Stephen Cassidy - Student Association Officer
12 Dec 2008
Stephen Cassidy - Student Association Officer
My name is Stephen Cassidy and my I work within Cardonald College Glasgow as the Student Association Officer. My role is to support, facilitate and enhance the student association and to encourage student engagement across the board.
My main aim for this year is to build the foundations of a successful students association that will carry on and create an ongoing momentum and buzz for future years.
I come from a healthcare background and was a student myself at Cardonald. During my time as a student I struggled as most others did with creating a study and life balance whilst still maintaining an active social life. To achieve this I took advice from my guidance tutor and from our information and advice centre. It was from seeking that advice that I found out about the Student Association and the Student Representative Council. I have always been interested in student welfare and student wellbeing and it was this interest that enabled me to become the Student President. As student president I achieved many things within the college and I also sat on the board of management. This was a fantastic experience and it gave me the opportunity to make a real difference to student’s lives and empower our students to achieve their goals. From the knowledge gained as the student president I became a force for change in the college, the more knowledge I gained, the more passionate I became.
It was from my experience as Student President that I landed in my current role. Now with the full support of the college staff and our many links with external organisations not to mention a great SRC, we have a student association that is not only the envy of other colleges but is a great success which I hope will remain to be the case.
Student Association
The student association is run by students for the benefit of students. Its job is to make student life as trouble-free and enjoyable as possible. It does this in a variety of ways.
It offers advice to students, without competing with the information and advice centre. You will not find a professional adviser at the Student Association. What you will find is another student, squeezing in work for the Association between classes, but who nevertheless will be willing to listen and help in any way possible.
On a wider scale, the Student Association also represents you at National Union of Students (NUS) conferences and councils throughout the year. The Association is run by a Student Representative Council. Elections for positions on this run early in the first term. Every student has the right to vote in the elections – make sure you use your vote! Better still, why don’t you do what I did and stand?