Go Herts Award

I have decided to apply to the Go Herts Award, which recognises your extra-curricular activities outside of your degree from the moment you started University. You need 100 hours for the Bronze Award, 200 hours for the Silver Award and 300 hours for the Gold Award.

Throughout my time at University, I have achieved the Gold Award by totalling 418.48 hours working part-time at the University of Hertfordshire's Students' Union during my first and second year of study. It is important to apply for this award, as it is added onto your transcript once graduated and shows to employers that you achieved more than just a degree while at University.

As evidence, I gained a witness statement detailing this achievement which the Marketing Executive completed and signed.

When applying for this award, it is required that you write a reflection on your extra-circular activities. As all my hours are from the Professional Development strand, I decided to write my reflection on my participation working at the Students' Union.

There are six different categories which you must show development in as these are classed as positive graduate attributes:

• Professionalism, Employment and Enterprise
• Learning and Research Skills
• Social Responsibility
• Intellectual depth, Breadth and Adaptability
• Respect for Others
• Global Awareness

I have added my reflection on my activities below:

While studying, I worked part-time as a Web and Graphic Design Assistant at Hertfordshire Students’ Union. This employment has supported me in achieving the University of Hertfordshire Graduate attributes by the nature of the tasks set. 

Professionalism, Employment and Enterprise - Throughout my employment, there was an emphasis on time management and adhering to deadlines. During the Freshers 2018 project, the marketing department worked closely with event management team to promote and organise Freshers events for over 25,000 students. The time frame to design promotional material was short so tasks were delegated among the team to complete this project efficiently. My main role in this was to design and develop the Freshers week micro-site, where I needed to code elements inside the content management system. This required a large amount of problem-solving and research as the page needed a countdown clock, logo, animated background, buttons and mail system for prospective students. Coding some of these elements were relatively straightforward with some online guidance, however the countdown clock was more difficult as it needed to be functional which required JavaScript. The overall project was successful as we worked together to solve problems, I helped with some of the print material to ease the strain on the rest of the team. 

Learning and Research Skills - As mentioned prior, during the Freshers 2018 project I needed to research how to code elements that I wasn’t familiar with. To overcome this, I followed video tutorials on the content management system and learnt code by using resources such as W3Schools. When I needed to solve coding problems, I used sites such as Stack Overflow or contacted the developers of the CMS. By researching effectively, I aided the team by taking ownership of my part of the project. 

Social Responsibility - A large part of the Students’ Union is the Advice & Support team who help students with challenges they may be facing at University. The information on Financial Wellbeing, Housing and Useful Links & Information found on the Advice & Support pages were either outdated or needed a design refresh. Therefore, I was tasked to improve this content, which was exciting as this would be valuable for students struggling at Hertfordshire. To gain a clear direction, I spoke directly with the staff at Advice & Support to tailor these pages to their services as well as discuss content they wanted to update or deliver more effectively. While designing, I attempted to create a calming environment by using their signature light-blue theme and supporting images. Once completed, I received positive feedback from the team and felt fulfilled as I knew the benefit that these updates would have on student’s wellbeing and those that needed support.

Intellectual depth, Breadth and Adaptability - Prior to working on the Students’ Union’s website, I was employed as a Graphic Designer. As I displayed an array of diverse skills, I was given more website tasks to aid the team and subsequently had a change in job role. I had recently learnt website coding on my university course in a website module. This employment supported these new skills as they allowed me to refine them outside of class. This increased my confidence level, as I was given independent projects to complete and was trusted with publishing content to the website. 

Respect for Others - While working it is essential to respect other employees so you can work together effectively. Further than this, empathy is important when working on sensitive projects. Unfortunately, there had been reports of sexual harassment in the forum and the marketing team wanted to create a campaign using bold print material to remind students to respect each other. I was the creative lead on this project and was asked to research inspiration for some simple but striking designs which would catch people’s attention. Although not directly related, this taught me the importance of how your actions can affect others. We used the hashtag ‘JustDon’t’ with information and statistics. These posters were printed and displayed in the forum. 

Global Awareness - The Students’ Union respect international traditions by posting on their social channels regularly. I produced social media and print material to celebrate Eid, Black History Month and International Women’s Day in the form of motion graphics and posters. This gave me the opportunity to research cultures that I wasn’t familiar with which helped me gain an understanding on the symbolism and history of these events. I believe that learning about different people has helped me to become a better designer.