Tᴀᴍ
24th board of Study Association T.W.I.S.T., 2025-2026
Léah Gex-Collet (she/her)
Chairperson
Hello! My name is Léah, and I will be the Chair of T.W.I.S.T. this year! I’m a 3rd year Descriptive Linguistics student. Linguistically I’m into Sino-Tibetan languages, but I also love Celtic languages, North American languages, South East Asian languages and plenty more. So I’m a bit all over the place. Apart from linguistics, I enjoy video games, medieval history, conlanging, and worldbuilding; I also love utaite and vocaloid. I speak English, German, Dutch, Wallisertiitsch, and Baseldytsch. I’m currently learning Tibetan and have been passively learning Japanese for a few years. I’m Swiss, but lived my whole life in the Netherlands, with an English-speaking education.
Sjors Neijens (he/him)
Secretary
Hiiii! My name is Sjors, and I’ll be your humble secretary this year. That means I’ll handle member registration, administration, the website, the maandmail (together with Ossy), I minute GAs and board meetings, and a whole bunch more stuff randomly assorted stuff. I’m a fourth year student, this year doing only my thesis and a minor (Dutch Sign Language) at the University of Amsterdam. I’m a Descriptive Linguistics student (and formerly Comparative, but I’ve mended my ways), and I’ve taught Speech Sounds of the World for the past few years. I sing at Collegium Musicum (tenor 2) and I was also part of the band for the musical last year (clarinets represent!!!). Talk to me about articulatory phonetics, Polish, Bantu languages, signed languages (woop woop), geography, worldbuilding…
Klára Vydrová (she/her)
Treasurer
Hi everyone, I’m Klára! This year I am the T.W.I.S.T.’s treasurer (and the first female treasurer after 7 years, go feminism!), which means that I take care of the money. This include making budgets, reimbursing y’all when you buy something for T.W.I.S.T., keeping an eye on all our recepits and invoices, making payments etc.
I’m in my 4th year of Comparative Indo-European and I’m interested in Slavic languages. I like mountains, animals, books, hiking, travelling, and lot of other stuff as well… Did you know mountains? They are awesome!
Ossian Horváth (they/them)
Assessor internal
Hi! I’m Ossian Horváth- but just call me Ossy. I’m a 3rd year descriptive linguistics student. I’m quite an eclectic individual with a bunch of different interests; entomology, etymology, molecular gastronomy, theology, philosophy… and a whole lot more! I’ll be your assessor internal this year, meaning it will be my job to pick dates for events that do not clash with each other, be the main writer of the maandmail, and manage our social media!
Vera Scheffer (she/her)
Assessor external
Hey there! I’m Vera, a third year Descriptive student and T.W.I.S.T.’s new Assessor External. My job is to communicate with other associations and organisations and hopefully we’ll have some fun collaborations this year! In my free time I love to travel, dance (ballroom and latin), be creative and just try out new stuff. I lived in different countries and speak (used to be able to speak, now often limited to reading) several languages, so if anyone wants to talk about culture or language confusion, let me know. I’m half German (and half Dutch) and grew up in Germany, so if anyone wants to practice their German I’m in (I also need it).
What does each role mean?
CHAIRPERSON
The chair of the association leads the board. This means that they lead the board meetings and GA’s (General Assembly). To lead such a meeting, they have to make the agenda first. The agenda holds all important points to talk about, for example committees, future activities, or other things that are going really well or the opposite.
The chair also participates in external meetings, like de VerO (verenigingen overleg/associations meeting), KleVer (kleine verenigingen/small associations meeting) and the StOP (Studievereniging Overleg Platform/Study Association Deliberation Platform). Besides these activities, the chair is in several committees and attends as many events as possible.
SECRETARY
The secretary is the writer of the association. Writer, you may ask? The secretary writes the minutes during board meetings and GA’s. Almost everything is written down by them: important points explained, and sometimes even comments from other people. Besides writing the minutes, the secretary is also responsible for answering emails that are sent to them and also for writing the monthly newsletters (in our case, this responsibility is shared with the assessor internal). Same as the chairperson, this person is in several committees, tries to attend external meetings as well and of course our own events. Additionally, they are in charge of the website.
TREASURER
The treasurer of the association is responsible for the money. They keep track of the association’s bank account, make up the budget for the school year and also the budget for all committees. If anyone has a question about money, for example for paying for activities organized by one of our many committees, they can go to the treasurer. But the board nor a committee can not just spend money on everything. The treasurer keeps the receipts for everything that is spent.
Same as the chair and secretary, the treasurer tries to attend as many of our own events as possible and is in several committees.
ASSESSOR
In our board, there are two assessors: an assessor internal communications and assessor external communications They all do different things within the association, but work together closely. It is therefore important to communicate well in order for things to happen.
Assessor internal communications
Our assessor internal communications is responsible for, as the name says, communication within the association. This means being responsible for promotion and making the monthly programmes. Additionaly, this assessor contacts some entities within the university structures. This assessor is also in several committees and works on the maandmail together with the secretary.
Assessor external communications
Our assessor external communications is responsible for communication outside of our association. This can be getting into contact with other study or student associations, as well as our partners. This person is like the other board members in several committees. They also organize the LANGU day.