We caught up with Anji to find out more about their leadership journey, and why community is at the heart of what inspired them to run for Trans Officer.
Anji Suri is your Trans Officer who leads the Union and the LGBT+ Network alongside the LGBQ+ Officer in continuing to build an engaging, dynamic and rewarding community of LGBTQ+ students on campus and beyond.
What does holding a leadership position mean to you?
Holding the position of Trans Officer has been really fulfilling to me because I've been giving the opportunity to represent and champion my community.
I feel like having a community is so important to trans people and queer people. When you've grown up and everyone sees you a certain way, but you know your self that you're not that way, it's it can be really isolating.
Knowing you have a community on campus is such an important thing for trans people coming to uni. Sometimes it's some of these people's first experiences of having a proper community and just having a position like trans officer means so much to them.
So it was really important to me that I could sort of hold that community together and that I could help, you know, hold events and plan things and even do things on the back end.
Holding this position has allowed me to see myself as a leader and it's had a massive impact on me"
Holding this position has also allowed me to see myself as a leader and it's had a massive impact on me. I feel like I've really grown in the past few months, It's even made me challenge some of my own beliefs. And I think being responsible for so many people, well, just representative of so many people, it really impacts the way you think.
What would your younger self say if they could see you as a leader?
If my younger self could see me now, I think I think they'd be really proud. I remember when I was a lot younger and like I would write in my journal that when I grow up and when I go to university I'm going to be a role model.
I wanted to show people that I can be myself and I can be loud when they can't because there was a time when I felt like I couldn't. And I feel now that I've fulfilled that and I've grown up and I've actually I've got a way to go, but I'm I've become that person that I wanted to be.
How do you think people would describe you as a leader?
The phrase be the change that you want to see in the world is one that I try to embody."
So the phrase be the change that you want to see in the world is one that I try to embody. I feel like it's quite it's very cliche because it's used all the time, but I think it's really important that you are the change you want to see in the world, it's kind of not a lot would get done if people didn't do things.
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to put themselves forward in the leadership race?
If I had any advice for someone, I would just encourage you to just. Just do it. Just go for it. It's you don't, you don't have a lot to lose if you think you're going to be really busy.