1. Who are you? Name, programme, which year.
My name is Olivier Levy and I’m in my second year of history, Law School.
2. Tell us about you – favourite food, music, favourite place to hang out in Bristol
I’m a vegetarian now, I’ve stopped eating meat in the last year. Talking about music, I do have a varied range. I listen to a lot of 70s and 80s rock, which is my favourite type, and recently I’ve been listening to some Chopin. Last week I went to a very cool concert. I really enjoyed that night because I can hear music and talk to people. I appreciate that I can go out with my friends to visit concerts, exhibitions. There are many different places where we can hang out and that has been my favourite part of discovering Bristol.
3. You’ve been nominated because of your role as Chair of the Wellbeing Network – could you describe what you’ve been doing this past year?
There are three different parts of working in the network. The first is working with my amazing committee of ten people. We also work with many peer support groups. I am proud that we’ve launched a campaign named the Financial Wellbeing Project which can give students financial advice. The second part would be the panels and campaigns we launched in March. The third part would be the Buddy Scheme that I created back in November. It was an online forum, like space where students can chat and get together. I was expecting about 40 to 50 people to sign up at the most. And we had about 450 in the end.
4. Did your group have conflicts and disagreement before, and how do you handle these?
No, not at all. It is very hard to do anything wrong when it comes to improving mental health. Although there are lots of things that can go wrong. But I believe as long as we’re raising awareness and organising conferences and events, we’ll never have any disagreements.
5. What’s the best thing about being in the society in Bristol SU and how can this help students at University?
The best thing about being in the network this year has been spending time with the friends I made working in the SU. It’s so uplifting to be working and talking to people who have such positive energy and who aspire to create meaningful and substantial change for students. And I think especially this year when it’s been hard to find more gratifying things. Just being with them has been phenomenal. I could go on forever about them. I can’t recommend it enough! It is a very positive experience. All we try to do is continue to try to improve students’ lives.
6. Any words to students who want to be a part of the wellbeing network?
I would say just go for it, you don’t need any experience. It’s usually the one thing you could put as much work into as you want. It’s immensely rewarding work. The public speaking will enable you to become an effective communicator, and it’s just nice to be part of the team. I think that’s what I’ve relished the most and what I’m excited about. It is fun to work with different people and engage their perspectives and be a part of the student union.
Words by Ziqiong Li, MSc Marketing student