Where are they now?

Last year's YUSU Sabbatical Team.

The Yorker contacted Anne-Marie Canning, Sam Bayley, Jo Carter and Joey Ellis to find out where life after YUSU has taken them.

• Where are you now, and what are you doing?

Anne-Marie Canning, former YUSU President: I now live in Oxford and work for University College, Oxford.

I'm the Access Officer which means I work with students from the maintained sector. This means building sustained and dynamic links with schools and cohorts and meeting bright pupils from all over the country. I run visits, conferences, master-classes and subject enrichment events.

My job also involves liaising with external groups such as the Sutton Trust, the Helena Kennedy Foundation and lots of MPs and ministers. My job is so varied and there is no typical day! I'm always busy and the past six months have been a real learning curve. I really do love my job!

Sam Bayley, former YUSU Societies and Communications Officer: I'm still living in York as it happens, though in the middle of town near the station. I liked the city too much to rush back to London! I'm living with one of my first year uni housemates Katie.

I'm a Sales Manager for Comet, a company who I've worked for over the past 7 years. I commute into Scarborough every day and I'm second in command of a £3m store. I'm enjoying the challenge. I still see a lot of Matt Burton and will be meeting up with the other ex-Sabbs over Roses weekend.

Jo Carter, former AU President: I'm living down on the south coast, near Portsmouth. I moved home to complete my journalism qualifications, which I finished in January. It was just about the worst time to finish and start looking for work with something like 9,000 redundancies in the world of journalism in the last year! So I'm working part-time as a Personal Assistant to a headhunter in the property industry, and supplementing that with freelance sports journalism work at the weekends. So it's not quite what I had envisaged doing, but given the current climate it's making the best of a bad situation!

Joey Ellis, former YUSU Student Development and Charities Officer: I'm still in York, doing a PGCE in secondary English at the university. I'm also College Tutor in Vanbrugh College.

• How do you think your involvement in YUSU has prepared you for the outside world?

AMC: Without a shadow of a doubt my year as President helped me to secure my current job. My interview was extremely challenging but my Presidency gave me the skills and confidence to perform well. More than anything else, my Presidential year taught me the importance of interpersonal relationships. My colleagues often comment on how good I am at getting people on board and handling committees. My public speaking skills which I honed whilst President are put to good use, I use them even more nowadays! York and YUSU has given me a 'can-do' attitude which I carry with me in my new role. Finally, the people I met last year have also proved invaluable as contacts in the higher education sector. John Randall is a mentor and advisor and all round legend.

SB: YUSU was a great preparation for managing people and performing at work to (very) high expectations in the outside world. Diplomacy was key when dealing with people from my YUSU position and it is a great help to my work now. However, I'm pleased to say that I don't have to placate the 24-hour media quite as often these days.

JC: My year as AU President was hard work, but I really enjoyed it. The Sabbatical job is pretty much the only job in the world where you get elected into it, then you could theoretically get away with doing minimal work. But I'm a firm believer that you get as much out of your work as you put into it, and although it was hard, I feel like I got as much out of last year as I would get out of five years of any 'normal' job. It's just so varied, from basic administrative duties like answering the phones to making high level decisions as a trustee and everything in between!

I know some people see the Sabb position as a waste of a year, and I know with the benefit of hindsight I could be in a good job now if I had not won the election, but at the same time I do not regret the year at all - I really gained a lot from the year, and I know it's a cliché but I learned a lot about myself, too.

JE: I think my volunteering and charity work, and being involved with the local community, has been very useful for my chosen career path. The experience I got from running the Union's Kids' Camp was invaluable. Communicating and working with children, students and social workers has transferred to my job where I am working with a variety of people.

YUSU has also helped me to manage my time, which is important for my busy life as a teacher.

I am a massive advocate of volunteering and the importance of it. I have just been offered a job in the school I am on placement in and where I volunteered during my undergraduate years. Reinforcing the benefit volunteering can have and how the skills and experience I gained from it has helped me to get a job.

I think the Union was a good transition between university and the outside world and though a very challenging experience at times I would not change it!

• What do you miss about your time in York?

AMC: There are lots of things I don't miss but probably... The ducks, Trevor Sheldon, the 3 Legged Mare.

SB: I don't have to miss York as I still live here. But I do miss the buzz of campus and the great social atmosphere. I often wish on sunny days I could leave work at 5pm, have a BBQ in Halifax College and then head back to campus to help at a campus event...

JC: I miss York, especially as my boyfriend still lives in York, so I do come back now and again. But it's strange being back on campus, and I don't miss the university as such. I miss the people who made my time at York, and most of them have now left.

JE: I miss being around so many people who are at the same point in life as you. This year I have found very different as everyone is doing completely different things. On my course we have all come in from different angles which means we all bring our own experiences but it can sometimes be hard to relate to each other due to this and our commitments outside of the course.

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