Meet Your MSU Presidential Candidates 2023 - An Interview
“Blended learning is accessible learning, making sure that you're catering to the students' needs, and it's a bare minimum that the university can provide an educational experience that accommodates all their students.”
Alex Balfe
Pronouns: She/her
Nua-Ghaeile and Theology Graduate
Experience in MSU: Current VP For Education, Deputy President of MSU, Academic Representative, SPCM Senator,
“I am deeply committed to ensuring that students have the best possible experience during their time at university, and I find it incredibly rewarding to work towards positive change on behalf of my fellow students. As well as this, my motivation for running for this position comes from my unwavering passion for making a difference. I believe that by working collaboratively and creatively, we can make significant strides towards improving the student experience and creating positive change within our university community.”
Aoife Hynes
Pronouns: They/Them
Final Year Geography and International Development
Experience in MSU: Academic Representative, Green Campus Senator, Social Science Faculty Convenor, BICs Mental Health Award 2020.
“#WheresMyLevy hammered home the need for more direct action. My heart breaks to see how high rent, the housing crisis and ridiculous commutes have ruined college life. People can't make it to lectures, never mind clubs/societies! The thriving community that I came into has been destroyed. I think the Union should be leading the charge on these issues, not just acting as a band-aid on an open wound”
The Interview
CIARA
I really appreciate you guys taking your time out of your day, so I'll just get cracking straight into it just for the sake of, you know, trying to not take up too much of your time.
So, I mean, the first question that we're kind of asking everybody is
Why have you chosen your particular role? (…) Why particularly President?
ALEX
So, I suppose, given my experience here with Maynooth Student Union, especially considering I'm the VP Education this year and Deputy President, it's a weird role because President, it's sort of (…) especially from the VP Education perspective of it, it's not what anyone thinks it is.(…) Having the chance of working close with Niall this year, I got to see a greater insight into it. However, my experience, I suppose, is the biggest reason why I decided to run.
Especially considering the current situation that we're in with the student centre, I've been in the negotiations with the university for all these meetings and it's just not going to go away. So, I feel like I'm prepared to tackle whatever issues are coming up with the student centre. However, my absolute love for the role, I absolutely loved my term here as VP Education, and it was during Destress, it just clicked with me that I was like, this is my passion, and this is where I want to be for the next year. So that was what really empowered me, but also getting, getting to work closely with the executive. It's just really inspiring, just to see the day-to-day workings of the Union. The staff are absolutely incredible and getting to see what other officers are achieving and other officers around the country. It's just so inspirational. Yeah.
CIARA
Yeah, 100%, thanks. Aoife do you wanna chime in there as well?
Aoife
Yeah. So, for me, I have not had the experience being on Exec, but I have been on Senate for quite a few years. I've been quite close friends, and certainly have been in an advisory capacity, to an awful lot of presidents and vice presidents across the past few years. So, I do have an awful lot of insight into what the role entails. For me, I'm a big picture person, so I love to look at the situation and kind of take, basically, the wider perspective of what the Union should be doing as a whole. For me, I want to go with the Presidency role because to me it's more about facilitating the other vice presidents in making sure it is effective as possible and be the liaison with the university. And I really feel that I can.
I'm quite a good person at finding common ground with people, because I would have a lot of views as a non-binary person, a queer person, and someone who's really into [the] environment, who lives in a farming area. You run into loggerheads with people constantly and I found a way to chat to people and find the middle ground. So, for me, that's what I really, really want to do with the Union. I want to be leading it in the direction I think it should be going in. I want to make sure that the officers feel that they're capable of doing their jobs and find better ways to facilitate them, like basically doing their jobs to the best their ability. And I wanna be the person who's in the room talking to the university to find the common ground for students and university management to work together, though I know that's a massive challenge considering what we come up against, but I feel that if someone should be in that room, I think that's what I want to be doing, because, like, students’ engagement, student rights, student, you know, politics, everything like that, that has been my passion for years. And I really feel that I could take all that I've learned and lead the Union in a new direction. So that's, that's why I want the Presidency, because it's basically the spearhead of the organization.
CIARA
Yeah, absolutely. (…) We're asking all our candidates this, but
What do you think the word union means to you personally and what do you think that it does mean, and it should mean, to the wider student body?
