Angelica Oparinde is a fourth-year law and politics student who is running for sports president.
She is currently BUCS Student Ambassador for the UK and Northern Ireland, and president of the Stirling University Athletics Club. Angelica has been involved in sports, specifically athletics, since she was around 8 years old and been a part of sports clubs at Stirling since her first year.
As she nears the end of her university career, Angelica felt it was now or never to try and run for sports president, and she had nothing to lose by running for it.
Angelica’s manifesto focusses on three main points; approachability, development, and employability.
With regards to approachability, Angelica wants to create a one-to-one booking system for sports clubs committee members. This will allow them to book 15 minute slots with her to raise any concerns they have or ideas they want to implement. This will help ensure things are actually getting addressed and solved instead of emails getting lost and not dealt with.
It will also help having a face-to-face conversation with Angelica, allowing club committee members to better articulate their points in person instead of by email.
Angelica’s second point is club development. Currently the club committees create one year and five year development plans in the summer. Her goal is to set up a midterm and end of term reporting system to check in with these plans, so they aren’t forgotten about. This allows the clubs to either make sure goals are being achieved, or allows them to seek help from the sports union to continue achieving their goals.
Her final point is employability. This is something Angelica is passionate about, especially as BUCS Sports Ambassador, a role she believes she would not have got if it weren’t for her work as track and field captain. Angelica would meet with the careers team to help offer third and fourth years who are on sports committees the resources needed to develop their job applications, CVs, and interview skills.
Angelica points out that “sometimes you do so many things like while on a committee and you don’t even realise that it’s really good, you’re just like ‘oh this is just what I’m expected to do.” She hopes her employability plans will help people realise how invaluable their skills are regardless of whether or not they go into the sporting world after graduation.
Angelica wished to add that she has “really enjoyed campaigning, so no matter what happens on Friday I’m proud of myself”.
Image Credit: University of Stirling Students Union
Student journalist and Sports Editor for Brig Newspaper
