"I am the change" is a competition run by the NUS. It is about encouraging students to make positive changes with the support of the NUS. Time is running out to enter this year's competition, ending on March 18th 2013, so I thought I would take this opportunity to suggest if you are a student, you should definitely enter. The couple of minutes I took to fill out the online form last year changed the fate of my whole youth club and subsequently the lives of all the members and volunteers at the club.
Do not be put off by thinking your change may be insignificant, however small your change may be, if it is important to you then it is a significant change to make. Be creative with your change, it can be anything you want, anything that you think would make a difference to the lives of yourself and others. Changes can be submitted by any student, if you aren't involved in politics or campaigning, it doesn't matter, and your change can be based anywhere you want, so at your University, in the surrounding area or something for your home community.
"I am the change" is about starting at grass roots level, so try to make sure your change is manageable and not too far-fetched. Although changes like decreasing university fees for the whole country and world peace are highly important, they will require years of people working together in order to achieve these changes, so try and think, what areas of these larger changes do I want to start with? What small changes could you work on that would make these big changes happen.
Once you have thought of your change and have put it on the website make sure you try to get as much support as possible, for me the best way was through social media. Tweet about it and encourage your Facebook friends to like it, as long as people agree with it they will help you spread the word. If the change is something that will affect certain societies or sports clubs at your University promote it to them as they often have large member bases and will be able to share your change with a wide group of students.
"I am the change" is about ordinary students being able to make a difference to their immediate community so try and think of something that really affects you or people around you. It should be something you are passionate about, because if you win, it needs to be something you are motivated by and something you really want to work towards.
The competition isn't just for people that are already involved in politics and activism, the competition is for people that want to get their voice heard, but have their own ways of going about it. I didn't immediately identify as an activist, so I believe this competition is perfect for people that want to make a difference but aren't quite sure how they will achieve this. "I am the change" has shown me the difference ordinary people can make. It is about small changes making big differences.
Winning the competition has done so much for my youth club, I really encourage you to enter and try for yourself, as the time you spend filling in the form could make a big difference. All you need is a change that you are passionate about.
If you are interested in entering, click make a change and follow the three easy steps. The deadline is Monday 18th March 2013. Good Luck!