Enzo is not your ‘typical’ sabbatical officer in a students’ union. Indeed, at Portsmouth we had a rich tradition of electing sabbatical officers from a narrow group of people, who could loosely be described as ‘traditional students’. As an international student, mature student and student parent, Enzo has brought a fresh approach - and exceptional results - to his role and ensured that the Union’s reach is now firmly broadened.

It’s not easy to choose what achievements to include in 1,000 words as there have been so many and to include them all would miss the point; it’s Enzo’s approach to his work, his effective engagement with the people around him and his personal values that have enabled him to achieve so much.

During his 360 degree appraisal one University staff member commented: “Enzo is always looking for ways to enthuse others around him. He is not scared to enter a room, talk to people and liaise with colleagues. He gains respect from University staff by the way in which he evidences his arguments and his ability to put his own opinions aside to represent the views of others.

Good student officers improve the work of their predecessors; great ones bring new ideas or ways of thinking that have impact beyond their time in office. Enzo has achieved this by: ensuring that students are partners in training new lecturers at the University and introducing the role of student leadership and course rep system - A project that Enzo is presenting to the HEA conference in July; convincing the University then facilitating a process whereby students choose the University’s additional NSS questions, so students can use the power of the NSS to get answers for the questions they have; Enzo launched the Union’s child friendly campus campaign and got the University to abandon its ‘no child’ policy in campus - his work is now shown as a case study by NUS, and also obtained maternity and paternity leave rights for students.

Another example of Enzo’s innovative approach is in tackling student engagement with groups who don’t normally engage with the Union. Enzo was able to make contact with students from the Paramedic Science course, understand the issues important to them and then get the Union behind supporting their student paramedic science conference in support of their learning. With the Union’s help the conference was a success and we were able to showcase our other support services to students who wouldn’t otherwise be aware of how we can help.

Enzo has also been the lead officer on the Union’s elections, with his impact being demonstrated in all measures: with Enzo’s tireless work in engaging international students, we achieved an average of 6 candidates per position, with 8 non-UK students nominating themselves. This kind of impact could not have been achieved without Enzo. In addition, with over 6,331 students voting the Union now has the biggest gross election turnout for a new university in Britain.

During his year in office Enzo has sought to adjust the University’s thinking, away from “listening to the students’ voice” and more into “making decisions together with students” thus creating a genuine partnership. Academics are now thinking in the lines of partnership and using NUS’ manifesto of partnership as key literature in their work. Examples of this can be seen in Enzo’s work in: ensuring that student consultative committees remained at three per year, when they were set to be reduced to no more than two; making the authorised absence policy reflect the issues faced by students and their families; ensuring that exam timetables are produced at least 6 weeks in advance of exams - as opposed to 2; and after bringing students views together, got the University to install open source software on all open access PC’s.

An issue faced by many students is the quality of feedback from lecturers and Enzo spent weeks building an undeniable case for making sure that feedback is typed for students, so that they can always understand what is being said. During Enzo’s 360 degree appraisal a University staff member said: “Enzo is excellent at constructively challenging University Staff in order to improve the Student Experience ensuring that his arguments are well researched and presented in a professional way. The most recent example of this was his campaign for typed feedback.”

Other highlights include that Enzo has: ensured that the Union had its first fully elected student council in decades; spoke about his work at the Westminster HE forum; engaged with pre-sessional students of the University to offer support and activities from the Union; got elected on to the Higher Education zone committee; ensured that more course reps were trained this year than EVER before; introduced non-alcoholic events into freshers week for the first time; secured more nominations, more votes and more funding support for the student led teaching awards than ever before; and was invited to be a part of the new Vice Chancellor’s selection panel.

Enzo has also played a vital role in uniting the sabb team and keeping them pulling in one direction, with a fellow officer commenting in his 360 degree appraisal, “Enzo is good at connecting with people who share very differing political views” and that “Enzo brings teams together and work in one direction particularly around policy and in presenting one clear message.”

Enzo has been an excellent sabbatical officer, who has inspired those around him within the Union, built relationships with others that the Union hasn’t been able to in the past and has gained immense respect from the University along the way. Before writing this nomination, three separate members of Union staff suggested that Enzo should considered for this award. It gives me great pleasure to support Enzo’s nomination for Higher education Student Officer of the Year.