End of Year Update: Maria Freitas

Wednesday 24-06-2020 - 10:48
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Next up on our week of Executive Committee End of Year Updates is Student Officer Maria Freitas...

Somehow June is upon us which means it’s time for us, the Student Union Executive Committee 2019/2020 to tell you one last time about the work we’ve done before we bid yourself goodbye. Having been in this quarantine bubble for just over three months now, “time” feels like the weirdest concept and it is rather hard to recall a time in 2020 before everything was mad, so writing this blog wasn’t the easiest, but here’s a quick summary of things I managed to do as your Student Officer.

We kicked off the semester with our special Blue Monday Recharge Day and I had a blast helping the SU team throughout the day from offering you warm drinks in the freezing morning air to dancing with Vic to Why Did It Have To Be Me at the back of the Auditorium as we watched Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (a highlight of my entire year if you ask me). Once again you guys were phenomenal and it was lovely to see so many of you getting involved with the activities throughout the day, special shout out to the rugby lads that helped us give away all, and I really mean ALL, of the freebies we had, you guys would be great in a marketing career.

As usual, I got to attend plenty of meetings with the rest of the Exec Committee where we discussed all things student life as well as our Zone meetings and the Annual General Meeting that allows any member of the student body to learn about what projects we have been working on. Additionally, I got to represent the Student Union at the Library’s Customer Service Excellence revalidation, discussing some of the problems that students had voiced in regards to the Library and give my opinion on changes the team was thinking of implementing. Similarly, I was present for other meetings with members of the University such as the Student Engagement Advisory Group and International Student Support Group and was happy to learn more about how the University works and help make the system more student-friendly.

I am sure I did many more things with the SU this semester, for instance, I was so ecstatic to attend meetings to discuss all the things about Summer Ball, help decide on the headliner act and the theme of the event but I feel no one wants to read about this after Summer Ball was cancelled. Same thing goes for the Celebrating Culture events which I was so excited to help with and make bigger and better than ever to show all the different backgrounds and cultures our students come from and promote their different traditions and customs, sadly this event was also cancelled.

That being said, I do have to mention the pandemic and all the craziness we have been living through since April and applaud all of those that got involved with the Positive Pandemic Facebook group and helped bring some normality to quarantine life. Meg, Vic and Ellen have been doing a fab job giving students a space to stay in contact with each other and have a small beacon of light during some of the weirdest times our generation has ever lived through. I will forever be grateful for my three years at Winchester and the Student Union and Team Winch are a very big part of it. While I am sad to leave this chapter of my life behind, I know the elected Exec team for 2020/2021 is absolutely amazing and I am sure they will achieve great things.

After two years with the SU family, this is me as a Student Officer over and out! I am sure I will see you back in Winch at some point or another, until then, I hope you are all staying safe and most of all sane.

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