As a second year Business & Digital Marketing student at Falmouth University, I decided become a course rep as I love to work with people and helping to voice their opinions and concerns about their academic studies. I wanted to help improve their experience and make things easier for everyone. Being a course rep has helped improve my communication and negotiation skills by talking to lectures. It hasd also helped me learnt how to generate good ideas and recommendations to improve our academic studies and overall experience, while gathering feedback from my peers. 

My favourite module on my programme is Research Methods, by far, because it has showed me that I love working with people, especially when it comes to helping them with difficult and unheard of social situations within living and studying. It has taught me a lot, including how to interview people, gather qualitative data through transcripts from online interviews, and analyse them to find common themes in their responses, specifically of their struggles. From these structured questions, I then make helpful recommendations from these theme’s I gather by doing thematic analysis which is data analysis for qualitative data. 

Outside of studying, I spend my time modelling and helping out Falmouth University students with their coursework, while also building my modelling portfolio on the side. I recently started my own blog where I write about my personal life and journey at University. I have also completed an internship in social media and website marketing/design. I attend most society social events, as I’m gathering research on how to create my own event for students in the future, inspired by my Reearch Methods module. 

If I could offer one tip to fellow students, it would to not to be afraid to step outside your comfort zone by being a course rep. Doing something that seems interesting but takes a lot of courage can lead you to take more confident steps to help improve yourself. It can open doors to new opportunities beyond your studies. It doesn’t just look good on your CV but it can also help you discover new interests and support self-development.