Tuesday 25-09-2018 - 00:00

Hi there! I am Hollie I am currently a 3^rd year psychology student at Queen Margaret University.

 

Outside of uni, I work part time as a barista at Costa coffee. I also enjoy watching Netflix in my spare time and spending time with friends and family.

 

As a Class Rep I have grown not only in confidence but also as a person, before becoming a Class Rep I was nervous to speak in groups especially in seminars and lecturers. I realised that in order to achieve the highest success within university I was going to have to be a better public speaker and be more confident with myself. The first couple of meetings that I attended I was nervous and didn’t say much, however I knew I had to speak on behalf of my class –Psychology is a particularly popular degree, resulting in high level of students in each class meaning every single person’s voice has to be spoken through me.  This is now my third year of being a Class Rep and I have seen my confidence growing increasingly; I deliver Class Rep training, something I never imagined I would be able to do. During Class Rep meetings I feel I contribute and feel comfortable speaking freely as well as in class discussions. This for me has been the biggest benefit. I am now able to get everything out of university and take every opportunity instead of being too shy or quiet.

 

Before becoming a Class Rep I never knew that the opinions and voices of the students were something which QMU valued, however I have seen first-hand how students can impact decisions.  Last year in my timetable there was one class which started at 5:15pm on Monday. This was the only class that we had all day; lots of people in the class were annoyed as they could not work or arrange childcare for such an awkward time. As Class Rep I emailed the head of my division requesting that something be changed. The divisional head understood the awkwardness of the time and tried to sort something out with timetable. This of course did not happen right away but for the next semester there was clear indication of block timetabling, which helped many of the students.

 

I cannot recommend becoming a Class Rep enough it’s an experience which you can carry on with you in later life and add it to your CV to give it a boost. The training will be carried out by myself and I hope to see many of you there!