Hi all!
I hope everyone had a great month! this was a pretty exciting one as we saw the return of the Royal Adelaide Show! Hopefully you managed to get out too see it with friends/family. I myself was there and had lots of fun!
other than that we finally came to the middle of SP5! hope everyone got some of that much needed rest so we can power through to the end of the semester.
Now, onto the fun part, as mentioned in previous report I was given the amazing opportunity to represent UniSA and USASA at the National Union of Students Ethnocultural Student Conference. Myself, the Mawson Lakes Rep Gagan, USASA President Isaac Solomon and another UniSA student were sent to deliver presentations on issues regarding International and CALD student issues, we also listened to other students and their issues as well as networked with like minded students from all across Australia!
we arrived a day before the conference and met with some students from Melbourne, Sydney and even Wollongong! We spent some time getting settled into accommodation and then socialised, preparing ourselves for the next three days of presentations. The three days were sectioned into similar schedules, we began with welcome to countries, from first nations community representatives, then a plenary, we were then given the option of two different presentations, another plenary, more presentations and then the day was finished, in between all these were given time to eat and socialise.
After the first plenary of the first day Gagan and a fellow UniSA student delivered a presentation about breaking barriers in STEM as women of colour, an extremely interesting presentation that ended with an interactive session of brainstorming and understanding.
for the sake of the word count I wont go into complete detail about all presentations and plenaries but to summarise there were presentations on combating anti-Semitism, issues surrounding Hong Kong and Taiwan, issues surrounding racism towards First nations people and people of African descent and Issues surrounding allyship towards People of colour. These presentations were extremely well done and what’s more, they gave us a platform to have meaningful conversations and give us ideas of how we could implement them here at UniSA.
Obviously In my opinion Isaac and I gave the best presentation, based on how we can overcome discrimination within academic integrity, our presentation spoke about how we need to educate and empower students over penalise and demonise. I was proud to be able to represent UniSA and USASA speaking about issues that had been raised to me by my fellow students. We concluded that universities owe students consistency and transparency so that they have the tools and knowledge to succeed, overall this was an amazing experience.
But will all good things some bad must occur, on the flight home I contracted Covid 😦 . I spent the next week recovering and am now back on my feet! please all stay safe, wear masks when necessary, sanitise/was hands accordingly and if you’re feeling sick, stay home an rest up!
as always, if you have and questions comments or concerns or you want my infamous Butter Chicken recipe, email me at bhasy035@mymail.unisa.edu.au
Student Rep Reports 