AOIFE
To me, OK, so we have never actually learned anything about the history of unions in school, which I always thought was fascinating because it was only when I came to college, and I got exposed to the Union here that I started to learn about the history of unions and the power of them and what they actually did. Before, in secondary school, it was never actually taught to us.
For me, a union is supposed to be essentially, like, really a civil rights organization, someone who's fighting for a change and fighting for rights. So, to me, I kind of feel over the past few years (…) that the student union has kind of lost its idea of what union means. Because I know for a lot of officers I've seen over the years, it's been about doing cool little events. And in a lot of cases, been about their own ego and proving that they're the best person for the job.
To me, I want to see the Union working on a larger scale, not just trying to solve stuff for each student individually, which is still part of, like, the role. But I think that we need to be looking on a wider scale, engage with, like, national movements for housing and transport and so many more students’ rights and putting our energy that way, unionising rather than just being the Union here, [where] the people go to when they have a problem, we need to be leading the charge. And I feel that that's kind of been lost because I know we had Where's My Levy, which was amazing. And there were so many students that turned out for that, and I just feel that energy was lost with the potential, could have been continued to impact something beyond just the campus. (…) That was an opportunity that was left slide by. And I think that the Union should be taking stuff like Where's My Levy and taking it to the next level. So that's what Union is to me. It's people coming together to make a widespread change, not just something like from one individual student.
CIARA
Absolutely.
ALEX
Yep. So, I suppose, for me, because, when I first got involved, (…) in the Student Union, like, [the] average students that you see on campus who aren't actively engaged in the Union, they don't know the inner workings of the Union. They don't know the structures. However, that's one thing that we really need to highlight to students, to show them that this is what we need. (…) So, to me, Maynooth Student Union, we're represented a body so the big thing that we need to implement, I suppose, is like what Aoife said, encouraging all students— especially this year, we've seen the power of Where's My Levy and when students come together, we make noise, we make change, and that is the one thing that we need to continue. And that's what the Union means to me, I suppose. It’s that, the active and collective gathering of students coming together, sharing passion and to effectively resolve any concerns or issues that our own campus, but also that are affecting students nationally.
CIARA
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's such a tough role because there's such a short, you know, term. (…)
How do you think you're going to kind of turn those bigger goals and bigger ambitions into, I guess, like your short term while you're there and while you're in office? And then like, what do you see for, like, your influence on the bigger long-term plans?
ALEX
Yeah. So, I suppose, big thing for me is that oftentimes when an executive officer comes into the position we come in with the hopes and dreams, but there's always things thrown in our way, the university firing things left, right, centre, and then there's committees that we’re expected to sit on. But it's now when we have to realize we need to utilize and optimize our positions on these committees and various places and represent students on what they actually want us to represent them on, even on the lower scale events such as whether it's karaoke in the bar or whether it's if students want more diversity events, if they want us to lobby harder for blended learning. That is part of my manifesto, is that I want to roll out forums with the Vice Presidents to ensure that students have ways [of] coming to us. So just say a lot of our policies are implemented through Senate and academic groups also have their say when it comes to academics. But on the widespread of the campus, what we need to do is to implement something where students can just come to us, tell us where they're struggling and tell us what issues they want.
And that is how I would see my contribution to the new student union if elected, to have that engagement with students, because that's the thing, that’s the one thing that I found, when I was doing Destress this year, is that students, they don't know what Maynooth Student Union is, but they want to know. They want to know how (…) to best succeed with their academics. And it's almost when they got talking to me, they're like, you're my key. You can unlock the door. It's like, so I suppose it's important that we have the continuation and the constant lobbying, I'm getting absolutely side railed, but yeah, so I forgot the question.
CIARA
Yeah, no, you've answered it perfectly. Don't— I feel like everybody does this, I do this myself and, like, in every meeting everybody gives, like, perfect answers and they're like, does that makes sense? I'm like, yes, it's so good. Don't doubt yourselves.
*Ciara restates the question for Aoife to answer.*
AOIFE
OK, well, definitely what I've noticed is a massive downturn in engagement with the Union. And part of that is due to COVID, because even with societies [it] used to be that you'd kind of groom your successor in or you'd be handing on knowledge because you're meeting in person, right? And that's a lot of that's been lost. But the engagement is definitely down. People don't know what their union does for them. The way I would change it is my year will be dedicated to getting engagement up, and I'm hoping that by focusing on, like, housing and transport, because those are issues that really unite students, that you can draw them in, into protests, into scaling up from lobbying all the way to whatever we want to make the end goal.
