By: Krisztina Géczi
Kristof Kocs, Co-President of the Student Advisory Council, is a senior student majoring in Political Science with minors in Journalism and History. Alongside him is his long-time friend and Co-President, Nicholas Trunecz, who is also in his final year, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Economics.Both served as Peer Mentors in the past, inspiring them to aim for a higher leadership role in the spring of 2024. In this interview, we will explore Nicholas and Kristof’s experiences and motivations as SAC Presidents, as they believe that “the best you can do is just do things” while delving into their plans for the year, their goals for the student body, and the personal backgrounds that shape their leadership style.
Géczi: Why did you choose to run for SAC presidency?
Trunecz: I was the one who started that process at the end of last fall (2023). Originally, I just thought it would look good on a resume, and then we received more motivation and convinced him (Kocs) to join.
Kocs: That’s true. I was studying at the Westminster campus last fall, and I became involved in helping people there, study-abroads, and advertising the Budapest campus. When I returned, I just loved this sort of position, and I instantly became a peer mentor. He (Trunecz) convinced me that’s true, to run on a joint ticket for the presidency.
Géczi: How come you ran for the position together?
Trunecz: The tradition has been for a while that there are two SAC presidents, and experience shows that one person cannot do this job.
Kocs: I absolutely agree with Nicholas. It was two years ago that the Vice President and the President became two Presidents. They could divide the tasks equally, they are two different people, just like Nicholas and I. He has slightly different views on things; he’s the German calmness, I’m a little more Eastern European sometimes, and of course, the American. It’s kind of an interesting mix, and we thought it was better.
Géczi: It was the first time that you did the campaign together, right?
Kocs: Yes, this was the first time when it was instantly two people aiming for the presidency.
Trunecz: Chances are this will be the new standard.
Géczi: How would you evaluate the work of the SAC this semester (Fall 2024)?
Kocs: I think we had a fantastic and pretty successful semester. We had the fascinating Thanksgiving Gala, we successfully created a SAC Constitution, we have policies laid down, and we have people attending the events. We organized smaller and larger scale events, and students suddenly became interested in joining the SAC and participating in the events. I’m really proud of the SAC Team we have this semester; I think we all are fantastic people. We treat everyone as equal. Even though there are Presidents and Communication Officers, I think everyone is equally important, and everyone has an equal voice in the decisions.
Trunecz: It has to be admitted I believe the workload has been a bit more than what we expected. It is a bit difficult to manage.
Géczi: Paperwork? Or what type of workload?
Trunecz: All of it, in general.
Kocs: Yeah, the paperwork is a little more, too. The SAC that we know today is completely different than it used to be before Covid, especially. There were three different positions: SAC, Peer Mentors, and Student Ambassadors.
Trunecz: But the borders between these were very vague, to put it mildly.
Kocs: Since the end of Covid, these emerged into one, which we know today as SAC. We have more responsibilities, not to mention the number of duties that we receive from the administration, specifically Henrietta, working with the study-abroad students. Next semester is going to be a little easier now that we know what to expect and how to handle things.
Trunecz: Given the fact that we are both graduating, as well as 2-3 other members of the SAC, it will be an interesting semester.
Géczi: How could you increase student involvement in activities/programs?
Trunecz: The best you can do is just do things; you know. If we start a tradition, for example, the art club that Alexa (Peer Mentor) started if you just give up because the first time around, two people showed up only, you’re not going to get far. Of course, advertising is very important, and we have some good communication people now who are doing a great job. Putting up posters in the classroom has proven effective.
Géczi: Which is better: social media advertising or posters?
Kocs: I think both are equally important, but with the posters, the good thing is that you instantly see them. What I would also add to Nicholas’ remark is approachability. SAC members should be approachable from the very beginning, so what we did was we were really approachable during the first weeks for Freshmen and study-abroad students. They obviously got to know us very well; we built trust with them. This way, they have more willingness to participate in the events. With the upper-class students, it’s the same; we are approachable whenever they have any questions.
Géczi: I think it comes down to the fact that you guys are very open, so people aren’t afraid to ask. Moving on, for the Spring 2025 semester, what are your main goals?
Trunecz: We haven’t looked too far into the future, however,of course, we ought to organize another event on the scale of the recent Thanksgiving Gala. We could organize more trips outside the campus, within Hungary, as well as outside. Perhaps going to Croatia, Italy, or somewhere in May.
Kocs: Also, for the smaller scale events, we’re definitely going to have Art & Wine Night and organize something for the International Day that has been a great tradition. We want to bring back a tradition, the seniors/graduates dinner. There is a little personal motivation behind it. It’s been a tradition that existed for many years; it’s important for the graduates.
Géczi: Is it hard to tackle being president as well as your final years of studies?
Trunecz: Not yet we’ll come back to that next semester.
Kocs: It can be sometimes stressful, but I like it. Especially orientation week, which is a lot of work. I remember one-day last year, we worked 16-18 hours straight. After you finish the event and you have this fantastic product that you’ve created, it feels great.
Géczi: Kristof, you have been to the American Campus, as far as I know, you (Nicholas) didn’t go, right?
Trunecz: No, well, while the original plan was to go in my junior year, which is now, but then I had a bunch of entanglements here like the SAC, and I decided to finish a year early, so that doesn’t work out.
Géczi: How was your (Kocs) experience there at Westminster?
Kocs: I really loved it, thank you for the question. I feel like if students have the opportunity and resources to travel there and study there, even if it’s just one semester or a year, they should definitely take this opportunity. That’s a different campus; it’s bigger, more professors, and it’s more American, to say the least. It’s located in a rural area. Ultimately, it’s a great way to extend your view and learn about things that you might not be able to learn here at the Budapest campus, though we still have a lot of visiting professors. We will have a visiting professor next semester, take that class!
Géczi: You both study political science, what aspects of politics or international relations are you interested in?
Trunecz: Currently, given that we are at an American College, US foreign policy, and also domestic politics, you might as well.
Kocs: Honestly, I’m also a little interested in US politics but more Central European politics. We are living in the heart of Europe since I grew up in Hungary, I’m interested in what will happen to this country. I’m going to do my thesis on nationalism in Central Europe.
Géczi: Lastly, what are your plans after graduating?
Trunecz: There are two institutions that are my top two: the School of International Studies in Vienna and the University of Lucerne in Switzerland. Now, the Vienna program is specifically tailored to train people for the foreign service, which would be excellent because that’s step three: joining the foreign service in Germany. In Lucerne, they have a political science master’s dual program together with the University of Carleton in Canada.
Kocs: Previously, I was also leaning towards going for a master’s, but now I’m more and more interested in starting to work instead. I’ve been looking into several job opportunities in multiple fields. The US embassy, I did an internship over there if they had an opportunity, I’d instantly take that also NGOs. Maybe later on, do a master’s.
Géczi: Thank you guys so much!
Kocs & Trunecz: Thank you!
Note: This interview was conducted in December 2024.
Photo by Anna Horváth
