I first thought about becoming a Students’ Union president in early 2022, before I had even moved to the UK, after watching one of the presidents speak at a graduation ceremony. Students later elected me, and I served until 18 June 2024, looking after sports, societies, volunteering and student futures.
I wanted students to see what societies get up to and find some to join. On 5 February 2024, more than 30 of them took over every room in Student Central, and many saw their membership jump.
I restarted the International Student and Black Asian Minority support networks for two months, then handed them to the President of Inclusivity and Diversity. Over 30 students came to the first meeting and over 70 to the second, which filled the room.
Plenty of students needed part-time work, so I ran an Employability Workshop with the President of Education and the Careers team. 55 students came, and they found jobs through Handshake, Student Circus and referrals.
Varsity 2024 was the one I’m proudest of. I was the face of it, and over 1,200 students from Hull and Lincoln came to the event, which was held in Hull.
The Union holds its Sports Awards every year, and organising them was part of my job. It’s a night to thank the clubs for a year of hard work, with trophies for the best teams and individual awards for people who went above and beyond. I handed out a lot of them, including the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup for Best Performance in a Mixed Sport.
I also organised Societies Day Out, three days when societies and sports clubs showed what they do and signed up new members. And I organised the 100 Days in Olympics.
The other Union presidents and I paid a courtesy visit to the Lord Mayor of Hull. We told him how we represent students, what we do for the city, and what we wanted to get done before our terms ended.
I was a trustee of the Union and sat on the University’s Investment and Finance Committee, the Sanctuary Network and the Student Misconduct Committee. On the finance committee I argued for lower tuition deposits and fees for international students, because exchange rates in their home countries made payments very hard. The presidents also met the Vice-Chancellor, David Petley, every month to go through how we were getting on.
On my last day I was made an Honorary Member of HUSU.
