Hello everyone,
My name is Lorel Scriven and I am 20 years old and just going into my third year of Natural Sciences
at University. I am running for the role of Alumni Development Officer.
My reasons for running for the role:
EYP is something that I am always really proud to be a part of, I have had so many amazing
experiences through EYP and I want as many people as possible to get the most out of EYP that they
can. However it is not just about individuals getting enjoyment from EYP, it is also about the fact that
EYPUK needs people to stay involved, we need to maintain a constant stream of new alumni staying
involved so that the organisation can grow and improve each year. I think that Alumni Development
is about getting new, younger alumni, involved but also about maintaining the interest of older
Alumni by helping them to improve their EYP repertoire and helping get UK Alumni to as many
sessions abroad as possible.
Previous experience:
In terms of the organisational planning involved in this role I have a lot of experience through
organising two regionals and a national session since I became involved in EYP. Thus I would
approach the organisation of the alumni development weekend and the Christmas party with a good
knowledge of planning a fun, well organised event to budget!
I have already been quite active in trying to keep younger alumni involved in the organisation, for
example when I chaired in Liverpool last year after the session I let some of the delegates who had
expressed interest in staying involved know of sessions that they might want to attend and ways to
stay involved.
EYP has provided me with many opportunities to develop my team working and communication
skills so I feel that I would be good at working with the rest of the alumni executive and the trustees
to try and keep as many alumni active and involved as possible.
My Goals:
I would like to broaden our intake of younger alumni staying involved. In a large number of cases
students from the same schools can dominate the alumni intake each year as people see older
students staying involved and decide to do the same. I would in no way discourage these students
from staying involved but I would try and focus on getting students from schools that are new to
EYPUK to stay involved. I think the best way to get people involved at the start is through promoting
regionals and EurVoice as the best way to start to be involved and then when they have had this
experience start to encourage them to apply to regionals and nationals abroad so they can start to
build up their EYP experience.
I would really like to make the alumni development weekend happen, I think that one of the most
intimidating things at the start in EYP is the thought that all the alumni know each other. I think that
the alumni development weekend would be a really good chance for new alumni to get to know
older alumni in the organisation and help them to feel comfortable in the organisation and thus
make them more likely to stay involved. I would also try and get as many new alumni as possible to
attend the Christmas party as this is also a good way to meet everyone.
I would like to increase the social aspect of regionals. I think that often regionals can just be a turn
up for the day affair and younger alumni that attend may not get that much of a chance to meet
people. Therefore I would encourage regional HOs to try and incorporate some form of
teambuilding/ a meal out before the session/ drinks after the session so that younger alumni that
attend get a chance to chat to people at the session and help them to feel more involved in the
organisation. I would then try and encourage all alumni that attended regionals to stay involved and
I would let them know of other EYP opportunities that they could attend after regionals.
I would like to increase the clarity of how to stay involved in EYP more clear, I would try and ensure
that all national session delegates that want to are added to the EYPUK Alumni Facebook page and
from there I would promote sessions to attend, I would also try and ensure that at all national
sessions there is a clear explanation of the best ways to stay involved.