Staff Spotlight – Meet the Student Experience Team

Elizabeth and Shannon are our Student Experience Officers, and they are a team dedicated to your overall student experience.

They oversee the Students’ Union and provide other enrichment opportunities throughout the year. We sat down with them to find out a little bit more about them and what they do.

What do the Student Experience Team do at Canterbury College?

Our overarching role is to make sure that students have the best possible experience they can here while at College. Part of that is organising loads of fun trips and events – this includes all the paperwork, safety, and stewarding for all SU activities. We’re also around just to have a chat, and we are here to support you. If you see us – make sure you say hello! We have an open-door policy and are always around to signpost students to the correct places to get help if they need it.

We work alongside the SU as a bridge between students and staff to make sure student feedback is actioned. Alongside this we help to promote student voice, working alongside the president to run class rep meetings and push for students’ voices to be heard.

Enrichment is organised by us throughout the year to help students to feel safe and prepared for life outside of College. This includes organising informational events around money management, sexual health, and our key safeguarding topics each month.

What exciting things can we expect for the 23/24 academic year?

The upcoming academic year will have lots of really fun events and trips for you all to enjoy. These include our Freshers Fayre, which is always a really big event that you won’t want to miss. We are also going to Thorpe Park Fright Night in October, which is always super popular. Maybe if you’re interested in pop culture you could join us when we hold our trips to MCM Comic Con as well. We are really passionate about the LGBTQ+ community and believe in giving all identities a voice, so we are looking at doing a Culture Day.

Any suggestions that you guys have, we would love to hear them and help implement them into upcoming events and activites.

Be sure to check out our website because we have a lot of things for you to get involved with this year.

Find out more about the SU trips you can get tickets for here.

How do you support students?

We are here to support students in lots of different ways. We are now based in the LRC, and work very closely with the wellbeing team to ensure that any issues or concerns you have at College are sorted. 

As well as signposting students and supporting enrichment, we also offer several valuable services. We have free hygiene products in the Students’ Union, as well as free condoms to students, and other forms of birth control can be collected on Wednesdays from our sexual health nurse, Gilly.

We have a food bank in the Students’ Union office which can be accessed by any students who are struggling. Donations are made by staff and students throughout the year to help students who may not have the food they need at home. If students need clothes or toiletries, we can direct them to the Wellbeing Centre in the LRC where they have a clothes and toiletries bank too.

Elizabeth Brown – Student Experience Officer

About Me: I’m a big fan of nature and the outdoors, I do a lot of outdoor walking. I also love horse riding, I spend a lot of my time doing that. Linking that to my work here, I’m interested in promoting mental health in terms of how we can improve it by being out in nature and working with wildlife. That’s something I’m really passionate about. I am also a massive Taylor Swift fan (Swiftie!)

My advice for you: Make the most of your time at College and enjoy yourself to the fullest. It’s going to be a really good year.

Shannon Casey – Student Experience Officer

About Me: I enjoy in my spare time going to the gym and working out, I want to implement that into the new events coming up as we have some great facilities and we have some new Students’ Union roles revolving around this. I also love gaming and playing on the PC, and the new Students’ Union has a ton of games.

My advice for you: Don’t stress yourself out too much, it can be stressful getting used to a new environment and new people, but this is why we are here. Whether you need to talk to us, or you want to enjoy yourself through the trips and activities, do what you can and relax as much as possible. 

Source: canterburycollege.ac.uk