And (…) how I see that working is to treat the SU kind of the same way we do with the societies, nearly like we need more, we need members, right? We need active members. We need volunteers. So, I like to say about forums there, I would love to do things sort of like that. Like a town hall where the officers and as many academic reps and everything as possible be available. You could do like a speed dating situation where you move from one table to the next and say, oh, here's the education issue table. Here's the, you know, figure it out. You can chat to people, say what you're having problems with.
I think we need to learn how to do more grassroots, because the way it's actually worked, at the moment is that the four officers, full time officers are basically doing everything and there's no delegation of work. One of the things I would like to see is the return of student volunteers because Student Life used to have a team of people who are basically student ambassadors (…) Equality and Welfare [had] volunteers and I would like to see that happen again.
And I'm hoping that by finding a big issue that students buy into, you can reach out to students, get them drawn in, and because of the way I say [we should] treat it more like a society, there needs to be more incentive for people to stay involved, which means you need to build community, which means it should be like gatherings where you book a room and there's like a pizza thing and people can turn up and chat to each other, like scheduled planning meetings that are like, well, we're going to plan the next stage of whatever protest or campaign we're going with, draw people in and really focus on getting as many volunteers as possible, like we have the Clubs and Societies Day, we should be saying to people this is like a society opportunity. You know, there's a community here you can work with. Other people get to know each other. Networks, even trainings. If we can facilitate that, because I want to leave the Union with a strong membership base of people who are engaged and want to carry on after I'm gone. Because I don't think I could do 2 years, right. But my aim is to leave the Union stronger than I left it. I might be able to achieve all the personal things I want to, but you'll have enough people engaged. Enough people bought in, enthused, feeling [like] it's their community, their place and that those are the people [who] are gonna keep it going over the next few years. It's rebuilding the confidence and the strength that was there before COVID so they can keep going over the next years.
CIARA
(…) It's so interesting. I find myself trying to do those same things. (…) Literary has started off on its own society. And I'm only doing this for, like, a couple more months. And the whole time kind of trying to hammer home that it's, you know, really about people and for people and the whole community. So, so important.
But I mean, I think the fact that we have so many strong and enthusiastic candidates this year, I feel like, for me, that gives me a lot of confidence that it's going to be, it's going to be good, like whoever is elected, it's definitely super interesting.
I feel like a lot of student engagement was, like, dwindling before COVID and then COVID was almost, you know, the big, massive catalyst for everything to just fly off. It's really, really hard. But I also feel like there's a bit of, like, a kind of a bridge missing between students and the, you know, officers and the SU because, you know, we're interviewing and we're talking to a lot of people right now (…) and I mean, things couldn't be more, like, apples and oranges. Like, when we talk to a lot of our candidates, or people who have been in the SU. And then when we talk to the students, especially around certain issues and the officers will tend to say, oh, no, like, that's not a thing, we're a big family because we're all a part of it. But students are like, we have no idea what's going on. We don't really know what the MSU is, pints and free food.
And a big thing that we hear is that a lot of people, particularly from, you know, the Black community and people of colour, have, like, a hard time seeing themselves represented. Is that something that, like, you guys are aware of or would be inclined to kind of work on in the next year if elected?
AOIFE
Yeah. So, if you've looked at my manifesto or my experience, whatever, most of it has been in sustainability because that's the role I've taken on in the Union, because that's what I knew most about. And a big part of being involved in sustainability is intersectionality. And just to explain it, basically, intersectionality is the idea that you're gonna face obstacles because you're a person of colour. You're gonna face obstacles because of your gender. You're gonna face obstacles because of, if you're working class or from a lower socioeconomic background. And it's the idea of how all those things intersect. So, with sustainability, fighting for, it's all about human rights and fighting for people. So, I've spent an awful lot of time looking at this and trying to get students involved. I actually wrote a motion last year for the Union of Students in Ireland about a multi-university environmental forum that would bring us all together. And what I said then was that it needed to be built from the ground up by students, and that they would hand pick people. I said we need to be sending people who have disabilities because they are disproportionately affected by pandemics which are going to rise with climate change and biodiversity loss. We need to be centring people of colour. We need to be centring people from working class backgrounds because they're all underrepresented in sustainability and the idea was that we would hand pick activists from each of those backgrounds, invite them to come in and help build the form. And that was the idea for USI, there's been a few issues with USI this year where the person who's in charge of that actually quit last month, so it's not happening right now, but that's an approach that I'm very familiar with, that I'm very aware of. And I really, really want to change things.
