Description | Track 1[01:23:24][Session One: 6 November 2020] Teresa Ogbekhiulu [TO], Education Officer- Swansea University Student’s Union [SUSU], born in Nigeria in 1998. Grace Hannaford [GH] Sidcup, [SUSU] Centenary president, born in Bexley, Kent, is 24 years old. [TO] Describes childhood and growing up in a small family consisting of parents and two younger siblings in Lagos, Nigeria. Mentions the positive experience being brought up by grandparents due to parents working out of state whereby learnt old ways and matured quickly. Mentions attending Caleb International School in Lagos. TO discusses religion. [00:05:30] GH describes upbringing: with an older brother and full-time working parents. Describes the positives aspects of having a childminder and compares it to having two families. Mentions father works as a London taxi driver and mum works in marketing for the National Health Service (NHS). GH discusses education. Remarks on the wealth of experiences Swansea University [SU] has given [00:10:30] Describes A-level subjects and choosing Geography at [SU]. Mentions taking AS-level law was inspired by brother. Describes going from an all-girls secondary school to a mixed sixth form grammar school. Story of how Law AS-level was made up of boys and only two girls which compounded the gender difference at sixth form. [00:13:22] Discuss differences between all girl and all boy classes resulting in the belief that a mixed school is the optimum [00:15:00] Describes attractions of SU : from brother being a Law undergrad at Swansea, to the feel good /aesthetics of being by the coast, to SU going the extra mile at open day. [00:18:00] TO Remarks on family support to study overseas and mentions applying to universities from the age of fifteen years old, with SU offering her a foundation course in January 2015. Mentions her university choices extended everywhere except London. [00:20:10] Describes her journey from Nigeria where she was part of a majority (in terms of her ethnicity) to a minority which lead her to promote awareness of black under-representation. Mentions lecturers were very warm and welcoming at SU. TO and GH discuss how the people of Swansea have a genuine warmth and are very welcoming (Swansea-ness). TO discusses her post-graduate degree after gaining a first class honours degree in Media, PR and Communication focusing on Media Practice and PR for masters. Remarks after being a student representative during undergraduate years wanted to run for a sabbatical position during her Masters. Mentions having a desire to represent fellow black students and applied for the position of Education Officer. [00:25:00] Discuss the trials of starting university at an earlier age and remarks on how confidence and focus helped overcome this. Mentions how father expected and encouraged her to get a first class degree by sending her success stories of people who had gained first class degrees in the past. Remarks on how the cost of the degree focussed her. Mentions her quadrant life whereby she would move between the library, church, home and city centre. Mentions friends respected the vision she had of first class degree or nothing. [00:28:20] Describes the Swansea experience in terms of being in a minority group and talks about how feeling lonely as the only black student in her class impacted engagement. Discusses racism and defines curriculum decolonisation. [00:33:38] GH Describes Geography at SU and gives advantages of living with seven geographers in Hendrefoilan Student Village. Mentions Geography is a sociable subject and describes the undergraduate course in SU: mix of physical and human in first year with the second and third years able to specialise more. Describes [SU] Geography department’s second year fieldtrip to Vancouver. [00:38:41] Describes social groups: geography class, the SU sabbatical team and netball sports team. TO Mentions religion in Swansea. Describes increase in socialising within SU in Post-graduate years: speaking to more people, attending more events and joining more societies. Describes motivation on getting a sabbatical role, campaigning for it and what happened when in the role. [TO] [00:47:42] Describes the campaign for SUSU Education Officer. Mentions wanted to make a statement and show people that there was a different community here wanting representation. Mentions lack of black people in the SUSU. Mentions Afro beat. Mentions getting award for biggest campaign team and felt won the hearts of people. [GH] describes her first meeting with TO [00:51:30] GH describes her inspiration to be part of the SU sabbatical team which came from her charity work for breast cancer awareness -CoppaFeel. [00:56:10] Mentions how volunteering in the third year in the SUSU welfare office gave an insight into how it worked which resulted in her running and becoming welfare officer. Mentions re-running for the president position as it was so rewarding. Positively remarks about TO’s philosophy- you can achieve anything if you work hard. [00:57:44] GH Mentions campaign slogans. [01:04:30 Describes the sabbatical role: paid, full time 9-5 job, all female team, more diversity would have been preferred. Discuss Swansea students’ apathy to vote. TO mentions how only 4000 students voted last year out of 20,000 students. [01:08:00] Mentions limited services SU can provide when students don’t vote and voice their needs. TO discusses that SUSU is there to represent the interests and voice of all students in the university, and describes meeting Hilary Clinton and getting the Library to agree to availability of microwaves for students.[01:16:30] GH describes highlights of her SU role: part of group that won a bid of £2.3 million from Welsh Government to develop a program called Connect to improve mental health and well-being within the Swansea Colleges and possibly Wales if successful. Mentions low moment was Covid-19 pandemic, in that it took away last couple of months with the team after an amazing year. |