they will be building robots to impress people.’
While they are not building robots, elections are certainly closest to the real-world ones in BIG classes, to nobody’s surprise. In Luca’s class they were in ten running, and in the end, he came out as one of the winners, but it wasn’t easy, in fact, he didn’t expect such a heated competition. ‘When I ran for student council president in high school, we were four and I didn’t think they had much of a chance anyways. With these ones I was nervous, some of them made excellent campaigns. At a certain point, it was funny because it was branded as if we were going to have a political debate. In reality, it was just a way for everyone to present their programs, but someone came prepared with a list of attacks. So, it sort of evolved into a debate. It was really heated, but it was fun.’ He adds that given the number of candidates, ‘You couldn’t just wait and see how many people are going to vote for you.’ The fact that they are on a whole other level compared to other courses is also shown by their chance to present their program by taking some time from their Political Science class in the very first semester.
Winning
How did they all win? Some of them came prepared, like Aleks, who did research before coming to Bocconi about how things work, so that he could be helpful to others. Luca also believes in making yourself a reference point for others, starting as early as the summer before the first year.
However, you can’t be too pushy, it has to be natural. In fact, Natali says ‘Going up to people for me was more to socialize and make friends rather than to convince them to choose me as a class representative. Because I thought, if I become your friend, you will see what type of person I am. And if you think that I’m capable, then you’ll choose me. If you don’t, that is fully okay.’ Sofia also believes in making friends in an organic way, and both her, Ipek, and Sveva highlight that having a nice environment in their respective classes (BESS, BEMACC, and BEMACS) allowed them to do so, especially in the first year when friend groups are still getting formed and everyone is open to meeting new people.
Luca also thinks he had the advantage of being half American and half Italian. ‘I’m able to speak on both sides of the aisle.’
Activity
Natali sums it up well by saying ‘The promises we make are not like the promises I would make in high school like promising to organize more trips. Here we promise to make your life easier by sharing notes, being helpful with teachers and organizing aperitifs.’ Sofia also feels like she’s been able to speak up for her peers’ interests, just like Aleks who reports ‘I feel very happy about the stuff that happened last year. I managed the daily issues well and have been reelected both class and course representative, and with the new class representatives we have lots of plans for this year to improve the situation of people in BESS.’
While mostly serious and honest work, according to Luca ‘The position of class representative is fairly limited in the sense that it’s not like you can bring forward change. All you have to do is represent. So, I think that the question of being class representative is not what you can do, but what do the students want you to do? Because in the end, it’s not like you’re in the American House of Representatives, whereby you’re actually affecting laws.’ At the same time, he thinks that especially in a course centered around politics it’s important to give space to frequent and non-judgmental political discourse. ‘I think it’s very important that we hear opinions from Trumpists, from non-Trumpists, or from communists and fascists in the same room.’ He started a tradition of going to get a beer and talk with his classmates every Thursday afternoon. ‘It’s happened five times already, which I’m very happy about.’
Fabio also emphasizes building a community: ‘My goal has not only been to be the spokesperson when there was an urgency with the professor, but also to create a good environment. I organize gatherings that could be a picnic, pizza, or an aperitif to spend some good time together.’ He also served as residence representative, about which he said ‘A residence representative deals with all the issues that can occur to all the inhabitants. We also deal with the budget to do trips. Then during my cycle there was also the issue of safety around Parco Ravizza. Bocconi was very proactive on that; they activated the service with the guards who accompany residents.’ He loved the experience as a residence representative, as he feels like there’s nothing better than becoming a reference point to 300 people, even if this means having to deal with minor and major issues on a daily basis.
Challenges
Being a representative is not too difficult, but they still face various challenges both as “professionals” and as “common people”. Many would agree with what Aleks has to say about it. ‘The common thing is professor-related obstacles. Whenever something is unclear regarding exams or deadlines need to be pushed off, this is something that is important to be managed well.’ As course representatives he and Sofia also deal with the very BESS-related issue of changing the course’s name. As Aleks says ‘It comes up in each committee. What can we do with the name so that people don’t come here for the social sciences? People don’t expect such a quantitative course. We’ve been trying, it’s not easy, but at least the description on the page of the Bocconi website was changed last year.’ BESS is well-known among employers, that’s the main argument they get against changing the name completely, so they’ve been trying to find ways to stick with the letter ‘S’ for example by taking ‘Statistics’.
Ipek’s experience has been very positive, she’s grateful for the friendly environment that sometimes makes it feel like they’re in high school. ‘Our class is super nice, we make a lot of jokes in the group chat. I think it’s because we’re mostly girls. People say when there’s too many girls, there’s drama. But there’s no drama.’
There are some personal challenges that can come up. Sofia struggles with the fact that her name is Italian, but having grown up in the US she’s never spoken Italian in formal contexts. In English you can’t address someone formally in an explicit way as you can do in Italian. ‘A lot of professors will switch to Italian when they see my name, which I’m happy to do, but having never spoken Italian in formal contexts I don’t know how to “dare del lei”. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, I’m just always worried that I’m going to mess up when addressing them. But most of the professors have been extremely nice and understanding when I told them.’
Luca faces a different challenge that first-year representatives might relate to. ‘The main challenge is that I’m inexperienced. They are also inexperienced, but I’m expected to be experienced, and I just have to fake it till I actually am.’
United in their desire to help their peers, build a community, and fight for justice when needed, each representative deals with the particularities of their class and their major, as well as their personal aspirations. They view this experience as more than just a gym for soft skills such as negotiation and teamwork. At the end of the day, they just hope to have contributed to making their environment better for everyone involved.
I’m a third-year BAI student from Budapest. Being Italo-Hungarian I always found it challenging to define where I belong, in all the places I’ve been to I found a piece of home. Travelling and learning languages are my favourite hobbies, beside reading and writing. I have a deep passion for science and research.
