Michael Sammels

Hi there! My name is Michael Sammels and I’m currently a third year student. I am running for the position of Mature Student officer, because I feel that within the university, sometimes things be a little tough - both for those who have been here for years and also those who have just joined us here at Stirling.

I would love to help the mature students have a voice and be heard, especially within the union. I will actively work on helping to promote the union and keeping our mature students always engaged with some form activity. I also pledge to continually support other mature students, such as myself. This would either be through helping them directly (speaking to someone to resolve an issue or answer a question), or just listening to them, to pointing them in the right direction to have their issue sorted. The pandemic has changed a lot of things for a lot of people, and not everyone can handle it in the same way. In addition to the above, I will also try to get the students to speak to each other about their issues (obviously, only if they want to and with no personal information), which would further the family feeling within students. This could have the added bonus of making new friends, and sometimes... people feel comfortable talking their peers, instead of others.

With this said, there are a lot of issues affecting our mature students and I hope to speak to people, to find out exactly what they are. I will then help to organise campaigns to make these issues more aware, with both staff and students.

I will work very closely with our union staff, from all different committees to help raise awareness around the issues that can affect mature students. This, I feel, would also be beneficial as it would allow (potentially) the entire student union and all the committees to come together and organise university wide campaigns.

This would be fantastic, as it means everyone would feel a little bit more at home in Stirling.