CPC's Aoibhe in the thick of a busy year with ISSU

A Cross and Passion College student who is currently a joint Regional Officer for Kildare-Wicklow with the Irish Second-Level Students' Union says her experience on the CPC Students Council since her first years at the college have given her a great grounding in how to engage with other people, writes Brian Byrne.

Aoibhe Toft, now in Fifth Year, and Jason Tamayo, a TY student from Woodbrook College in Bray, were elected to the Regional Officer Body of ISSU last November. Their term of office runs through to the end of December this year, and Aoibhe told the Diary that it's going to be a busy time for herself and Jason and the some 30 other ROs from around the country. "At Regional Council level there are consultations on a huge myriad of things at the moment, including accessibility within schools both for physical and learning difficulties that students with additional needs have. There are the big ones, like substance misuse, equality in schools. There's also a lot of talk lately about students not feeling represented, and it's the job of the union to correct that."

Aoibhe is from Suncroft and had her primary education with the Educate Together school in Kildare. When she came to CPC she got involved in the Student Council, and that has proved to be a major influence on how she does things. "Absolutely — I learned so much more than I thought that I could have. Communication and how to engage with others in your environment is so important. At Student Council level you have to interact with your fellow students to find out what they want to communicate with the school, and then you have to work with the Board of Management. It really benefited me, because I know how to do all that now, how to talk to people and tell them what is needed and where it's needed. I'll always be grateful for that, because that's a great skill to have."

Having been so involved in what is essentially a political process with a small 'p', many of Aoibhe's friends figure she might already have mapped out a career, but she says she really doesn't yet know what future life path she'll take. "I do know how I want to do things instead of exactly what I want to do. I want to do work that not only benefits me, but benefits other people, in a way that I can learn with other people. I think that teamwork is so important to people now, and I hope to do something that benefits my community."

A degree of training for the role has been involved, learning the technicalities of communication with ISSU, and meeting with the union's staff. "Getting to know each other is a massive part of it, because it's difficult to get anything done if you don't know the people involved and are friends with them."

With her Sixth Year and Leaving Cert on the horizon, Aoibhe says it's a case of doing as much as she can as an RO this year, "because next year I definitely won't be able to." But she's already in the thick of something that she says she loves doing. "It's all about a balance, but it doesn't feel like work and I love it, and love meeting all the people that I do through it."

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