Our Student Ambassador Chloe Smith provides more information about our #StudentSeptember campaign.
In 2021, a student named Orla White contacted Epilepsy Scotland about raising awareness in universities and colleges across Scotland.
Through collaboration, Orla and Epilepsy Scotland created the Student Campaign, with Orla being our first Student Ambassador.
Orla worked closely with our (then) Policy and Campaigns officer, Anna Telfer.
Together, Anna and Orla worked incredibly hard to promote and produce informational content, as well as encourage both students and faculty of universities and colleges across Scotland to engage with the campaign.
Orla shared her experience in a blog published by Epilepsy Scotland titled “The role of a volunteer: Epilepsy Scotland’s University Ambassador”.
2022 Student September campaign
The second year was a success! Our 2022 Student Campaign received a lot of positive responses and engagement.
We reached out to all the colleges and universities across Scotland to connect with them and encourage them to join us in raising epilepsy awareness.
We may not have gotten the overwhelming responses we’d have hoped for, but we were still able to collaborate with multiple students and members of faculty successfully.
Also, we heard from students with epilepsy, who bravely shared their stories of what it’s like being a person with epilepsy during the ‘student experience’.
Some did this through inspiring blogs, and others joined us on our new student campaign podcast series ‘Living with Epilepsy: The Student Experience’.
These blogs can be found on the Epilepsy Scotland website if you are interested in reading them, and a link to the podcast series can also be found on our website. Alternatively, you can find it on Spotify on Epilepsy Scotland’s ‘Talk Epilepsy’ podcast profile.
We also heard from members of faculty, who were mostly members of supportive departments such as Student Support services and Disability Services.
Some requested to be provided with more information on epilepsy, so they could better understand the condition, some enquired about our training services, and others posted our Student Guide to their University/College website.
We are incredibly grateful to those who volunteered to share their stories with us, and to those who collaborated with us in raising awareness – your help is what pushed our student campaign to success!
2023 Student September campaign
Another trip around the sun, and it’s #StudentSeptember again! We are very excited to be kicking off our September with our third year of the Student Campaign.
We have been busy creating some interesting content for you for this month that we hope you will enjoy.
Please keep an eye on our social media accounts as we will continue to post helpful information to our page, as well as any updates on our student-centred podcast series.
For those who wish to get involved, it’s not too late! We always welcome new voices, new opinions, and new experiences to our campaigns, and would love to hear from you.
Whether you are a student, are a peer of a student with epilepsy, or are a faculty member that wishes to offer information on support services, please get in touch!
If you would like to share your experiences of living with epilepsy whilst being at university or college, please email our Communications Officer David at dcoates@epilepsyscotland.org.uk
