My name is Sam Thiesen, I am a first year BSc Computer Science student and I hope to be your next Vice President Wellbeing & Equal Opportunities.
Wellbeing means being comfortable, healthy and happy and with mental health and mindfulness being causes close to my heart I am very passionate about making RGU a place where everyone’s wellbeing is a priority.
As well as improving wellbeing, I hope to be able to cultivate a culture of equality and inclusion.
I believe that I can confidently and with great motivation work towards making RGU a place where all student problems are addressed in a way that makes everyone feel welcome and at home in our community.
Working with the union this year as the president of the Photography Society has allowed me to gain an insight into the way the union operates and how ideas are turned into reality. This experience has been really enjoyable and very educational but now I believe I am ready to take on a larger role that has an impact on all students. I am enjoying my time at RGU so much and I want to be able to make sure that everyone else does too.
If I am elected I want to focus on:
Raising awareness for and supporting the Equality Champions:
To me, RGU has felt like a welcoming, diverse and inclusive place from the beginning and I want to encourage this vibrant culture but I know that there is always more work to be done, which is why I want to support the Equality Champions. They are volunteers that act as ambassadors for their respective minority group / protected characteristic and work on liberation campaigns, events and fundraising. This year not all of the available positions have been filled and if the same thing happens next year I want to help finding students to fill every position so no group goes unrepresented. I also want to help the champions in every way I can to ensure that all problems students face that are related to equality are tackled.
Helping to improve student mental health in line with the new mental health agreement:
Mental health is an incredibly important part of everyone’s university experience as earning a degree is, at times, extremely stressful and can take a toll on everyone’s mental health.
I want to help to raise awareness for the services that are available at RGU so that everyone who is overwhelmed or struggling with their mental health knows where to find help within the university. At the same time I am passionate about supporting new initiatives and events.
Supporting the peer support group:
One of the initiatives that is currently being established is the new peer support service which I think it is a great project. Because this will be the first year of the service running there will probably still be some bumps in the road and I would love to help it run as smoothly as possible.