The team
Project lead students: Molly Edwards and Leow Tian Ahn
Project support students: Youvin Lawela Kim and Noa Adan
Staff: Mark Freeman and Georgina Brewis
Department
Education, Practice and Society
What happened?
Our project was to re-establish the Education Society and lay the foundations for its longevity, as this is not something that had been achieved by previous cohorts despite their efforts. We decided to do this, because we felt a lack of community and belonging among students in our course, as well as a disconnect between staff and students who had only met each other online, due to the pandemic. Since then, we have worked in partnership with our staff leaders and with the help of ChangeMakers to create a society that addresses this issue. We first held elections for ten roles we viewed as necessary to the society’s success. Some of the students in the committee were responsible for creating an Instagram page for our society where we could share our events with students, but also create ‘Day in the Life’ videos and opportunity posts for students to feel more connected. This page now has over 100 followers. We have also hosted numerous events for students, such as a series of coffee chats some of which were in collaboration with members of staff and the Psychology with Education society, an Easter Egg Hunt, and a Fancy Dress Strike. We are continuing to use our platform to connect with staff and students and we are seeing more engagement with the Education Society as our platform grows. It is clear that there was a need for a student focused, staff supported initiative like the Education Society, and with the ChangeMakers’ support and funding we have been able to launch this society and initiative in a way that we would not have been able to do otherwise.
What advice or encouragement would you give to someone thinking of doing a ChangeMakers project?
I would advise anyone starting a project to discuss it with as many people who you might want to be involved as possible and gain any feedback you can. The staff in our student/staff partnership were really knowledgeable about what had and had not worked in the past, how we could figure out some of the more logistical obstacles and how to manage a project like this. We also informally talked with students to figure out exactly what they wanted and expected from their university experience, so we had an idea of where improvement was needed and how we could address it with our society. I would also just suggest students take this opportunity and do as much as they can with it. The Education Society has been an amazing project to work on, but it has also given those involved more opportunities to engage in other projects in different ways and create new initiatives with the support of the Education Society. I think one change can really lead to another and with the support and structure of ChangeMakers there is definitely more opportunity for you to make positive, impactful change if you embrace it.