Hi, my name is Vincent and I am the Career Commissioner of the SCOPE Maastricht Board 2025/26. I'm 22 years old and studying Economics and Business Economics, Emerging Markets, currently between my second and third year.
My SCOPE journey started somewhat unexpectedly. After quitting Saurus, the Dutch rowing association, I found myself honestly pretty lonely in Maastricht and looking for new friends. I applied for SCOPE, got a spot as external relations manager in the International Economic Orientation committee, and started forcing myself to go to Preuv every week. In the beginning it felt awkward, I didn't really know anyone yet and would often leave early, but over time that changed. I started having fun, people were happy to include me, and before long I had made real friends.
Then came Frankfurt. The Banking Tour was my first trip as a participant and it completely hooked me. I went in thinking I wanted to do investment banking, came back knowing the lifestyle wasn't for me, but also having made some of my closest friends. After that I was all in. I went on trip after trip, had a blast, and slowly got to know more and more people in SCOPE, including the board.
Somewhere along the way I ended up on their radar. I got pitched on joining the board for the first time in a sauna on the ski trip, which I still find funny. I dismissed it then, I didn't want to "waste a year." But the idea stuck. A few months later my predecessor Benedict pulled me aside while I was studying and asked me to just give it a shot. I said maybe, but I think we both knew the decision was already made.
When I got offered the role I called my parents expecting them to tell me to just do an internship instead. Why give up a year for this? But they were immediately enthusiastic. They thought what SCOPE did was genuinely impressive and that this was a real opportunity. I hadn't expected that at all, and it gave me the confidence to say yes.
I started almost immediately, transitioning from my predecessors Ben and John, and quickly realized both how challenging and how rare this opportunity was. Where else, at 21, do you get handed the reins of a medium-sized organization and put in charge of over a hundred people? It has made me more patient, more empathetic, and honestly just better at dealing with people than I ever expected to become this fast.
The work is endlessly varied. One day I'm dealing with legal questions, the next I'm working on a website, running participant selection, or hosting info sessions for new members. I negotiate with investment bankers and partners at the Big 4, maintain ongoing relationships with university stakeholders, and work across eleven committees with around 55 active members. Together we organize events like the Maastricht Business Days and trips to London, Frankfurt, Munich, Budapest, Düsseldorf, Dublin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Luxembourg, and Stuttgart.
But what really makes it worth it is harder to put into words. It's watching your committees go on their trips and seeing the joy on their faces, the group photos, the messages afterwards. It's knowing that you helped make that happen. It's having fun in the office every single day with people who become friends for life. It's realizing that you're in a position to enable an enormous amount of fun and human connection for the people around you, and that that actually matters. And then there are moments like sitting across from a partner at a firm in Stockholm and having a real conversation with him about managing people and the challenges that come with it, because you're both living it. Isn't that really cool? At 22?
I don't regret this for a single second. I'm incredibly proud to be a board member of SCOPE Maastricht, and looking back, I would have joined way earlier if I could. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I mean that genuinely.
If you're reading this and feeling something like what I felt, interested but not sure if it's worth a year, don't be too quick to dismiss it. I almost did, twice. This role will push you in ways that are hard to find anywhere else as a student, and if you're still on the fence, just reach out. I'm happy to tell you what I wish someone had told me.
Get in touch at career@scope-maastricht.nl, I'd love to grab a coffee.
Vincent Christian Rengier
Career & Social Commissioner
SCOPE Maastricht Board 2025/26