Hello, Hola & Bonjour! My name is Hannah, I’m a final year Modern Languages undergrad and I would love to be your next VP Engagement for 2015-2016!
ENGAGEMENT ZONE COMMUNICATION
Being a languages student, I understand the importance of good, solid communication and this is a major area that I want to improve within SUSU.
STUDENT BODY-SUSU COMMUNICATION
COMMITTEE TRAINING
COMMUNITY: BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
RAG AND OTHER CHARITY SOCS:
ENTERPRISE:
STUDENT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ON CAMPUS:
RECOGNITION & PUBLICITY (BOTH GROUPS):
ENGAGEMENT WITHIN ENGAGEMENT:
As well as outside societies, I want to motivate societies under Engagement to engage with each other. Smaller charity societies such as Oxfam and RSPCA said they wanted more communication and to liaise more often with RAG. Here, there are several options that I would like to take forward with this:
WSA (WINCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARTS):
It’s sad to think that we have very little contact with students from WSA. I would like to see more being done to encourage Winchester students to get involved with SUSU and vice versa. My ideas include:
For an honest, caring and committed leader and teammate, vote “Hannah Time” for your VP Engagement! It is my goal to make sure our Student Union continues to represent the student voice!
For more information on my SUSU and uni work experience, check out the information below! Otherwise please feel free to use the Facebook page and Twitter accounts, as well as the hashtag below, to ask any questions! I love a good discussion of ideas and questions!
I look forward to meeting you in campaigning and remember:
Vote! “Hannah Time!”
My SUSU and university experience:
2011-2014: Course Rep for Modern Languages.
2012-2013:
2013-2015: Student Ambassador – my work also included: tours of Southampton and Winchester for visiting lecturers (my name having been recommended by department staff) and giving advice on the Year Abroad table.
2014-2015:
ENGAGEMENT ZONE COMMUNICATION
Being a languages student, I understand the importance of good, solid communication and this is a major area that I want to improve within SUSU.
- First and foremost, it is important that officers and student groups get to know each other from day one so that they can regularly collaborate throughout the year. Unfortunately, when I spoke to committee members from Engagement Zone groups such as Fish On Toast and UNICEF, they were unaware of which officers they should report to. I want to use my experience of leading a team (as Academic President for Modern Languages) to really overcome this issue. Whether a review, a meeting or even a social, I want my team to be in constant contact with each other and myself. I am Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, email, (you name it!) happy, so I will always be contactable one way or another.
- Likewise Southampton Hubs committee members said they wanted more collaboration from officers, so they would also know who to go to when necessary. Accordingly, I want to make sure students fully understand my role, their own and the roles of others in SUSU. For example, I want them to know who to go to for publicity, for fundraising, for risk assessments: for anything! And if students are still confused, I want them to feel comfortable and confident enough to contact me as a point of reference. To achieve this, I want to make sure I meet with the Society committees and Officers at the beginning of the academic year so that there is some initial contact. My aim would be to meet with Officers and two members maximum from each society every month. If necessary I will categorise this into RAG and social enterprise groups to keep discussions relevant to the individual groups and so all ideas are heard within the meeting timeframe. That way communication is maintained, and students can continue to work together with more ease. As for the rest of the student community, I would make sure I introduce the right people in my first email of the academic year so students can fall back on it if necessary. I will also make sure the SUSU page is properly updated in time for the new academic year as well.
- After speaking to committees that run the Engagement Zone groups such as UNICEF, Scouts & Guides and Fish On Toast, another area that I want to improve is the Risk Assessment process. I will make sure students are informed of this from the beginning of the year and I want to begin making the process of the Risk Assessment from committee to SUSU staff quicker. This way, students can get on with fundraising and events on time.
STUDENT BODY-SUSU COMMUNICATION
- I want to make sure that students can see what Sabbs are doing and the progress that is being made on issues that have been raised and projects they have committed to. While there has been improvement this year, I personally would like for students to hear about it more often. Personally I want to give students the opportunity to keep up with Sabbatical work every two to three weeks. My aim would be to reach out to as many students as possible via the SUSU blog and also video blogging. It’s interacting with a wider audience and tailoring to different student preferences. My aim would be to send out more regular emails as well, informing students of the amazing efforts put in by our societies and ways in which they can get involved. Again, this would also encourage student group engagement as I would ask for them to send me their progress. We have some really inspiring students and projects in our Student Union and I wholeheartedly believe that they should be given more recognition for it!
COMMITTEE TRAINING
- As an Academic President, I received two days of training before Freshers’ Week began. I would like something similar to happen for Engagement Zone Society committees. My goal would be to set out some basic suggestions for committee members to commit to such as: a President’s responsibility to represent his/her team and the Secretary to emails and media, etc. Which students can then build on if they wish; including some transferable skills information that students will benefit from taking up these roles! This way, not only is there less confusion about the basic responsibilities of a committee member’s role, but also it gives students valuable information they can put into their CVs when they graduate!
