Vice – Presidents; Ashley Holland, Emma Simeng Zhou, Tom Hope and Jaime-Lee Cunningham, and President Bal Deol begin their year as Student Officers, representing you, on July 1st.
The Leadership Race campaigning process enabled the team to not only learn more about each other’s manifestos, but about each other too. Soon to be Vice-President Ashley Holland said, “we made a great friendship from campaigning together, and the friendship we brought from the campaign was much greater than the actual campaigning.”
Ashley adds “It was great to meet all of the people out there, hearing everyone’s problems. In that manner, it helped you grow.” He says that throughout the process the candidates had a valuable opportunity to interact one on one with students from all areas of the University from both campuses, allowing them to hear the concerns of the students one to one.
The three days of campaigning were demanding and challenging for the candidates, but together they accomplished their goals, Ashley said “once you started, you were so energised, then everyone hit their low. It was hard and it was long, but you managed to get on, our friendship together helped us to keep going.”
Vice-president for 2015/16 Jaime-Lee Cunningham expresses how the process helped her; “from the first day of campaigning, I did a lecture shout, so I spoke to everybody and I did one on the last day as well and the difference in my confidence as amazing.”
The group are currently in training for their new roles and are even training themselves in the manner that they have ensured their communication with each other has started early, “as soon as we got elected, we made a Facebook group message for all of us and all talked and learned about each other and how we’re going to work together.” Says Ashley.
The job itself is certainly nerve-racking for each of the new team. President-elect Bal Deol states: “my main worry is just trying to fill the shoes of the current team. They’ve done so much, like the library opening 24.7”.
Re-elected vice-president Tom Hope’s biggest concern is the move of Stafford students over to the Stoke campus in 2016; “It’s been so quiet there (Stafford) since engineering moved over. When I started my first year, to see what it’s like now, it’s just scary how it’s changed. But it’s going to be all about making the student experience right for them during the move”.
There are big plans being discussed for their year in office, with improving communication between faculties and enabling a smooth transition from Stafford to Stoke at the centre. Speaking of what she is most looking forward to, Bal states “I’m excited to get to know each other, and working together as a team and as friends to improve things”.
Emma Simeng Zhou is particularly enthusiastic about the chance to make extensive developments in communication when in her new role; “I’m excited about the relationships we can develop with each faculty, so we’re going to build that up and work on how to develop the relationship from the Students’ Union with the faculties”.
You can all be sure that the new Student Officers will be making a positive impact on the students of Staffordshire University like those before them.