Dear Students,

Look at this, two years of making student life better!

I cannot believe that my time at Huddersfield Students’ Union has come to an end. Time really does fly by.

I first became involved with the Students’ Union in 2013, and it has been one of the best experiences of my time here in Huddersfield.

If I had to summarise my past two years, I would need the whole website to talk about campaigns, conferences, elections, events and all of the things which have made these past two years so beautiful. What I am going to do is to keep it short, sweet, and all in one blog post, and I’ll use this space to really just say thank you to many of you.

Over the past two years, I have learnt a lot about the University and about how remarkably well it functions, which make us one of the best in the country. Most importantly, I learnt that an organisation like ours in the Union, is essentially about our people - the students. I‘ve attended a huge number of events where I met students, lecturers, professionals, politicians, our Chancellor Sir Patrick Stewart (he’s so cool), DJ Fresh, other incredible Executive Officers from Students’ Unions all across the UK, and most importantly some amazing friends.

Another significant and very essential fact that I have learnt here at Huddersfield SU is that an Executive Team is made up of five different individuals with distinct and unique personalities. All of the projects and initiatives we went through have helped us with identifying ourselves at work, recognising our strengths and weaknesses and building a positive team relationship.

This experience has been challenging and at times difficult, but overall it’s been a fantastic opportunity. I have been surrounded by a great and strong team, and I was also mentored by prepared staff members who were always there on a daily basis, ready to answer my billions of questions and to guide me through accomplishing my objectives.

I can’t begin to say how proud I am of how hard each of us has worked to achieve fantastic changes for students. Most importantly, I am very proud and honoured to have shared 365 office days (with some holidays in between) with the most inspiring people: executive officers, staff, student staff, volunteers, student media groups, course reps, union councillors, sport clubs and societies.

Another great part of the job has been the collaboration, which I have personally treasured, with the University teams: our hard-working Vice-Chancellor and the senior managerial team, registry and the many meetings we have had to share, all of the student services departments which have helped us along the way, and all of the schools and staff members who continue to make the University of Huddersfield a tremendous and exceptional institution.

Now all that's left is for me to give my personal, huge, mahoosive, gigantic THANK YOU to all of you amazing students for electing me to be your Vice President. This experience has enriched me more than I could have imagined, which I hope will help me to go far in the future (fingers crossed – you never know).

I want to personally wish the best of luck to the new incoming Student Exec team, who I am sure will make a huge positive impact and really will make student life better. Please take care of the newbies, they have only just started but I believe they will definitely impress you.

It has been an absolute honour.

That’s all from me, your crazy Italian Vice President. Farewell Huddersfield SU. Thank you for everything.

Lots of love,

Coco Toma

Vice President Communications and Democracy