Posted on Wed 13 Feb 2019 at 12:30
This month we held our third annual Edge Conference - an event which gave students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills.
On Saturday 2nd February, the other officers and I hosted our annual skills and leadership conference in Union House. The Edge Conference is designed to upskill UEA students and inspire as many as possible to take on the upcoming leadership positions in the SU. Now in its third year, the event continues to grow (withmore than double that of last year) for a day of workshops, discussion groups and talks from guest speakers, university/SU staff and most importantly, other students!
This year I was really keen to emphasise the student-to-student learning, so we made sure that our experienced volunteers, student staff, committee members and other student leaders ran every session. When new students sign up to be Team Leaders or run for a committee position, they aren’t signing up because they already have all the skills to do the job. They’re signing up because they want to get more involved with their role or society or want to make real change to how the SU is run.
The Edge Conference give students the skills they need in order to do this. Workshops covered a range of areas – from presentation skills to conflict resolution, from project planning to self-marketing; and was concluded by poet and local alumni Mart Grist.
There were also sessions on BAME leadership, student enterprise, and mental health. I ran a session on what it’s like to be a full time officer and the process of running in the elections, which had a fantastic turnout. Remember, if you’re interested in running in the SU elections then you can find out more information here. Or, if you know someone who you think would be great for one of the leadership roles, encourage them to nominate themselves!
Our students are the single best resource the SU has – it’s your ideas and efforts that drive forward the activities we do and the campaigns we run. Opportunities like the Edge Conference enable more students to become involved in the SU, so it’s fantastic to see the event continue to grow year-on-year.
here's today's fixtures - good luck to all our teams!
have a great week x