Zinnia Thorpe is President of the Wildlife Society, she tells us what it feels like to win Society of the Year at the SU Awards 2018.

It feels amazing to have won Society of the Year at the Students’ Union Awards 2017-18. The whole committee were very surprised! We are still overwhelmed that our society has been recognised and rewarded by students as a successful society. It has not always been easy running the Wildlife Soc for the past year, but all our hard work has paid off! As Vice President ALSS, Johanna, said in her speech; we are a quiet society, we turn up to the Student Union events like Freshers Fair and Volunteering week but we do act very much “behind the scenes”.

This year we aimed to pull off a successful event each semester. We have overachieved our target; we have organised two marine mammal survey and rescue training days for our members, a pub crawl fundraiser for the WWF (raising over £50 for the charity), a Christmas quiz and photography competition. We are very pleased that all our hard work has been acknowledged.

All the committee members enjoy getting involved with volunteering, especially in terms of what we love – Wildlife! It’s been great to get different students interested in wildlife and appreciating more of the natural world. It’s also been an amazing opportunity to make new friends and develop our skills. Two of our committee members have achieved gold awards for their volunteering and skill development through the running of the society. By being involved with the Students’ Union we have been able to develop ourselves and really make the most of our time here. With all the amazing events put on by the SU it would be a shame to miss out! Joining or running a society is one of the easiest ways to get involved and can be the most rewarding.