So it would again be a situation of, kind of, identifying people who are from those backgrounds that are underrepresented and giving them opportunities to draw more people in, making them essentially ambassadors for the Union to show. Yes, these people, there are people from your background in this Union already. You just don't see them because there aren't as many of them. So, we need to send to those activists and academic reps, those people, and show everyone in the, in like the college, that there are people just like them representing them, they're just not at the front of the Union and we need more people from those backgrounds, that there are more chances of them being in the Union and that's the way I want to bring it in. I wanna find people who are already engaged, who are from underrepresented backgrounds and give them the opportunity to be centre stage because we need to show that they are there just a lot of the time, they're not the ones in the foreground.
CIARA
Yeah, absolutely.
Alex, do you have anything to add?
ALEX
Yeah. So I suppose, from this year, even, like, we've noticed that there is a barrier there and it's a matter of breaking down that barrier. That's the idea with the forums. So, the idea of having one specifically for welfare, one specifically for equality, one specifically for academics, that's where the students can come to us with their issues because oftentimes we'll get really passionate messages on Instagram asking us to work on things. And that's when we actively engage with their students and work on them. And they're the kind of students who would be absolutely brilliant in the student movement.
However, they don't know how to get involved in Maynooth Student Union, so we have various positions on our student Senate, but like you don't have to be an active representative to be involved with the Student Union. And I suppose it's to try [to] breakdown that barrier, instead of students seeing the executive officers as, like, a hierarchy on campus. I absolutely hate it, like students would be like, oh, you're the VP education. And I'm just like, no, I'm just like you. I am just a student like you. And I'm here to represent you. So when you have anything, just come to us and then that is when we can actively work with you to resolve any issues and to ensure that you are represented on campus, but it's a matter of highlighting this to students and also breaking down barriers and that inviting them to Maynooth Student Union and for them to get involved in Maynooth Students Union as well. Yeah.
CIARA
Yeah, I feel breaking down that barrier, that you don’t have to be in the SU to be involved with the SU, is important. I was talking with the Education Candidates this morning and we were saying how a lot of people still have that secondary school mindset of hierarchy. Be it between like you and your lecture. You and your tutor. You and the SU. I think it’s so important to break that down because the difference is huge. But people are still so stuck in that. Oh well, you're like higher up than me so I can't, like, come to you because that's, like, scarier, that's intimidating.
ALEX
And that's one of the things, like, when we're actively at orientation, they see us like lecturers. They see us like staff members. And it's so weird because I'm quite young. I'm only 21. I'm probably the same age or even younger than some of the people standing in front of me. And I'm just like, I am one of you. That is all we are. But there are definitely... it’s that, like, vision of hierarchy, which is, that's one of the biggest (…) barriers that need to broken.
CIARA
No 100% (…) Our next question that we kind of have lined up for you guys is
What do you think the biggest challenge facing students in the 2023-2024 academic year will be, and how do you intend to respond to it?
ALEX
So (…) when I was first elected Arts, Celtic Studies and Philosophy Faculty Convener, one of the biggest issues was we were coming out of COVID at the time. However, we were still on campus, off campus, and blended learning was continued. However, it stopped just one day. It was just, like, right fully back on campus. However, there wasn't enough of a transition, and many students had different commitments due to COVID and due to their own personal circumstances. So, on campus we have mature students who’re parents, we've carers, and we just have commuters. We've the highest commuter population that the university has seen forever, and education at the moment is not accessible to these students.
And this is something which we've been working on year on year, but however now we are finally starting to progress it into a way that will finally be implemented over the coming years. However, if it is not something that is continued and continuously lobbied on, I would be afraid that it will fall and it could if it's not kept at the forefront of the movement.
