I have three main reasons for wanting to be the social media officer for STAR. My personal experiences, political beliefs and skillset fit this role.
As a child of Indian immigrants in Hong Kong, I am aware of the difficulties people face while attempting to assimilate into a foreign culture and how long and gruelling the process can be. Before coming to university, I started and ran a volunteering programme where older high-school students would tutor ethnic-minority children from underprivileged backgrounds to help bridge the education and language gap faced by ethnic-minority students. This experience showed me how linguistic and cultural differences could negatively impact young people, and how these could be alleviated.
While the experiences of immigrants and refugees are vastly different, the similarities have deepened my empathy for those escaping conflict and persecution. As a history student, I am acutely aware of the conflicts that drive people from their homes. As anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment has increased, and the genocide in Gaza has raged for a year, I find myself deeply aligned with the STAR cause and would love to volunteer my time.
For the past five years, I have done social media for multiple youth organisations and NGOs. This ranged from directing and promoting social justice workshops and running my volunteering programmes on social media to running social media for a student-led media organisation, teaching me how to design and schedule social media posts for maximum engagement. As part of my freelance job, I did audio editing work for a