Posted: 02/06/17
It’s Lewis for president at West Nottinghamshire College
It has been election fever amongst students at West Nottinghamshire College over the past month – and a new leader has now been chosen.
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Lewis Maskery (left) is taking over from Marc Jones as president of West Nottinghamshire College’s Students' Union.
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Lewis (right) pictured with outgoing president Marc Jones and fellow candidate Sindija Sosina.
As the nation prepares to head to the polls on 8 June, students at the Mansfield college have been drawing-up their manifestos and running a campaign of their own – to elect the next president of its Students’ Union (SU).
The final votes were counted on Friday 26 May and 18-year-old music student Lewis Maskery has secured the coveted position after pulling-in 104 of the 136 votes cast.
Fellow campaigner Sindija Sosina, also 18, came a creditable second place, scooping 32 votes.
Lewis, from Mansfield Woodhouse, is nearing the end of his BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Music qualification and will be SU president for the 2017/18 academic year.
The teenager, who is in a rock band called Full Throttle, said: “It feels good that this is the start of a new chapter for me. I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in and helping students to have their voices heard and get involved in wider college life.
“I was a student representative before this and enjoyed putting my classmates’ views across, so I feel I’m a confident speaker. I think it’s important that each area of college has a say in what the organisation does. It’s vital every single student knows there is a person to represent them.”
Sindija, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, said: “The experience of putting a campaign together was quite interesting; I’d never done anything like this before, but I got great support from tutors and friends. I want to wish Lewis the best of luck in his new role.”
Sindija, who is set to complete her BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Performing Arts studies at college, added: “I’ve got my back-up plan, as I’ve applied to study performing arts at Edge Hill University with the hope of becoming an actor on stage or in television and film one day.”
Outgoing president Marc Jones, who leaves his role in July, which will see Lewis take over, said: “Both Lewis and Sindija have been brilliant throughout the election period; very proactive and extremely motivated. It’s been interesting listening to why fellow students chose to vote for them.
“During my last few weeks in post I’m looking forward to introducing Lewis to more aspects of the Students’ Union and officially handing over to him.”