- Likewise, I want more regular, better-promoted workshops on social media usage and online presence. In a digital age when online image is crucial, I want students to understand the importance of the digital footprint, and help them to improve on it. Employers now run Internet searches for potential employees and my aim is for students to take full advantage of this to be better prepared. When I spoke to student committees such as the Rotaract Club and Oxfam Soc, they said they would be interested in attending social media workshops, as they understand it is important, but do not fully understand how to use it. Others stated that they would consider sending one or two members to them to then feedback to their committee.
COMMUNITY: BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
- There have been several articles recently in The Guardian and The Telegraph recently, which stated that Facebook is becoming the least popular social media site. So, my second aim would be to increase the societys’ presence on Twitter and Instagram, the new popular platforms with more social users, and better prospects, by Christmas next year. It allows a society to create, shape and forward their society in whichever way they want. Therefore it is important for students to recognise this! Whilst ‘Your Skills’ offer these workshops, I have only found out about them through my current work with SUSU in the Education Zone. So I want to see these workshops promoted more thoroughly via Twitter, Facebook and email, to reach more students. Digital Literacy skills are vital in today’s job market and it is a pity to think these resources go to waste from a lack of good communication.
- Unfortunately, being only semi-permanent residents in Southampton, the majority of Southampton’s students are never home over the holidays. I think there is a common belief that residents are not interested in getting to know us and vice versa. However, there are so many benefits to be had from getting to know your neighbours! Have you ever thought about it? After speaking to Resident Associations, I myself am super keen to get students more involved with them! To do this, I would like to keep up the lovely ideas that have already taken place. These include Tea Bag Door to Door (sharing a cup of tea with a neighbour), the Building Bridges Curry event and organising another street party for residents and students to come together again. Side note: the Mayor of Southampton saw the hashtag last year and came along!
- I would like to see more students involved in their community because it’s such a rewarding experience! Sadly we do not seem to hear enough of the good stuff when it comes to our locals. I would commit to these events on a more regular basis and promote them thoroughly. This would include: advertising community events on SUSU social media sites, emails and posters around the university. I’m talking about events such as working with local libraries, food banks and school groups. I believe these events could benefit from student media involvement too such as the SUSU newspapers Wessex Scene and The Edge as well as SUSUTv and Surge. I would love to involve locals and local projects in student life because they have so much to offer and it would be a good opportunity to hear encouragement from fresh voices! It would be a new area with a lot of potential, and I’m already in contact with Residents Associations locally and Southampton Communities to discuss the resident-student relationship. They have raised it in their own meetings and are very keen to get involved! Exciting news!
RAG AND OTHER CHARITY SOCS:
- As you may be aware, there are over 300 societies available for students to join in SUSU, ranging from Ballet to Debating and Anime & Manga to Quidditch. However it seems to be rare that any of these groups mix outside of their ‘categories’. So for example Athletic Union teams commit to mixed events, and likewise with Performing Arts. The RSPCA Society committee suggested the idea of sports teams and charity societies pairing up to organise fundraising socials together, an idea I am very keen to push forward. It encourages more student collaboration and more integration of the overall student community. After all, cliques should be left to the Mean Girls films, not in SUSU! There are over 30 societies in the Engagement Zone, and around half of them are charities, so I would definitely like to see more inter-society cohesion! I would talk this through with next year’s VP Sports Development in the summer to discuss ideas and a potential calendar/schedule, to give all societies a chance at it. It would be a good way for students from both societies to experience what the other has to offer! I want to encourage students to make the most of the opportunities available to them at the university, and this is a perfect example. It provides students with more skills to boast about too.
- I would love for students to know that any help, no matter how small, can make a big difference! I would work with RAG members to help promote volunteering opportunities and events. The feeling you get from knowing you helped someone is irreplaceable! I did my year abroad in South Brazil and dedicated time to handing out soup to the homeless one evening a week. You get to see and hear thought provoking stories, and I want to motivate more students to volunteer. There are many awards recognised by employers that aren’t shouted about enough! The VFifty Award for example, clock up to 50 hours of voluntary service (although you can progress on to more) and get awarded a certificate that is nationally recognised. You don’t have to complete it one place so students would have the freedom to move between volunteering opportunities. I completed mine in Sixth Form through a week of community project work abroad, House Captaincy in school and also helping out at a Brownie’s group as a young leader. I want to encourage students to try their hand at these types of projects too!
ENTERPRISE:
- Similarly, our Business and Enterprise student societies have a lot to offer, but one thing pointed out to me by a Fish On Toast committee member was that other societies with useful links and specialising in particular knowledge, do not meet together. So again, I would want to see this raised and developed. At the end of the day, both sides can benefit from the skills exchange and it makes communication easier. I propose to organise network meetings between various societies within and from outside the Engagement Zone (those who aren’t involved in the charity and enterprise societies). For newcomers, socials can be intimidating on your own, but a networking event ie. In Bar 3 of SUSU, is more intimate and casual, and an individual can either choose to converse or simply listen to others.
STUDENT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ON CAMPUS:
- I would like to follow the example of Students at the Market (a slot for students to set up their own stall at the Monday market on allotted dates) and continue to create opportunities for students to promote their own businesses. My aim would be to open up the SUSU entrance as a space too.
