Dannie Grufferty VP Society & Citizenship talks to Abi Carrington, a student, a union trustee and an Olympics Ambassador for the University of Wales Trinity St. David (and a course rep!) On top of all that she is a mum of five!
She blogs for NUS on the work she is doing as part of her ambassadorial role, including a schools workshop programme to strengthen the links between 'town and gown'. A fantastic champion for Society & Citizenship!
"London 2012 promotes something for everyone"
In the summer I came across the advert for students to apply to become the Olympic Ambassador for Lampeter Campus, When I looked into it and realised that the ’Be A Champion’ initiative has 3 themes; Sport, Art & Culture and Sustainability; I realised that London 2012 promotes something for everyone and within a short space of time I was was totally inspired and very excited! This is a great way to get the whole community involved and to create a Lampeter 2012 legacy for future generations.
As a mum of 5, I was keen to get the local schools involved and following our launch (which was attended by over 90 year 6 and 7 pupils) we have created a school workshop programme. At freshers fayre I recruited 53 volunteers and with their help, and the support of the local 5x60 officers we will be visiting local schools and community centres with a physical, educational and inspirational workshop that includes indoor olympic events and torch making.
In addition to this we are planting rainforest in Kenya to support Kenyan farmers and create fieldwork opportunities for students as well as holding recycling campaigns and hopefully a 2 week olympic festival in February. I have found that this has provided a fantastic opportunity to strenghten town and gown links as well as giving students the opportunity to be a part of something very special. We have so far been awarded Bronze ’Be A Champion’ accreditation and we are now working towars Silver, we have also submitted an application for the 2012 inspire mark which we hope we will be given permissions to use to help promote our events.
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Abi Carrington is a student union trustee and Olympics Ambassador for the University of Wales Trinity St.David.
For more information see the NUS Be a Champion website