Meet the Cumulus Student Ambassadors

With a view to generating innovative musical and sound projects, he has entered the world of programming. In addition, he has participated in cultural projects to vindicate independent art in cities like Loja, Saraguro, Otavalo, and Guayaquil. He represents the University of Arts as Ambassador for the Cumulus Guayaquil 2021 Conference and at the network conference in Russia in June 2022.

She has collaborated with local NGOs for the development of political, cultural, and artistic projects for women and the LGBTQ community. Jamely also gives virtual workshops on decolonial studies and class, gender, and race critical theory (2020-nowadays). She translates texts and gives translation workshops for the AWTC (Academic Writing and Translation Center) in collaboration with the International Relationships Department at the University of Arts. She represents the University of Arts as Ambassador for the Cumulus Guayaquil 2021 Conference and at the network conference in Russia in June 2022.

Read more about Camilla’s rich background and her volunteering as a designer in Poliferie, a national no-profit organization aiming at cultivating and supporting neglected potential of young people living in suburban areas, in her Linkedin profile and stay tuned for more about Camilla’s contribution to the Cumulus Guayaquil November 2021 conference.

“Being a Student Ambassador in the challenging times of Covid is a unique experience I am grateful for. Taking part in the Cumulus Roma 2021 – Design Culture(s), the first virtual/hybrid Cumulus conference, has been a great opportunity to witness the terrific dedication of this incredible worldwide community, driven by passion for innovation in Arts and Design, always willing to share the most inspiring contributions and offering glimpses of the future in an inexhaustible exchange of knowledge across generations. A precious testimony of resilience, commitment and growth through times of uncertainty.”

Dimitri also works as a tutor for exams and theses of the Faculty of Architecture and participates in various competitions. Read more about his background in his Linkedin profile. 

“Taking part in the organization of the Design Culture (s) – Cumulus Roma 2021 conference as content manager was a truly rewarding as well as formative experience. The passion for design and the inexhaustible interest in travel and the discovery of new cultures find concreteness in this recognition which is based precisely on the admixture of different voices and knowledge.  In a world in constant evolution, being able to listen to the ideas and points of view of designers from all over the world will always be a reason for growth and being able to actively contribute to the formation of this reality will be a source of pride.”

Interested in student empowerment and a co-founder of the feminist architecture collective Las Arquitercas, Valeria activates intersectional and interdisciplinary conversations in student communities, aiming at a more contextualized decolonial-thinking education in Latin-American. Read more about Valeria in her Linkedin profile.

Universidad de los Andes, organizer of the Cumulus Bogotá conference: (October 30 – November 1, 2019) chose Felipe as one of three student ambassadors to represent their home institution and participate in the Sapienza’s Design Culture (s).

Juliana was also selected as a student ambassador by her home institution Universidad de los Andes for The Design After and the Design Culture (s) conferences. At the time of the award, she was a student of the design program with minors in Management, Visual Computing and French Language and Culture.

At the time of the award, Matilda was a bachelor level student of Industrial Design pursuing a minor in Creative technologies with a strong background in UX-design research for her university and active in student co-curricular initiatives. Learn more about Matilda here.

Lauri has a background in sales & is a board member & responsible of finance in University of Lapland art student union TAO ry. In addition, he has been a tutor & a volunteer in many events. Lauri is familiar with multiple 3D-modeling programs such as Rhinoceros & SolidWorks as well as with various Adobe programs. His main interests & skills are however in programming, ice- & furniture design. Lauri has co-authored two conference papers. With one, the team received the Best Demo award at the Eighth ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays (PerDis).

Also selected to be an ambassador for the Around the Campfire and Design After conferences, Lauri was pursuing his BA in Industrial Design with a minor in Creative technologies at the time of the award. Lauri was also a research assistant in the University of Lapland DecoChrom project in the field of interaction design, technology and prototyping with interests in programming, and furniture design. Learn more about Lauri here and watch his testimonial in the Cumulus 30th Anniversary member film.

An excerpt from his experience in Paris:

“Designing together is a challenging topic as it involves collaborative experiences, co-working, sharing knowledge and changing the world. In the context of the Cumulus conference, an international cross-disciplinary workshop intended for students from the member institutions of the Cumulus organization and French students from the four schools was organized at Beaubourg museum. The workshop was later presented during the conference. This was the perfect example of how fruitful designing together can be. The round tables and conferences dealt with cross-disciplinarity, the transmission of knowledge and traditional know-how, citizenship and sustainable development. At Ensaama, the international design competition Dream 2074: a utopia for French luxury was launched. During the conference, we also had the opportunity to meet the student ambassadors from India and thus get prepared to be ambassadors ourselves.”

