First year sociology and politics student, Ben Alker this year’s co-curricular officer candidate, is hoping to encourage students to think outside the box in terms of life outside their studies.
The Co-Curricular Volunteer Officer liaises with societies, charitable organisations, community projects and volunteering. They also promote the opportunities and skills that involvement in co-curricular activities brings.
Ben aims to help students realise there are plenty of outlets for professional connections. They want to give students some more outside experience and demonstrate that university is not just about getting a degree.
“There’s an unfortunate trend in positions like co-curricular, but also generally throughout the union, to emphasise employability and integration into the labour market,” they said.
“I want to begin pushing us away from that and more towards getting involved in local charities and local movements and the like. It’s about attempting to get people involved in the process of changing their surroundings, both in a political and non political sense.”
Organisations and experience
They understand that it’s down to students to take the next steps but there is a lack of awareness of opportunities out there. Charities and other public sector organisations have much more to offer and Ben believes students should be more involved, especially politically and locally.
“Young people have a right to engage politically because, whether they like it or not, they’re shaped by politics. Whether it’s in the USA, the UK or local council politics. Being able to understand these conditions by working within the third sector can shape your own state of affairs and then you can have the capacity to change things.”
Holding both an American and British citizenship, Ben was involved with his Mayor’s Youth Council back in Arizona, and knows the organisational skills they developed in this position is key to their success if elected. They threw themself into student life at Stirling as soon as the academic year started and has chaired the Scottish Socialist Youth for the past few months as well as being involved with the Stirling Solidarity Space.
“We all just want to be able to get the Union mobilised into a student first attitude. I think with Justine as Vice President of communities, Aaron as Vice President of education and Toby as Housing Officer, we would be able to implement that sort of agenda. It’s all about collaboration and ultimately no one does this job completely on their own.”
Solidarity Space Hope
During their campaign for co-curricular officer, Ben is a part of a slate of candidates in this year’s elections endorsed by the Stirling Solidarity Space and has high hopes for their peers.
“I was quite hesitant at first but the solidarity space convinced me. It’s been brilliant working with them all,” they said.
Societies and clubs also have more to offer students than a social life and extra-curricular activities. They offer students vital skills that any employer would be pleased to see on a perspective CV.
“Even I forget that when I’m doing organisational work. It’s a skill set I can present. And so I think you have talents you gain from these activities and so if we present these as you know that is what you can have on your CV and you don’t have to go out and do all these other employability courses. You’ve got the skills already there. I’m just making people more aware of those things.”
Alker has always intended to become involved in student politics, but never expected the opportunity to present itself so quick.
“I know there’s certainly limitations to what you can do but the university does tend to push this very careerist attitude. It doesn’t allow us to really engage with any of our aspirations and passions in that way. I want to try and get the student body more involved with stuff like the student union, and even perhaps NUS in the future, it’s one step towards that and trying to clear out that job centred attitude to make it more well-rounded.”
Featured Image Credit: Ben Alker
4th year English and Journalism student with a passion for interesting stories and interesting people
