Are you considering a board year at the SSU Foundation? Below, you can find more information about the five different board functions. You can also take a look at the frequently asked questions and why do a board year pages!
The applications wil open May 1st 2026 and close May 14th 2026.
APPLYING: send your resume, motivation, and top 3 functions you would like to do.
Chair person
The role of the chair person within the SSU Board can be hard to grasp. The ultimate responsibility for the association and course of the annual programme lies within your hands. However, the following points outline the key responsibility of the chair person.
- Visualise, track and steer the association to the right course of action. In practice this means that you prepare and host the board meetings, you represent the board and/or function as the first point of call to external parties, and you maintain the relationships with supporting parties.
- Enable your fellow board members to reach their professional potential, and to ensure mutual effectiveness during the year. You keep track of your fellow board members’ responsibilities, performance, well-being and motivations.
- You need to be a supportive, respected and reliable leader for your fellow board members, program participants, and external parties.
If you have any questions, please mail board@ssufoundation.nl
Secretary
As Secretary of the SSU Board, your main tasks are:
- Keeping minutes during the weekly central meetings;
- Making sure all emails are answered as soon as possible and to keep a clear overview of the planning together with the chair person and treasurer. You are also the first line of communication to which people reach out to if they have questions, suggestions or other remarks;
- Promote the program via social media and other channels. This is particularly important during application periods (both for incoming participants and boards), but it is important to maintain an online presence throughout the entire year.
If you have any questions, please mail board@ssufoundation.nl
Treasurer
The Treasurer of the SSU Board is, together with the other members of the executive board, responsible for the daily tasks. All money-related issues first pass you, before they are confirmed. Your primary tasks involve:
- Creating the budget. This requires you to be structured and systematic, as you must be able to adapt quickly to sudden changes in the budget during the year.
- Writing the invoices for the partner companies.
- Buying the flight tickets for the study tour.
- Applying for funds and loans. These are investments and applications that sometimes involve thousands of euros.
If you have any questions, please mail board@ssufoundation.nl
External Relations
As External Relations you are responsible for the collaborations with diverse organisations in the Netherlands. The main responsibilities of the external include:
- The acquisition of new partners and maintaining relations with previous partners. During acquisition meetings you will learn how the real business world works: how do you negotiate with the Head Officer of a large corporation? And, how do you sell the strengths of the participants? Next to this, you will visit various companies, from multinationals to start-ups that will help you extend your network. This task develops skills such as networking, drawing up contracts, mailing and managing multiple case teams.
- Developing, in conversation with partners, interesting and engaging case studies for participants.
- Planning the execution of the case studies – dividing the participants over the cases, following up with participants and partners, resolving problems.
- Organise the final Partners & Pitches event.
If you have any questions, please mail external@ssufoundation.nl
Foreign Relations
Foreigns are tour guides meet networkers. They are mainly responsible for the tour part of the programme and although the full board helps, checks and decides on the contents of the tour, it is mainly their task to arrange interesting company visits and fun cultural activities. The following points highlight some of the key functions of this position:
- Networking. This means sending out a lot of emails and doing a lot of networking with teachers, alumni and anyone who might have interesting leads for the tour schedule.
- Plan the entirety of the study tour. You will fly out a week before the study tour starts to visit all companies, check all routes—generally, to make sure everything will run smoothly when the participants arrive.
If you have any questions, please mail foreign@ssufoundation.nl