The Student Ambassadors, as a group, were founded 5 years ago by Mrs. Rachel Leonard, who was a teacher here. I was a Y8 student at the time and I joined immediately. I have been the captain ever since. We have students from Y8 to Y13 and we grew from 8 students in the first year to a team of 36 students today.
Our mission is to be present at most school events, usually 3-way conferences or school tours to prospective families. School life is an extremely important factor when you want to decide which school you want to enrol your child in and therefore many families want to know what it is like at FIS. I have been a student at this school since Reception so I know it very well and it is natural for me to talk about it.
In addition to this core representation activity, we are going to try and introduce more dialog with the new students as they join the school. We want to make sure that they are comfortable and that they know they can come to us if they need help. It is also part of the reason why we have students from different age groups, so that it is easier for a Y7 kid to go and talk to a student their own age, as opposed to a Y13 student.
Being the Student Ambassadors captain is definitely a big plus for me and I do highlight it in my college applications. After 5 years, I can say that this experience has helped me build up my confidence a lot through the different events. At first, I was slightly apprehensive talking to prospective families, but now I’m a lot more confident. And given that I have been on the team for so long, my leadership skills have also grown extensively.
As it is my last year at FIS, we need to decide who my successor is going to be. Ideally, it should be someone with experience and good leadership skills, but a lot of ambassadors have those, which is why they are ambassadors in the first place… So it will be a tough decision!