Category: Undergraduate

Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft. – Will Smith

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. From taking on the academic president role of one of the schools alongside my volunteer role as the faculty rep, created and launched the 1st faculty news letter and bereavement, to running in (and losing) the students’ union president election. Admittedly, I have been under an incredible amount of stress during this time and had almost dropped out the race as it all began to take a toll on my mental health and degree. However, I persevered and I am proud to have done so. I made friends with candidates and proved that despite adversity, I can create some funny and creative posts.

I ran this election with only two people on my team, but I’m incredibly thankful for them. We were able to become closer and share creative ideas in a safe space – nobody thought any idea was ridiculous! From silly memes to cute animal pictures, we were going to make this campaign a nice one.

I previously won Vice President of Education and Democracy 2019/20 (you can read about it here) and Faculty Officer for Arts and Humanities 2020/21, but these campaigns were definitely not the best. Students love memes and I played up to that for the last two elections, but I wanted to step it up from there. I needed to market myself in a better way, but how?

I had researched a lot of other people’s campaigns in the past and had a look at some from other universities and went with it.

I am most proud of how far along I have come regarding my graphic design work as I shudder at the thought of my VP Education and Democracy campaign. With that being said, I do stand by associating a colour with myself because it does make you stand out. I had turquoise tips for VP and made a lot of my campaign the same colour for that purpose; a technique I transferred over to the President campaign (this time it was lilac). I went with a calming colour this time around because I wanted to present myself that way to voters and hey, it is pretty!

I decided I needed to switch things up to get information out there and sometimes simple works. That’s why I have the bright red speaker phone and yellow poster. I personally think the colours are ugly, but I know it works and having the speaker phone as a motif for my profile was an easy graphic to use that allowed people to connect the dots. I also love red so it goes well with my candidate photo which was the photo above, but without the speaker phone on. I tried to show people that I do have a fun side and that is why I don’t look that serious in the photo. Plus, I rarely smile with my teeth… so they should appreciate it.

As for social media, I plastered my cover photo and campaign photo everywhere I could. It was ‘in you face’ enough but not too annoying as I know that a lot of older students hate the election period. If they wanted to know more, they could look at the image or head to my page to find out more. Maybe I was a bit too relaxed, but when a lot is going on behind the scene, I’m glad to have placed 3rd.

Of course, I had some difficult questions asked to me but I expected nothing less. I went into this election with a realistic manifesto and I would answer all the questions that were thrown at me. I did not want to lie and give false promises or information because that is not me and hey, I would rather lose knowing I kept my honesty intact than lying about things that can never be achieved. I may not see eye to eye with my father, but he did instill in me that ‘there are people would rather vote for a politician that is honest than one that lies. They will unlikely win, but they gain a lot of respect.’ So, that’s what I did. I could not compromise on this and I am relieved to say that strangers have approached me to say they are proud of me for this effort.

Despite never imagining running for president two years ago, I am glad I took part instead of never doing it and wondering ‘what if’. I have refined my research and communication skills in the process as I connected with an array of university staff and students when building my manifesto. I feel closer to the student body now after researching their interests and concerns with sustainability, strategy, halls and sites. I may not have won, but I have gained enough knowledge that I look forward to bringing up in faculty meetings to help the staff direct attention in the right direction regarding my findings. The staff are keen to see what they can do outside that of academia to make students enjoy their time at university and I am happy to assist them where I can.

I am particularly proud of the ‘Why am I Qualified?’ poster as it satirizes the modern world that we live in, especially in a working from home setting. We constantly are looking for answers so I provided my in the context of presenting them as a search bar. Although a Google search appears differently, I wanted to show voters various photos as they can ‘paint a thousand words’. A lot of the time, students forget that there is a person behind it and will say horrid stuff about you, but I wanted to remind voters that I am human after all. You can Google my name and a full page will come up with stuff about me (all innocent, I promise!) but this poster aimed to save that search.

I am no graphic designer, nor did I ever claim to be… but this election has made me up my game in creating posters and graphics that I can transfer as I go into the place of work. I’ve gained confidence with various platforms to make these posters in and I no doubt will continue to play with them and develop even better skills. Maybe I’ll even get in on the animation!

I have never used TikTok but it is becoming a powerhouse as a way to market yourself. My team and I embraced the platform and created my campaign video! It was very cute – we had video of my friend’s puppy doing funny things and setting it up like the dog was explaining why you should vote for me. I could have done a normal video but let’s be honest, I will not be embarrassed if this appears years later when an employer searches my name! I shared the video on all of my social media (except LinkedIn) to make sure many saw the video and spread some joy because who hates a cute puppy?!

I may have lost this election, but I have won overall in experience.