- Further projects that I think could be implemented would be to invite student journalists to previously mentioned networking events. I would also like to encourage the entrepreneurs to liaise with Surge radio for interviews too. Video blogging (vlogging) is something I would like to encourage them to do as well to show off their work (where appropriate).
- This would be a fantastic opportunity to expand on the Your Skills workshops, creating some entrepreneurial ones as well. For example: how to present your business to backers, along with the current transferable skills workshops.
RECOGNITION & PUBLICITY (BOTH GROUPS):
- Publicity and recognition of society efforts was a recurrent theme in my discussions with the committees. They said they would like to see more publication of their achievements – because let’s face it, they do some amazing things to better our world! I would be willing to publish this on social media and in my own email-newsletters, but I would like to push this further by encouraging networking with student media teams like the Wessex Scene and The Edge. Student newspaper articles are always trending on Facebook newsfeeds and Twitter feeds – where students spend most of their time – so it would be brilliant to strengthen relationships there. I would also be committed to accessing ad space on TVs around SUSU and the bars. The students are of course the whole reason for the SU’s existence, so why not show some collective spirit and shout about their efforts?
- I want to promote events such as The Big Give on campus better as well by producing fresh new ideas to grab student attention. I would like to see more visuals such as volunteers in fancy dress. But then I’d also like to give other societies the chance to get involved as well such as the Performing Arts on the concourse to draw people in.
- I would also love to trial the idea of a fancy dress day for the university, faculties or departments for charity. In school we would always give £1 on a mufti day (a day when you could wear your own clothes instead of uniform). So I believe it would be a great way for students to get more involved if they don’t want to commit to too much. It also gives other charity societies the chance to raise more funds.
ENGAGEMENT WITHIN ENGAGEMENT:
As well as outside societies, I want to motivate societies under Engagement to engage with each other. Smaller charity societies such as Oxfam and RSPCA said they wanted more communication and to liaise more often with RAG. Here, there are several options that I would like to take forward with this:
- 1. To commit to the meetings previously mentioned so that committee members and Engagement Zone Officers (such as the Community Volunteering, Student Enterprise and RAG Officers) get some form of contact with each other.
- 2. To create a Facebook group for Presidents and Vice Presidents of societies for quicker access to each other.
- 3. Joint Engagement Social Events. I would like to give students from Charity and Social Enterprise societies to host their own Winter and Summer Ball. An opportunity for them to come together and celebrate their hard work altogether! If these are successful, I would definitely help to organise others in between!
WSA (WINCHESTER SCHOOL OF ARTS):
It’s sad to think that we have very little contact with students from WSA. I would like to see more being done to encourage Winchester students to get involved with SUSU and vice versa. My ideas include:
- Taking Your Skills to WSA. I would like to trial Your Skills workshops with Winchester students so that they also have the opportunity to gain experience in social media and other transferable skills. I would like to think a student would be much more engaged if the workshop was taken to them. Plus what initiative do they have for trekking to Southampton for a one hour workshop?
- Social Media and Publicity: I want to see more advertising for WSA events in SUSU and likewise, I want to see more SUSU advertisement in WSA. We host so many events and have so many wonderful societies to get involved with that I would hate to see it go completely over WSA student’s heads. I would use posters, but then also make sure they have access to my newsletters. I would encourage them to send in their own society/departmental/personal project achievements so that they could also feature in the newsletter. I want to encourage more usage of the social media pages to shout more about what they do, what they achieve for others to see as well as to be informed of event dates. Southampton recently created an Instagram account and asked for students from WSA to add to it. While I agree it would be great to see more pictures from Winchester on Southampton pages, I would still like to see WSA being recognised on its own too. When in SUSU, yes it would be great to see some WSA involvement on these accounts, however I would love to see a much bigger increase in WSA recognition on social media sites as well by the end of next academic year.
- To host WSA events. We have so many spaces available to use such as Garden Court (in the old SU), the Cube, two sports halls and more! I would like for Winchester students to have the opportunity to share the work they do with Southampton-based students.
For an honest, caring and committed leader and teammate, vote “Hannah Time” for your VP Engagement! It is my goal to make sure our Student Union continues to represent the student voice!
For more information on my SUSU and uni work experience, check out the information below! Otherwise please feel free to use the Facebook page and Twitter accounts, as well as the hashtag below, to ask any questions! I love a good discussion of ideas and questions!
I look forward to meeting you in campaigning and remember:
Vote! “Hannah Time!”
My SUSU and university experience:
2011-2014: Course Rep for Modern Languages.
2012-2013:
- Social Sec for Spanish, Latin American and Portuguese Studies Society (SLAPS).
- Secretary for Street Dance Society.
2013-2015: Student Ambassador – my work also included: tours of Southampton and Winchester for visiting lecturers (my name having been recommended by department staff) and giving advice on the Year Abroad table.
2014-2015:
- Academic President for Modern Languages.
- Digital iChamp for Modern Languages.