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Meet Emi, your VP Education 2020 - 2021

Written by: UPSU

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Emi's acceptance speech at the Election Results Night 2020

Emi is your VP Education for the 2020 - 2021 academic year. In March you elected her to represent you and be responsible for your academic experience (UG & PG), representation systems, Postgrad student experience, International Students, Mature Students, Sustainability and Partner Colleges. 

  

Hi I am Emi and I am your VP Education! 

 

I grew up in Sydney, Australia, where I spent a lot of time outdoors exposed to beautiful and interesting wildlife. It was those first few years in Australia which sparked my love and interest for animals. I moved to Manchester, England, at the age of nine and have lived there ever since.  Up until the age of 15, I was home educated by my mum, along with my four siblings. Being home educated allowed me to experience lots of different learning styles and to focus on what I was genuinely passionate about, working with animals. This year I will be graduating after spending the past four years studying Animal Behaviour and Welfare. During my time at university, I have been involved in lots of extracurricular activities such as fundraising, trips abroad and being a course representative. As a course rep, I represented my classmates by going to meetings with the lecturers to improve our degree, I was even able to get my course accredited!  

 

Now, as VP Education, I will be representing all the students studying at the University of Plymouth and at the partner colleges in everything academic-related. This means I will be attending meetings with the University staff advocating on your behalf. To do this, I will be working with lots of different students (Possibly you) to try and get their feedback. I will look at what's going well and what can be improved and then and then I will go and feedback this information to the University staff.  

 

I will also be running campaigns throughout the year, working to improve the educational experience of students. My campaigns are focused on giving students such as yourself the tools and support they need to have a successful academic experience. 

  

 


 

What made you choose to study at the University of Plymouth? 

 

I was originally torn between two universities. Lincoln University and Plymouth. What sold me on Plymouth was the course content and the passion of the lecturers at the open day. 

 


 

What did you study? 

 

Animal Behaviour & Welfare 

 


 

What made you want to become a Sabbatical Officer? 

 

I wanted to be able to help students in a proactive manner. After seeing the amazing work the sabbatical team before me was able to achieve I thought it would be the best way for me to really make a difference in improving students university experience. 

 


 

If you could go back to your first day of Uni, what one piece of advice would you give yourself? 

 

You don’t have to drink or go out partying! Many people will tell you that you need to go to every night out or party during freshers weeks to bond with your flat and to make friends, this is not the case! There are so many different opportunities to make friends at university and actually very few of them involve drinking! Also you will find other common interests with your flatmates and will be able to bond through them. 

 


 

What’s your favourite memory of your whole time at the University of Plymouth? 

 

My favourite memory took place during my placement year. I was working at a bird of prey centre and was given the responsibility of train a couple of meerkats, fly some of the birds in the displays and give educational meet and greets to the visitors. It was amazing to get to finally use all the knowledge and skills I had learnt during my course into practice. 

 


 

What would you like to achieve on behalf of students this year to make their lives better? 

 

I am really hoping to make the extenuating circumstances policy more compassionate and more accessible to students. I think it’s really important to to support students when they are going through some of their most stressful times at university and to make the process of getting help as easy and stress-free as possible. 

 


 

What's a song that sums up you or your time at Uni and why?

 

Shakira - Try Everything

As cheesy as it sounds I think this song sums up my university experience the best because I really did try to try everything! I also suffered many set backs throughout my four years but I continued on despite them and was opened up to some incredible opportunities because of it! 

  


 

What did you want to be when you were growing up? 

 

I wanted to be a vet, or someone who gets to work with animals. 

 


 

What’s your guiltiest pleasure? 

 

Eating frozen cookies! It’s nicer than it sounds!! 

 


 

Who would play you in a film of your life? 

 

Maisie Williams or Anne Hathaway  

 


 

What’s your most annoying habit? 

 

I am very fidgety 

 


 

If you could have any superpower which would you choose? 

 

Flying, not only is it a cool power, you would also save so much time and money!   

  


 

Quick fire 

 

Sweet or savoury - Sweet 

Cats or dogs - Both 

Call or message - Message 

Quiet night in or night out - Quiet night in 

Tea or coffee - Tea 

Night owl or early bird - Early Bird 

Summer or Winter - Summer 

Eat out or takeaway - Takeaway 

TV show or movie - TV Show 

Ideal holiday: city break or middle of nowhere - Middle of nowhere 
 

 


Read about what Emi pledges to do for you Emi's Manifesto