Hi, my name is Sofia Xenia, I’m a Greek-Palestinian archaeological illustrator studying Digital Direction.
I grew up in tumultuous conditions, and my entire childhood was fractured due to cross cultural miscommunications. Clear communication and art-making have saved me, and I aim to facilitate clear communication between RCA and the entire student body to prevent fragmentationwithin the school, and for the sake of the well being of the individual students.
Having been part of the MA1 experience, and student rep of my program, I understand and have felt myself the confusion and frustration of the students around me towards the structure of RCA. In my view, the main issues are lack of clear communication in conjunction with a decreased study period. There is a sense of urgency to know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes as soon as possible and how those decisions will impact us as students. This environment following the covid period has caused us all to feel isolated, to turn inward instead of feeling safe to open up and share knowledge.
At 6 months in, I’m only just beginning to feel comfortable as a student here. Only now I am starting to feel my roots developing, and I feel many students are in the same position. Like bamboo, it takes time to develop and grow, and the challenge here at RCA going forward is lack of time.
As VP I aim to facilitate deep dialogue and cross cultural exchange through implementing safe environments. I suggest workshops on how to communally create external shows outside of RCA as a way to ground student’s RCA experience, to help them develop skills in the moment that they can trust will help them in the future. There also should be better marketing or informal alternatives to the EAP sessions, as many students either don’t feel comfortable going or don’t know about them.
I promise to lead by listening. I had taken this approach as team lead for my AcrossRCA group. We spent the beginning of our project unpacking each other’s thinking processing, and I let go of my personal practice to facilitate dialogue and production between my teammates. I promise to do the same for the incoming students. I know voting for me doesn’t impact you as a current body, but it would help future students, and that’s important.