CELEBRATE

Following her extensive work with the Islamic society during her undergrad, Farhana aims to help students of all ages get involved in student societies and raise aspirations in the local community.

"Since 2014, I've been actively involved in the University of Manchester Islamic Society as a volunteer and as an Executive Committee member where I’ve worked on some incredible projects and met lots of amazing people.

One specific campaign that stands out in my mind was called 'Believe and Do Good’. I remember we volunteered at a care home and I met a lovely woman and we truly developed a connection. This woman had no idea who I was, she wasn’t even Muslim, but that wasn’t important – we were both humans, and we could build a bond over that. I will never forget that day.

During my time at Manchester, I have volunteered with Mosaic an organisation set up by Prince Charles. Mosaic inspires young people from BME communities to realise their talents and potential. This organisation was so inspirational for me as well! Working with young people from backgrounds similar to my own showed me the importance of reaching out to the community, and showing them anything is possible.

Now that I’m coming to the end of my Master’s, I really want to progress further in the Federation of Student Islamic Societies. I have been working with the Federation this year coordinating Islamic Societies across the North and hope to become head of higher education for the entire organisation. Being involved in Federation has allowed me to meet incredible young people across the country, teenagers who have even pushed me to get more involved!"

Jake's passion for adventure has turned into a drive to make a difference as he aims to cycle from Singapore to Lyon for charity.

"During sixth form, I got involved in the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and this introduced me to idea of challenging myself in the great outdoors. From then on, I've been striving to find new adventures and new ways to challenge myself.

When I came to Manchester, one of the first things I did was join the sports club and I met so many like-minded people who were great fun to hang out with. Recently I've started going out with a couple of friends and doing some really adventurous stuff. Last week we did the Welsh 3,000s where we climbed to the top of every mountain over 3,000 feet high in Wales in 24 hours. We were so proud to finish it in 15 hours!

I have always said to myself that I didn’t want to go straight into a job after I finish University. I wanted get out and explore, but do it on my bike. While studying abroad a friend and I started to plan our biggest challenge yet – cycling from Singapore to Lyon. The route will take us through 17 countries and hopefully over the Himalayas, it’s going to be an incredible trip and we’re doing it for charity I hold close to my heart.

We’re raising money for Newlife, a charity which helps disabled children and helps provide specialised equipment too. My sister is in a wheelchair and I feel the trip is great opportunity to raise money for charity that has helped my sister and my whole family throughout the years and works tirelessly to help children across the UK. Getting involved in sports and fundraising for a cause completely changes your world-view and adds a whole new dimension to your life."

In 2017, one meeting at the start of second year transformed Jonah's life. Now he’s starting his own charity with the aim of tackling the issue of homelessness and more

"It’s kind of funny that I’m where I am now because, really, I didn’t start volunteering until the start of second year. I was taking photos of some street art in the city and I met a small homeless community. I got talking to someone called James – he was a survivor of abuse and had struggled with drug addiction. He was an incredibly caring person and his story changed everything for me. I realised that if I’d gone through half of what he went through, would I have ended up anywhere different?

From then I wanted to do more, and help on a cause I genuinely cared about. At the start through a few different events, one thing that struck me was the amazing power of music, art and culture to drive change. I wanted to bring the charity community together with student community and pair student nightlife spaces with a social cause - to take something with no social value and then giving it some.

I was obsessed with this idea and from this we developed the Love for the Streets campaign.

This has grown larger than I could ever have imagined and we’ve hosted so many events working with the Big Change Society, like club nights, conferences and art workshops for the homeless. All of this work culminated with a string of events for Manchester Homelessness Awareness Week. One part of this was a special exhibition at Whitworth Art Gallery. I am so proud of that day and it’s easily one of my greatest achievements yet. Seeing the beneficiaries of the artworks come down and look at their art on display in the Whitworth was an unbelievable experience and made me know I was on the right path.

As a student, I think you’re capable of so much as long as you just believe in yourself. I feel honoured to be I’m where I am today. Just being considered part of the wider community has been a great achievement for me and I hope I can use my influence in the future to impact causes around the city."

Despite a serious injury last year, nothing has stopped Adrienne from getting more women involved in football.

"When I got injured I was determined to turn a negative situation into a positive one! I was already involved in Women’s football but as a Development Officer I was able to get more involved, encourage new students to play football and develop my own coaching skills. 

I currently coach two teams and also help out with the Sporticipate sessions throughout the year. I was coaching last week and I was just blown away by the huge improvement everyone had made since the beginning of the year. Just watching them gets me inspired – It’s really rewarding.

The culture of the sport at the University is fantastic and it’s filled with so many great people and I just want to make sure the opportunity is available to everyone! While on a four week placement at the AU Office I helped organise an event for Girls Football Week at the Armitage Centre. Local primary school children from around the area came and it was just amazing to see so many smiling faces. There’s no better feeling than seeing people get involved and having fun at the same time!

All of my work over the last year has recently culminated in being voted in as Club Captain. It was a great feeling being voted in and seeing my team there to support me. I can’t wait to start and focus more on development too, building the women’s development team as a Fourth team and creating an internal league for all women at the University to be involved."

From a volunteer to the Project Manager of Manchester Central Foodbank, Amy wants to use the knowledge and experience from her MA to make practical change in Manchester.

"I've always been interested in campaigning and volunteering but when I came to Manchester I wanted to see how I could reconcile my academic studies of peace building with actual community work, implementing what I was learning in my day to day life.

I first came into contact with Manchester Central Foodbank through these things called food drives where they stand outside local stores for donations. I got talking to the foodbank’s manager and from then I was really keen to use my spare time to help volunteer.

Volunteering with the foodbank to now technically managing the whole charity has been an incredible experience and something I couldn’t have even imagined when I first chatted to the manager.

Manchester is such a great city. If you’re willing to work hard and be yourself, it feels like doors just open for you. Being a student in Manchester means you do have the opportunity to get out and get involved and even just spending two hours a week to do something really positive can help massively when you graduate.

In the future I hope to campaign more widely within Manchester about the issues of food poverty and try to look at ways in which we, the foodbank, can use our voice and standing to tackle systemic issues."

Ella went to Uganda with the University last summer to support the work of S.A.L.V.E International, helping deliver their community research projects.

"With Team Uganda there were two main teams undertaking different research projects. I was on the team that went into the local community with a questionnaire and talked to people about homeless children.

 At the start the people were apprehensive, then suddenly we built up relationships and people were warm and welcoming. We spent three weeks in the community and in the end we had people coming to find us to be interviewed. The project finished with a presentation given to the community, and loads of people attend which was really nice.

My biggest achievement is definitely getting onto Team Uganda. I was in MyManchester when an advert for it popped up. I applied on an absolute whim and thought 'I'm not going to get it as so many people will apply.’ So when I got the call that I’d got on I was ecstatic!

The experience has taught me not to take things for granted. When you’re in a new and different setting you realise what’s important and it’s given me more insight into what life is like for some people. It also taught me to push myself out of my comfort zone and that I can actually do things. I’d never been away from my family or friends for that long before and it was tough at times being in such an alien environment. But I loved the experience, and I learned I can do things that at first seem a bit scary."

WHAT WILL YOU DO TO CHANGE THE WORLD?

The University of Manchester gives you the opportunities to do more and be more. We call it Stellify. It's time to let yourself shine.

DO MORE, BE MORE.