What does your role involve?

My job as Sports Coordinator is a very ‘student facing’ role, where I speak to countless students on a day to day basis about sport. I oversee all the student sports clubs in Aberystwyth, all of which are led by student committees who come to me for advice and support. I also coordinate BUCS which takes up a large portion of my role from October to March. This involves liaising with club captains and team coaches on a weekly basis, as well as with other Universities and Students’ Unions / Student Associations to ensure that all fixtures take place successfully throughout the year. The other main part of my role is organising and delivering our sporting events. I am in charge of coordinating five large scale events throughout the academic year, including: Sports Week, Homecoming, Superteams, Varsity and Aber7s, all of which have a huge impact on the student experience here in Aberystwyth.

What’s the best thing about it?

For me, the best thing about my role is being able to talk about sport every single day. As a sports person myself, it’s something I’m very passionate about and hopefully this rubs off on the students I speak to. I also love the events side to my role. Although they take up a huge amount of time to organise between everything else that my role entails, there’s no better feeling than seeing all that hard work pay off when an event comes together!

How did you get here?

I graduated from Aberystwyth University in 2012, after which I completed a PGCE in Upper Primary to become a teacher. I was fortunate to walk straight into a teaching job after graduating, however it only took a year to realise that teaching wasn’t for me, and so I looked for a career move into something that I would be more passionate about. A job came up in the National Governing Body, Badminton Wales in 2014 which kick started my career into the sporting sector. As much as I enjoyed working in Cardiff, as an Aber Alumni I was constantly on the lookout for similar jobs in the Aberystwyth area. With this hope in mind, I moved back to Aberystwyth during the summer of 2016, and very soon after this job was advertised as vacant. I started the role as Sports Coordinator for Aber SU / Student Associations in October 2016 and haven’t looked back since.

What’s the most helpful piece of learning you picked up along the way?

I have already learnt so much in the time that I have worked at Aberystwyth Students’ Union / Student Associations, and I still continue to learn new things every single day of working here. Working with lots of experienced individuals, I am constantly picking up new skills and knowledge. As someone who likes to be extremely organised, and plans everything in advance, the main skill that I have learnt has got to be versatility. Something I have found since starting this role is that no matter how efficiently and perfectly you plan something, no matter how far in advance, when working with students’ there are always going to be last minute alterations to be made or sudden changes in circumstances. I have had to learn how to adapt quickly in a variety of different situations and have found that I am getting better and better at doing so – I’ve also started making a plan B, C and D for everything too so that also helps! Life is never boring working in a Students’ Union / Student Associations… No day is ever the same, which is definitely the way I like it!