From Student Exec to Social Tech founders: Our Uni Experience

Georgia

I went to uni because I was always told to go to uni. I grew up in a deprived town in North East England, but I didn’t even know what that meant until I got quite a bit older. In school, from a really young age I was told ‘You’ll finish primary school, go on to a secondary school of your choice, go to a local college, and then off to uni’. It never really felt like there was any option other than to follow that path, so I did.

I completed my A-levels at a college a couple of towns over and was incredibly excited to get into my first choice course studying Marine Biology BSc at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (I ended up switching to Biological Sciences around Year 2). To be honest, at that point I was just really excited to get away from my hometown!

My uni experience was pretty standard, I’d say. I got along pretty well with my kitchen mates, and I’m still good friends with one of them to this day. I went out (almost) every day of Freshers Week and probably a bit too much in my first couple months of first year. 

I made a good amount of friends and I got good grades but I never really engaged with the wider ‘student experience’. 

I clicked ‘join’ on all the free societies but never went to any of their events because I didn’t know what to expect. I dreamed of joining at least one sports team but couldn’t afford the gym membership, club membership, or necessary kit. I did become a Class Rep in my second year, which helped me gain valuable skills and make some more friends, but I had no idea the Class Rep system had anything to do with the Student Union…in fact all ll I really knew about the Union was that it had a nightclub and a bar.

That all changed towards the end of my final year. I went through a heartbreak, decided my diss was better off done than perfect, and realised I didn’t want to pursue a career in my chosen field. All pretty grim realisations, at the time. Then my good friend, Anj, encouraged me to run for an elected position at the Student Union and - as I’ve said before here - I did run, and I won.

Two consecutive terms later and that brings us to now (almost), but you’ll have to stay tuned to this series to find out more about my cofounders Evans and Faris, what we all feel we needed at uni, where we are now, and how we’re helping current students and fellow Gen Zs.