Greetings all welcome to my blog! This is my first one so I’d like to thank you for coming along

Introduction to the departments I work in

As VP Student experience I work across a range of different departments from the blades to rebel media. As a result of this I have made sure to have meetings with senior members of each department to familiarize myself with them and to see how I can assist them in my role. These meetings have been very productive and I have even agreed to work in the activities office for one day a week so I can be closer to the departments and people I work with.

Content filming

Throughout the summer period I have also been apart of a range of different videos and content for freshers and returning students to help them feel more comfortable for the start of term these have had a very positive response on the social media pages which has been very heartwarming to see and has got me very excited for the start of the term to read. These blogs will basically be a review of what I have done in my role as a sabb throughout the year. Do make sure to ask me questions if you feel you want to know more because I haven’t gone into too much detail or for any other enquiries – vpexperience@essex.ac.uk

Highlights

Here I will cover the main things I have been doing since I started in July:

• A range of different training activities
• Activities that encouraged bonding with the rest of the sabb team and other members of the SU
• Big Plan Presentation
• The Southern Union conference
• Introduction to the committees that I sit on
• Introductions to the different departments I’ll work with specifically.
• Filming content for freshers on the SU social media pages

Training

The whole of July consisted of a whole load of training sessions from public speaking training to mental health first aid training. All these sessions were very helpful in assisting with skills that will be needed in my role throughout the year as a sabbatical officer

Getting to know the team

Bonding with the team this year has been so easy as there are such a range of great characters. We decided early on to meet every Monday as sabbs in a chilled environment to discuss how we’re feeling and if we have any concerns and this has been extremely helpful in getting to know the team. We have also had introductions to all the various SU departments early on whereby everyone was very welcoming which has been very heart warming.

Big plan

In early July we worked as a collective to go through information gathered on what students felt were the biggest problems faced as an Essex university student. With all the information gathered we outlined 4 main topics to cover for this years big plan

We had a few days to prepare to present to some of the senior university staff members on the Colchester and Southend campuses. Both presentations went very well and were very well received. This was the first time I had presented anything properly so I was very nervous as well but I was happy with the outcome.

The Southern Union Conference

This year for the southern union conference we headed over to Brighton where we met with a range of different sabbatical officers from different universities in the south. This was such a cool experience as we got to discuss issues effecting all of us and share some advice and tips with people in similar roles to us.

This was a 3 day trip and we also had a range of speakers discuss some of the major issues effecting students this year. The cost of living was one of the biggest talking points all throughout the trip and we made commitments with the other sabbs to have group discussions once a month to see what we can do to help students.

Introduction to committees

In the summer period we had introduction sessions to trustee board which all sabbs sit on as trustees and we also had an introduction to the sub committees that we will sit on. This year I will be the vice chair of Tackling Racism Committee and Union Performance Committee.