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Hello, I'm Kertu, and I'm running for Mature Rep because I would like to do my best to ensure that the challenges mature students face are not just heard but genuinely understood.
Last year, during my time at the Lifelong Learning Centre, I had the privilege of meeting many other mature students. We quickly formed friendships, offering each other a shoulder when needed. Despite our different backgrounds and future goals, we found that we had a surprising amount in common. Some of us were parents, some had jobs. Occasionally, we all felt a bit insecure and overlooked.
When I found out that MSRC were looking for a mature rep, I suddenly felt a strong push to nominate myself. By now, I've met so many lovely mature students and I know how much they have to contribute. I'd like to be part of making the journey through medical school more inclusive and supportive for all mature students.

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Hello medics! Here’s a bit of background information about me. I am an international student from Canada and have previously completed an undergraduate degree and worked multiple jobs before studying at Leeds. In my undergraduate degree at McGill University, I was highly involved in student advocacy and had the wonderful opportunity to be involved within the following organizations:

Microbiology and Immunology Students’ Association (2019-2022)
FIRST-YEAR REP where I secured two sponsorships within my first term and assisted in planning events.
PRESIDENT where I advocated for positive changes in the delivery of online courses within the program, challenged successfully unfair testing practices at the level of the Faculty of Science, built a new website for the association, etc. We were also selected as runner-up in the following two categories for the Faculty of Science: Best Council and Best President.
VP SUSTAINABILITY organized fundraisers and laid the groundwork for a greener research laboratory proposal.

Science Undergraduate Society (2021-2022) representing all 5,000 science undergraduate students
VP ACADEMIC where I advocated for student rights at the Faculty and Senate level of our university, addressed academic grievances from students in all departments, organized the annual Graduate & Professional Fair which is attended by 5,000 students every year, created comprehensive academic infographics (since our academic regulations were a bit of a mess and hard to understand), re-negotiated the association’s contract of understanding with the university admin, etc.

Biomedical Interdisciplinary Students’ Association (2020-2022)
FOUNDER AND MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS where I co-authored the association’s constitution, and memorandum of agreement with the University, onboarded departmental societies, engaged in consultations with the Dean of the School of Biomedical Sciences, and obtained legal recognition as a charitable organization.

Since arriving at Leeds, I have now gotten involved with the Leeds University Union as an Academic Engagement Assistant and I look forward to continuing to use your input to inform what sort of events to organize as well as areas of improvement in academic policy at the University.

As a student representative, you are quite privileged in the way that you can act on specific student grievances and see changes from the school. To me, this has been the most rewarding aspect of being involved for the past few years, and I look forward to an opportunity to continue doing so as your mature representative. As mature students, a lot of us have come from all paths of life and, sometimes, we can feel quite alone given how unique each of our journeys is. My goal as your representative would be to constantly bring that awareness in MSRC discussions about events, feedback for the medical school, etc.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you very much for reading all of this :))

If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me! My email is um23amm@leeds.ac.uk and my insta is alex_mirces. If not, you can always find me on the badminton court wayyyyy too many times a week.

Cheers,
Alex