It will not be the university’s priority anymore, but for the case, for the case of students who are parents, who are carers, who can't actively come to campus all the time, who need to nip home to collect their children from school, or if they have to bring somebody to the hospital, there's absolutely no accommodations on campus at the moment for these students. If they missed their assignment to the deadline, it's more than likely tough luck unless they can provide a note to say where they were or something. However, it's not acceptable because, and the thing is, from my experience, the university see blended learning as online learning. That is not the case. Blended learning is accessible learning, making sure that you're catering to the students' needs and it's a bare minimum that the university can provide an educational experience that accommodates all their students. So that is probably going to be one of the biggest issues, I suppose, of 2023, given the crisis that we're in at the moment. Like next year, we're going to have the highest number of homeless students (…) because of the CAO deadline, because of the Leaving Cert results, it's pathetic that the government are putting this on us honestly, but it is predicted, we know what's going to happen. So, what are many universities actively doing at the moment to try combat this before it is the issue? Nothing. So yeah, it is going to be a massive issue next year, so yeah.
CIARA
No, absolutely. It's, my, like, bigges,t biggest pet peeve is that they just totally took away the opportunity for blended learning. (…) Especially now because the majority of the population dealing with long COVID [are] within our age group. So, a lot of young people are now, who never would have dealt with, like, any disabilities or illness, are now all sick and
they're just like, ohh, don't care, too bad (…)
ALEX
See, that's, yeah, that's the thing: the lecturer is there. It's weird because during COVID it was like, OK, we'll be more accommodating. Now at this year's register, I said at the faculty meetings: OK, we'll accommodate students, regardless that we're not going to provide blended learning. However, we're going to supply notes. We're going to give the provision of notes and make sure that students, should they miss a lecture or 2, they can still catch up (…) And I don't understand, we'd have this communication between university, executive and staff members, lecturers and tutors, [but] lecturers can now turn to students and be like, OK, you're sick. Tough luck. That [shouldn’t be] the case. Students are paying enough to get their education and their everything. Students are paying accommodation, transport, everything and it's just complete neglect.
AOIFE
It's very, it's very hard to top everything that Alex has said, especially as the Education Officer and all the experience that comes with seeing those issues. But definitely I think (…) the biggest thing I've seen is, especially going around campaigning at the moment, is attendance. Oh my God, I cannot. I was out today trying to talk to students and campus was dead, OK, and this is not something that you would have encountered pre-COVID. And it's because we've got a higher commuter population and again, blended learning is not accessible, like me, I'm coming from Mullingar, and I have to come all the way from Mullingar up to do a single lecture on a Thursday. Yeah, so a lot of the time I just don't. And then you've students who are trying to juggle, juggle their jobs, trying to be a carer at home. And I know that there's been a lot of issues with
that, like lecturers are supposed to be uploading their notes, right? And I think the thing is we have all, like, we have all these issues within the campus and within the, within the university that need to be tackled and that's very much, like, a like, a case-by-case work situation where you start to see individual students recognize patterns and take that to the university and keep arguing for it.
But the problem is that due to our lack of engagement and, you know, not having as many students behind us as we wanted, we're not taken seriously (…) And in the university, where are the students, I don't see the students. I see four people in an office. I don't see anybody else behind you. And again, that becomes part of building up the strength of the Union so that we can, you know, be on campus and have people turn out and hang out outside Eeva's office like, hello we have had this issue brought up a few times over the past few years. You're not listening to us and we're just a small group of people and it can get bigger as a protest if you're not listening. It’s that sort of thing where, again, we need to be unionizing, like everything that Alex said, I'm not gonna repeat what she said because she made all the points that need to be made.
But I think about actually getting action on that is also looking further down the line, like I was saying with the big picture, because what we're getting here in Maynooth is, yes, we need to be treating the symptoms right. We definitely do. But what's the root cause of all the issues, and the root cause is the high cost of living, with a housing crisis, with a lack of adequate transport, with a lack of adequate facilities for people, with a lack of proper social housing. So, I think it needs to be like a multi-pronged approach. We need to be fighting the big systemic issues that are causing all the problems that we have and then trying to mitigate them. So, it's a bit like action to stop it and also mitigation against the results.
CIARA
Yeah, like attendance is definitely such a big one. But, like, there's this stupid misconception that students are just lazy or that, like, students are still children. So that somehow makes them subhuman. So, we shouldn't treat them the same way as you treat somebody in a job (…) Catch up. You know, if I can work from home, I can learn from home.
ALEX
And it's weird. Sorry. Just come in again there because it's weird because the university have that approach with their staff. So staff were given an opportunity to apply for blended work.
However, how come it's up to lecturers? They're fair enough. You can go home, make your notes and come in and deliver your slides. But how come when we have students who are facing these struggles, disabilities, mature students, people who just can't come to campus one day a week? Why can't we accommodate students the same way that many universities accommodate their staff? It's just leaving students completely neglected.
