Hello dear readers,

Welcome to another year of excitement and great strides in our academic pursuits!

You can call me McCarthy. I am in my final year studying Computer Networking and Cybersecurity. 

When I started out in the foundation class, I knew I always wanted to assist the vibrant and diverse community of students especially to enhance the beautiful learning experience in London Met, but I could not figure out how to get into the boat. On my own initiative, I created the first WhatsApp group of my class to assist us as students, especially with questions that need quick answers and cannot wait for the next day email reply from the lecturers. This became our greatest communication support backbone during the infancy stage of the Corona lockdown and still does.

The opportunity finally came when the module leader walked into the class and asked who would volunteer to be the Class Rep. Some of my cohorts pointed at me to be the right person since I am already engaged in that capacity. I gladly accepted this role since volunteering is embedded in my social DNA.

London Met Student Union (LMSU) gave me the opportunity and tools to exercise my role as a Student Rep in a much larger capacity. Student Union Rep training exposed me to the rules of engagement and logical presentation of issues affecting fellow students. 

Equipped with the knowledge from the training sessions, I was able to present various cases affecting many students at the university staff and student meetings that were actioned on. 

One actioned case was asking the lecturers to create lecture slides with more content and pages. This became imperative during the lockdown phase when access to the library was almost impossible to get the relevant books and materials.

Another noticeable case was adding socket points for students to plug in their personal laptops and tablets in the labs. This became necessary after the covid lockdown, where we must do most work with our personal devices.

I owe much of my personal development to LMSU and I want to thank this great union for this take-home experience which would reflect in my future personal and workplace engagements.

Without the Student Union, students have just a face.

With the Student Union, students have both a face and a VOICE!