Vasileios Dimitrios Athanasiou, Head Boy of Byron College 2017-18

Joining the Debate and MUN teams at Byron College has assuredly contributed in the kind of person I am today.

Through these, I have been presented with a plethora of opportunities that became apparent to me during both my studies at Byron College and at the later stages of my life. While some improvements were obvious early on, such as my public speaking, objective thinking and socialising skills, I could not help but notice certain qualities and skills which up until the university and job-searching stages of my life were not entirely clear to me.

Particularly, during my job interviews for graduate engineering roles, I was surprised by my ability to not only present my ideas coherently, but also to respond to demanding and unexpected questions quickly and effectively. It was clear to me that this 'quick-wittedness' stemmed from my previous experience during Debate tournaments to constantly be on my feet and come up with imposing rebuttals and responses. Furthermore, the fact that I could present comprehensive and structured ideas to a wider audience (be that a class or interviewers) was a skill that I subconsciously developed during MUN events.

With hindsight, I can undeniably say that participating in these extracurricular activities in Byron College was one of the greatest opportunities I was given, and my becoming a Graduate Engineer right after my Bachelor's and Master's studies would have definitely been a harder endeavour without them