Excerpt from her experience as a student ambassador:

“Even if Cumulus in Paris was already a great experience, I didn’t truly understand how ambitious this association was before living it in Wuxi. Cumulus is an association that manages to bring the voices of amazing people from around the world, it allows them to connect through art-related workshops, conferences, exhibitions and talking sessions… It was a pure joy to see the Jiangnan students so involved in the Cumulus event. We had the opportunity to discuss, debate and question the importance of design and the transformation of our environments. At first, I must confess that the communication between us (four French Ambassadors) and the Chinese students was a bit difficult, mainly because of the language barrier. But in the end we managed to create deep bonds and to understand each other, and I hope it was as rewarding for them as it was for me to be part of this adventure.”

He worked on the student exhibition presented during the conference. He brought to his role his expertise in special effect garment design and event management.

Excerpt from his reflection attending the Wuxi conference: 

“I was particularly surprised by the quality and the precision of the models put forward. It is in China that I understood the second goal of the Cumulus conferences, it was to show the strengths of the organizing country in order to make it shine. While China surprised me by its pre-industrialization capabilities and the ease students had in working with companies. It gave me a chance to think about what France could bring. It seems to me that we have creativity and craftsmanship, one that is constantly developing thanks to the new materials that we create and develop. For this I find the Cumulus conferences enriching not only by their conferences but also by the way that the event allows one to discover the culture and how the new generation re appropriated it.”

At the time of the award, Maylis was a fresh graduate of École Boulle holding a master’s degree in Event Design. She called herself a social link designer with interests in environmental and educational issues as well as in cultural exchanges. Learn more about Maylis and her work now via her Linkedin profile here.

Excerpt from her testimonial on the Cumulus Paris conference:

 “It with great joy we welcomed teachers and professionals from around the world to our schools (Boulle, Duperré, Ensamaa, Estienne) to talk about design and creation in the context of the Cumulus Conference. Our schools were transformed during a few days into a laboratory of reflection: to question the transformation of our environments and the interdisciplinarity of our four schools, shared with those of our guests. How can we think, build, innovate together? The round tables were very relevant on the issues of the designer’s role in the face of the citizenship in tension, the conditions necessary to ensure interdisciplinarity or the transmission of knowledge, French luxury.”

Excerpts from her experience in Wuxi:

“This trip enlightened me and transformed me. I am a service designer specializing in ethical and social projects. I am also sensitive to cultural exchanges. Meeting people around the world to discuss new design opportunities has been an incredible opportunity. The forum was a time of definition : what are the new roles of designers? Where are we going? How do we create new design processes in a 3.0 world?The conference exposed innovative processes in industry, service design, and the ways in which design benefits an evolving system. The examples evoked local and global issues, because today, the power of technology has given rise to interdependent citizens of the world. It was very interesting to see projects specific to Eastern China concerning Healthcare, the massive use of digital, or urban agriculture. The opportunity to discover another culture of design once back in France, question our own design practices, our own creative process, our local issues was consequential. This is an invitation to travel and meet to take a step back on our practices, then improve our local needs through design.”

“For me, it is a matter of pride for my school to be able to hold an international conference, and I am even more proud to be involved as a volunteer. We welcomed scholars and researchers from all over the world. They speak for design in a new cultural environment, allow people to understand the global dynamics of design, see different design practices, and hear different voices… Thanks to Cumulus for calling the world’s most outstanding designers together, bringing new thinking to them and promoting the development of Chinese design.”

Excerpt from Jessy’s experience in the Cumulus Wuxi conference:

“This Cumulus conference is the stage for international art design and media college thinkers, providing a new vision and inspiration for the development of global art design disciplines and talent cultivation. 2018 also marks the 60th anniversary of Jiangnan University. This conference was an opportunity to further promote  the international development of the design discipline of Jiangnan University.”

Philip has a rich experience in photography, motion design and film and is the founder of KidUp, a startup focused on the sharing economy. Learn more about Philip today via his Linkedin profile here.

Camilla also brought to her role her experience as an innovator for 6000 plants – an urban garden community in Kolding helping citizens to make green choices locally. Learn more about her work today in her Linkedin profile here.

Saili brought her communication design expertise and personal interests in fashion blogging, fashion and styling and storytelling to her role.  Learn more about her today in this Linkedin profile here.