CIARA
Yeah. If you can give it to your staff we can give it to our students (…)
So you guys have like your manifestos and your plans for the year ahead. How do you plan to balance the priorities in your manifestos for the year?
Do you think there's anything, like, within them that you're going to kind of get, like, more priority to? Which ones do you think are key?
AOIFE
So, my my manifesto is sustainability, housing, organization, understanding, and transport. And I feel like an awful lot of those, there's overlap. So, for organization, it's about what I was saying with grassroots and we need to get people drawn into the Union and that's where you get the overarching issues of housing and transport. Understanding is about being more approachable, like we've been saying before, which is again part of getting people into the Union.
So, I feel like when you're tackling, when I'm taking different parts of my manifesto, I'll be tackling more than one at once because it'll all be part of the same, like, I'm very much someone who's like, please, let's not double our work if we can find, like, we have the counselling service on campus. And I think that we should be essentially promoting more of their events rather than trying to specifically run our own, because it'll be stronger connections: for example, with sustainability, green campus do so many cool events and the SU over the years has just not engaged with us (…) we've been essentially running our own Green Week once a year. And I remember one, I remember one year we were running our Green Week, the week after Green Campus did theirs. There was no point to that. So I'm someone who really likes to cut back on the work and see where we can collaborate because that's always my spirit.
For the sustainability thing, which is a big part of my manifesto and I'm very experienced on, I want to in build it through all of our activities. For me it's about efficiency. So finding where we can do two pieces of work and two aims of the Union at the same time and, sustainability, we treat it as something separate. And I want in build it into every campaign we do because we can look at (…) how sustainability fits into any Human Rights Campaign we're doing because, like, let's say people with disabilities: (…) 60% of people who died from COVID in the UK had a disability, therefore, you know, looking for better healthcare in Ireland is a (…) a sustainability issue as well, or trying to get better infrastructure to look after people who have physical disabilities, because when floods happen in Germany, and we live in Ireland with a 5% increase in flooding each year, 12 people in Germany drowned in floods last year, they couldn't get out of the building. So whatever campaign we're looking at doing for any particular group, sustainability fits into it. And I think that we should be looking for those little tangents and applying it into whatever campaign we're doing. So for me, it's all about efficiency and finding ways to do like things at the same time rather than creating extra work for ourselves where we don't have to. So that's how I feel I'm going to implement my manifesto and the priorities Just like see, here's the overlap. Here's the intersectionality. Let's go for it. Yeah.
CIARA
Absolutely, absolutely. I'm a big lover of the work smarter, not harder way of life.
ALEX
Yeah. So I suppose, from my point of view, the role of President, it's so varied because one day you're out having Where's My Levy protest and then the next day you're stuck behind your laptop screen and doing the payroll and all the other basics of the job. So, when it comes to my manifesto, I suppose I'm running on a relatively short but effective manifesto. So I have housing on my manifesto. It's something that I want to achieve, but it's also something that is achievable. And so essentially for me, I don't want to talk through each point of my manifesto right now because, it's just, I'll be here all day.
Well, I'm effectively just taking each point of my manifesto and achieving it. However, from my experience here in the Union, I suppose I know when the busy times are during the year and when there's times of the year where you're just like, OK, this needs to take priority. So, I suppose from that hindsight I'm able to approach situations like this. But in regards to my manifesto, like, there's a discreet voucher system that I would absolutely love to implement in Maynooth Student Union because one of the difficulties, I suppose, for me this year was seeing how many students are struggling with the cost of living crisis that students can't even afford their own lunch. They can't afford their own dinner. They're coming into college. They're not eating all day because they can't afford it. So that is one of the things that I would love to implement, discreet vouchers, so whether it's for the MSU bar or connecting with local businesses downtown, it's something achievable. And during the crossover period and into July and August, while we're preparing for orientation and stuff, it's a lot of stuff that I would absolutely love to have rolled out and ready to go to hit the ground running with that semester, because with the role of President, it's weird because you could be prioritizing something. And then the next day, there's an absolute wave of campaign that you need to prioritize there and then. So, I suppose it's knowing when to prioritize what.
CIARA
Absolutely, no. I think that last thing you said is like such a key point. But like knowing when and what that's like definitely yeah, definitely hits home for my life at the minute as well.
Last edited 07/03/2023 11:43
