Your President Maia Jarvis fills you in on what she's been up to since starting the role, her goals and priorities for 2022/23, and what's she excited for!
Hello everyone, I'm Maia, your SU President! Whether you’re a returning student or in your first few weeks at university, I want to welcome you to Royal Holloway on behalf of the Students’ Union!
About Me!
The idea of this blog is that you get to know a little bit about me, so I thought I’d start with some quick facts:
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My name’s Maia (rhymes with ‘player’)
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I studied Music and English
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I’m half Chinese, half English
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I was VP Education last year so this is my second year as an officer
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My favourite event I organised last year was a Queer Creativity Showcase, where we featured the work of over 30 LGBT+ students
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The way to my heart is through food
All the work I do has your voices at the heart of it - my passion is to get nerdy about student consultation, ensuring that I use my position in University and SU projects to amplify the needs and concerns of students. I sit on lots of College committees (meetings where important decisions get made and student-facing projects are discussed) and always use my voice to ensure the interests of students are considered.
My Goals As President
Decolonisation
Last year, I worked with the College to ensure that a paid focus group would be on the agenda for this year so that lived experience is at the heart of our solution-making. I will continue to ensure that student voices are at the core of any equality, diversity, and inclusion projects. I’ve also recently discovered a passion for ethical finance/responsible investment and its relationship to decolonisation. I used to have zero interest in finance but I’ve now realised that viewing it through the lens of sustainability gets me so fired up to tackle how financial systems fuel climate injustice! I aim to use NUS’ Divest to Decolonise Toolkit and join SOS’ Invest for Change campaign to ensure that University money is being invested in the best interests of students and the environment.
Extenuating Circumstances (ECs)
The ECs policy is a University policy designed to help you complete your studies if you go through an unforeseeable incident that prevents you from doing your work. I am in regular meetings with the University - standing up for your interests to ensure that the policy fully supports students in the short and long term.
Student safety
Protecting student wellbeing in our venues is a top priority for the Students’ Union; I want to ensure that all students feel safe on a night out. Through our Spiked? campaign, we have a truck ton of Spikeys and StopTopps (anti-spiking drink covers) to help you feel safe on a night out. We have also implemented a late-night wellbeing team called the Good Night Out Crew to be on hand to support you. Later on in the year, I also want to hear about your experiences in our venues so we can incorporate your feedback and improve our services.
Get In Touch!
Working with students is one of my favourite things about this job so I can’t wait to meet as many of you as possible this year and chat about student life! Follow my social media channels @RHSUPresident for regular updates and ping me an email if you want to get involved in any campaigns!