About Me...

Hi there!

Here is a little information about me. Remember, if you ever want to get in touch with me, please feel free to do so. I promise i'll get back to you, and even visit if you like!

In a nutshell...

I'm 21 years old and i'm in my third year studying history and politics here in Brum.
I'm British, but have only spent half my life living here, and have spent the rest living all over the world in Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and South Africa.

When i have some spare time (not often!) i love to travel, but not to the usual places. I like to go where people think i'd be crazy to go (D.R. Congo, Kosovo and Syria this year!). I find these places a lot more interesting and really eye opening. I also like to watch movies and go surfing (no joke!).

At Uni...

In my first year i lived in Tennis Courts on the Vale. Encouraged by all the new people i had met, i decided to run for President of the Tennis Courts RA (Resident's Association). I won, and that was the start of all my involvement in the Guild and the wider student movement.
Tennis Courts was a fantastic place to live but suffered from a lack of community and serious neglect by Vale management. Myself and the rest of the RA committee set about trying to turn Tennis Courts into a place where people would forever be glad they lived, and wouldn't wish they'd gone to a different hall. I believe we succeeded, having sold out of every event and created some incredible memories, my personal favourite being the huge paddling pools we bought in for summer!

What was most rewarding about being an RA, however, was taking the many issues people had with their hall and trying to present their case to the Uni and campaign for real change. During my year as an RA, our committee secured CCTV coverage for all of Tennis Courts, a maintenance 'blitz' by Vale management and... finally... some new washing machines for the laundry room. It may sound a little petty, but these changes make a real difference to residents there even today. This ability to change things for the better is one of the main reasons why i ran for VPHC (who has overall responsibility for all RAs).

During my first year i also became a Guild Councillor and an NUS delegate, and i tried to use these positions to continue to fight for better. Some of my motions put forward to Guild Council include a proposal to reform the 'Hub Grub' catering system, which literally makes thousands of pounds worth of student cash disapper unspent at the end of every week and a plan calling for a review of the Guild's contract with Falcon Taxis, in the light of numerous reports of rip-offs and some more serious abuses.

In my second year i became the Vice President (External) for Carnival RAG, the Uni's Raising & Giving society. Basically, Carnival puts on loads of different events to try and make money for local charities. As VP Ex, i was in charge of organising and overseeing the Carnage Bar Crawl and Enigma Mystery Bus Trips, as well as other smaller events. It was stressful but i loved it, and together the whole Carnival committee raised over 50,000 pounds for charity, more than double the previous year.

In my third year i've carried on being a Guild Councillor and NUS delegate, but my biggest job was to temporarily become an RA President again for QHC (Queen's Hospital Close). For some reason, the Uni had completely overbooked itself, so despite the fact the QHC was not meant to be used again by the Uni, freshers were forced to move there without knowing anything about it (it wasn't even in their application literature). As such, there were loads of fairly distressed new students moving in who didn't have a clue what they were meant to do when they arrived. Even though i took over with only a week's notice, the rest of the committee were amazing and we managed to get everyone moved in and enjoying freshers week. QHC also gave me experience running a very different hall. It was small, not part of the Vale and not run centrally by the Uni. It was working with residents here that started me off wanting the VPHC job, as i knew that i really loved working with any hall, and for any resident, and that i had the experience to do a great job.

Since then i've continued to be involved, and was recently caught chanting down a megaphone at our 'Reduce Halls Fees' protest march on campus. I've loved my time at Uni and whatever hapens this year i know i've made some small differences. But now it's my job to go about making some big ones!



Thanks for reading!