VUWSA EXECUTIVE 2023

The exec is elected each year by Te Herenga Waka students to ensure the student voice is part of the important conversations at the university. This team is the face of VUWSA, and you’ll see them around campus, at events, at important meetings and in the media repping student issues.

If you feel passionate about something on campus, or about students in the Wellington area, hit up the exec and see how you can get involved!

President JESSICA YE

Meet Jess your VUWSA president for 2023! Her job is to support the VUWSA team to do their best, work with Ngāi Tauira and student representative groups, and form positive relationships with university and political leaders to ensure student needs are met. Jess is also VUWSA’s main media spokesperson, repping students.

As President, Jess will make sure that you see VUWSA out and about, engaging with you and advocating for the issues that students care about most. She knows that collective student action, getting students voting, and strong communities are the way forward for students to see the transformation they need in accessible education, housing affordability, student debt, climate change, pastoral care and more. Lastly, Jess is always keen to hear your suggestions on what VUWSA can do to make being a student easier!

Jessica Ye - President

1. Willa Aitken - Academic Vice President

2. Marcail Parkinson - Welfare Vice President

3. Katherin Blow - Engagement Vice President

4. Kayla Allen - Education Officer

5. Liban Ali - Clubs & Activities Officer

6. Hana Pilkinton-Ching - Campaigns Officer

7. Mika Hervel - Sustainability Officer

8. Leia Weeds Kawai - Equity Officer

9. Alyssa Fa'afua - Treasurer / Secretary

1. Academic Vice President

Kia ora lovelies! Willa Aitken is your Academic Vice President for 2023. She is a 5th year Law and Commerce student majoring in Finance, originally from Hawkes Bay. If you see her around University or ever need help don’t be afraid to say hi or flick her an email!

In her role as Academic VP, she advocates for students alongside the VUWSA Academic Team, faculty delegates, class reps, Student Academic Committee, and other student rep groups. Our central focus is to support students and ensure your voice is heard and acted upon.

2. Welfare Vice President

Marcail, your Welfare Vice-President for 2023! She is a Bachelor of Arts student majoring in Art History and International Relations. As Welfare Vice-President Marcail will help to organise exciting, accessible and inclusive events while also holding the university accountable and advocating for student welfare and wellbeing.

This year Marcail will push to ensure student health and wellbeing is at the forefront of university decisions, she will advocate for readily available services/resources for addiction, mental health, gender, sexuality and other student healthcare, plus creating a more climate-friendly, sustainable campus.

3. Engagement Vice President

Katherine is your Engagement Vice-President for 2023. They will be working with VUWSA’s engagement team, local and central government, community organisations and grassroots campaigners for tauira across Aotearoa, ensuring that students’ voices and issues are at the centre of decisions that affect them.

This year, Katherine will be pushing for ensuring the elected government understand and work to fix systemic issues students have been facing for decades. Housing, public transport and accessibility to education are key issues facing students that are determined by political will. The general election is a big year and the engagement team and the VUWSA executive will be working hard to ensure that students’ voices are heard, uplifted and empowered.

4. Education Officer

Kayla is a fourth year Commerce and Law student majoring in Economics and Public policy. Previous to this position, Kayla spent two years advocating for Commerce students as a Vice-President of VicCom. As Education Officer, her position involves supporting the academic team in advocating for better educational outcomes for all students at Te Herenga Waka.

Accessibility to learning is important, students are no longer just students, they have jobs and cultural commitments. That is why her focus is advocating for accessible education for all students, pushing for universal access of lecture recordings and no online invigilation.

5. Clubs & Activities Officer

Liban is a third year Bachelor of Arts student from the Hutt Valley and is your VUWSA Clubs and Activities Officer for this year.

His focus in this role will be facilitating for students in the clubs and activities space. His main focuses in this role are on engagement, accessibility, and support. In engagement, he will focus on facilitating events such as Clubs Expo, Clubs Executive Forum, and Gold Awards Night. His second focus will be on giving support and guidance to the clubs and societies who need it the most as well as running the Clubs Council so positive changes and im - provements happen in the club space. His third focus will be making sure club spaces are accessible for all students at Te Herenga Waka and give them the best experiences while at Uni.

Liban’s overall 2023 goal is boosting club presence on campus and promoting a club space without any barriers!

6. Campaigns Officer

Hana is your Campaigns Officer, working towards structural change that serves students. Hana is a Pākehā woman who proudly hails from Tītahi Bay, Porirua. She's studying Environmental Studies and Māori Studies and is passionate about a bunch of shit.

As Campaigns Officer last year, Hana focused on public transport equity through the Free Fares campaign. She's looking forward to continuing this mahi, campaigning for equity and climate justice this election year. Working across organisations and alongside students, Hana wants to push decision makers to act on the issues which students care about, working towards a better Aotearoa for all.

7. Sustainability Officer

Mika is a third-year law and arts student here at Vic. He is passionate about engaging students with political issues, especially concerning climate change and environmental justice. As Sustainability Officer, Mika hopes to uplift student voices calling for climate action, encourage sustainability initiatives within the university, and support campaigns focused on climate change solutions.

Mika is involved with campaigning for students at a local and national level, with a particular focus on climate and transport issues. This year, Mika hopes to foster engagement with politics at the general election and highlight what students want to be done about climate change.

8. Equity Officer

Leia is a third-year BCOM student majoring in International Business and Japanese. Her major focus as VUW SA's Equity and Wellbeing Officer for 2023 is collaboration and advocacy.

Working alongside the VUWSA Wel fare team and the other rep-groups on campus is a major part of the Equi ty Officer’s role. Leia is passionate about strengthening the relationships between rep- groups, students and VUWSA to ensure students' voices are heard. As changes to the learning environment at the Uni continue to be made, Leia is determined to ensure that student wellbeing is at the fore front of these decisions.

9. Treasurer / Secretary

Alyssa is your Treasurer-Secretary for 2023!! As Treasurer-Secretary, she has 5 ultimate goals. She will be working on equity in funding, access to funding, and support in funding.

This is inclusive of representation, as well as transparency specifically sur rounding the Student Services Levy. She aims to fix the position itself, and push for funding for other student reps to acknowledge the work they do. She will continue to work with rep groups and clubs, as well as work on the Stu dent Services Levy. She is willing to assist if help is needed.