Sydney was interested in doing something different at college. S/he wanted to make college a better place to be and get involved with all kinds of stuff including organising an end of year college ball, helping student opinions to be heard and liaising closely with the Principal, Bill, to ensure the Student Union helped improve the college experience for everybody.

Sydney wasn’t sure what s/he exactly wanted to do but s/he did know that s/he enjoy working with other students and representing her/his peers. She was also aware that s/he would be required to lead by example and set high standards to others while being encouraged to be completely creative and think of ideas that would really make a difference to college life – sometimes the wackier the better.

With this in mind Sydney looked at the positions available. As well as the Student Union President there were loads of different officer positions –

Positions and Responsibilities

President -  Liaise with Principal & SU legal documentation

Finance - Union budget & expenditure

Education -  Course concerns & representative system

Women’s -  Positive involvement & equal opps

Welfare -   Campaigns & service quality

Site -  Campus issues & cross college coordination

Activities -  Freshers’ fair & clubs & societies

Entertainment -  Entertainment programme & sales

Sydney still wasn’t sure if any of these were for her/him but that didn’t matter as the college really wanted students to create their own positions as well as filling the one’s advertised.

It was at this point that Sydney decided to register her/his interest in the Student Union. Not only would s/he be a part of something different in college s/he would really help improve either her/his CV or her/his Uni application as well as giving her/him valuable new skills in working with others, negotiation, communication and planning and organising.

Sydney registered her/his interest at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and told them what her/his interests were and what campus/he studied at. Somebody from student Services then contacted Sydney to discuss what would happen next.

After half term 2 weeks were given for each interested party to canvass the students at their campus as to why they should be elected into the position they desired. The college were really good with this and offered as much or as little support as Sydney wanted.

On the third week back elections were held and people voted for the students they felt would best suit each position. Sydney was delighted as s/he had been elected as the Welfare Officer which was exactly what s/he wanted. However, Sydney knew that if s/he wasn’t elected the college would have still found a place for her/him in the SU as any interested student would always be guaranteed some role and input.

Once the elected committee were in place the college organised an away day where all of the committee members from all the different campuses got the opportunity to meet and work together. The college booked an outside venue in Ashford, something like the Ramada Jarvis, (and provided transport) to host workshops in the morning. These workshops consisted of all of the same officers from different campuses working together to decide on how they wanted to take their role forward within the Union followed by everybody from the same campus then working with each other. After lunch everybody then jumped on a coach and went paintballing, Zorbing, go karting or something like that, I can’t quite remember.

Over the coming year Sydney and her/his peers worked closely with one another on various projects across college and organised charity events, volunteering opportunities, campaigns, Learner Voice and entertainment activities like trips to Thorpe Park, an end of year ball and much more……………..

Could you be Sydney??? Do you want to get involved with the SU? ….. Here’s the email address again - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Remember to tell us what your interests are and what campus you are from!