One year

So here I am 364 days later and I’m about to finish one challenge and start a new one. Tomorrow I am President of the University of Salford Students' Union and I’m excited, really excited, and ready for the fantastic challenges that lie ahead.

It’s my last day as Vice President Support & Diversity (or more traditionally known as VP Welfare) and it’s been a truly amazing experience. Looking after 20,000 student’s welfare has been a challenge but it has made me realise many of the challenges some other students face and it's something that will stick by me for the next year.

I’ve also had the privilege of working with a fantastically kind and passionate president in Usman Ali this year and being his successor is a wonderful challenge in itself. Also all the team at different points throughout the year have delivered on projects and that is something they should be immensely proud of.

Personally I have been delighted with the challenges that I as a part of a bigger ‘we’ have met. When I say ‘we’ I’m not just talking about sabbatical officers, or Union or University staff but every other student who took part in even one of these things. The ‘Are you afraid of the Dark?’ Torchlit March, ‘Save our Pav’ campaign, Staff Cuts protests, the 24/7 library, taking part by voting/standing in the elections, the individual students who desperately needed are help and it worked, the first AGM in years, ‘You Decide’ where students had the opportunity to tell (and mandate) sabbatical officers as to what they needed to do, that bungee jump, the Community Reps project where we were quick to engage with the local community made up of students and non-students, events for mature, international, part-time and postgraduate students, the Activities Collective, the much more vibrantly designed Student Direct, working with other Students' Unions on big projects, the list goes on and on…

We now have amongst the many challenges and opportunities for the next year the pioneering of the first big change in sixty years for Students' Unions nationally with the move to faculty Vice-President’s rather than portfolio roles.

There’s plenty more I could write but I have a feeling it will be more appropriate after my second and final year in the job (sabbatical officers may only serve two years under Government regulations.) I believe I’ve learnt a lot this year but in one year’s time I would hope there will be a great deal more that the Students' Union and I will have learnt, delivered on and improved and that every single person at the University has had a part to play in that process.