Excerpt from her experience attending the Paris conference:

“Enthralling, engaging and absolutely exhilarating might just be an understatement for three days of a power pact design conference. Ecole Boulle, Estienne, Duperee and Ensaama hosted The International Cumulus Conference, Paris 2018 bringing together designers, artists, thinkers, teachers and learners from across the globe. Together, To get there, the theme of the conference truly spoke about how design is a collaborative process and only when we work together and for one another will we be able to move a step forward in the world of design.”

With interests in copywriting as well as in brand, strategy and packaging design, Nitish had taken part in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record for the Largest Dice Mosaic – an artwork for the Kempegowda International Airport. Learn more about Nitish’s profile today here. 

Excerpts from Nitish’s experience as part of the Srishti conference:

“The Bangalore conference started on a high note with a brilliant opening ceremony from our college students and outside performers. The inaugural keynote address by Shabnam Virmani spoke on the theme of ‘Timelessness’. She, along with an eminent panel of art philosophers kick started the conference with a discourse on time perceptions and its impact on our activities. The discussion was quite an enlightening and soothing experience to an otherwise speculatory and consuming exercise as an exercise on talking about “future” could be…. In the end I wasn’t entirely prepared to consume and make sense of all that valuable knowledge that was directed at me.But I do feel a bit alleviated, if not enlightened, that there does exist a future, a green one – a safe one – that we can strive for, in collaboration, because there are people who pursue similar aims and in unity we can find some might.”

At the time of the award, Jennifer was majoring in Jewellery and Image Product Design. Jennifer is passionate about drawing, handicraft and photography.

Learn about Luca’s work today via his Linkedin profile here.

An excerpt from Luca’s reflection:

“Throughout the conference, listening to the voices of the speakers invited to take the stage, reminded us of the growing power of design as a powerful tool to fuel innovation, which engages more and more people aimed at establishing new revolutionary practices.”

Learn more about Matteo today via his Linkedin profile here.

An excerpt from Matteo’s reflection:

“I can’t recall precisely who was the man who wrote the words “the world is a book, and those who don’t travel only read one page”. Well, if this was true, then that means the three of us added an amazing chapter to our life-books.”

At the time of the award, Vanessa was pursuing a masters in Product Design for Innovation. For the Cumulus conference, Vanessa served as the general manager assistant. Learn more about Vanessa’s academic trajectory today through her Linkedin profile here; and watch her contribution in the Cumulus 30th Anniversary member film!

Excerpt from Vanessa’s reflection of the experience:

“It’s a little strange to be a part of the management team of a conference since you would only see the backstage. So, I was really excited to experience a Cumulus Conference from the participant’s point of view, yet knowing how the big machine worked. As Cumulus Ambassadors, Matteo, Luca and I were invited to take part in one of the students’ workshops that took place the day before the official beginning of Cumulus Mumbai 2015. The workshop we’ve selected was called “Urban Sustainability-Common Ground” and was tutored by prof. Massimo Santanicchia from Iceland and Chadni Rajendran (non era Sandeep Bomble) from India. The aim of the workshop was to understand the UN Habitat statement about what it means to achieve urban sustainability.”

 At the time of the award, Kanika was completing her masters’ degree in Visual Communication. Learn more about Kanika today in her Linkedin profile here.  

From Kanika’s reflection on attending Cumulus Nottingham:

“I cannot express in words the thrill of travelling to another country and being exposed to a whole new culture & people. Not only was the conference something to look forward to, even the experience of being in Nottingham was amazing. We attended the X Files Working group on day one, which gave us the opportunity to meet policy makers from all over the world. It really is immensely overwhelming to be able to sit in a room full of people who are making such a large scale difference in the world.”

At the time of the award, Sitara was pursuing a masters’ degree in Interaction Design. Learn more about Sitara today in her profile here.

Excerpt from Sitara’s reflection of her student ambassador experience:

“My journey with Cumulus began first in 2015 as a volunteer for the event held in Mumbai that taught me how to function in pressure, overlook all the other activities as an overall coordinator as well as gave me a sense of responsibility. My next experience with Cumulus was in the year 2016 again! But this time as an ambassador from India! My experience with Cumulus 2016 – ‘In this Place’, Nottingham was delightful! As an ambassador, my role was to spread awareness about the event, get people to participate in it and also provide fresh ideas to get people to relate with the theme. ‘In this place’ is all about memories, time, experiences, places, But all of this doesn’t exist without people. People + Space makes it a place. So I decided to ask people all around Nottingham about their favourite place and their connection with it. I took my camera and for the next couple of days documented how they would feel if they suddenly lost their favourite place. What we received from them was very beautiful! People showed all kinds of emotions – joy, irritation, sadness, indifference.”