Sheffield Students' Union - Amazing

It's been a bit of a marathon week with the last three evenings taken up with the Activities Awards, Sports Awards and the 'University, is it worth it?' debate respectively.

These events have been an excellent reminder of what this Union is about - the energy and enthusiasm of students.

Award ceremonies only work when people care about the awards, and at the activities and sports awards it was abundantly clear that people care about activities and sport here. This manifests itself in people giving up hours of their time for the benefit of others. Student volunteering isn't just about projects with the local community, it's also about the people who type up the minutes of their committees or who put time and effort into putting on the best possible event. This is what makes this Union what it is.

The 'University, is it worth it?' debate highlighted a different side to the Union, the more political and representative side. Nonetheless students were there in good numbers, making points to the various stakeholders on the panel. This is in a context of people saying that students are apathetic and don't care about politics. It is our job as a Union to put the interests of student front and centre when the government reviews funding arrangements for Universities and it was excellent to see last night large numbers of students who buy into that project and who buy into the notion that the interests of students should be heard. This is also what makes the Union what it is.

This organisation is an amazing place to work for a whole variety of reasons, but one of the most foremost reasons is the privillege to work for an organisation which has so many people contributing to its success. We want students to fully appreciate their membership of the Union and we need to work on this, but whether acknowledged or not, the Union is what it is because of its members and that is a glowing tribute to the students of this University.