Sports & Health Officer: Angel Okoro

​Hi, I'm Angel, your Sport and Health Officer.
I have a huge passion for sport, especially sport development. After University, I hope to be able to work with less fortune, disabled and special needs children and young adults through sport, by educating them about the benefits and increasing their participation. Sport has many benefits, not just physically but mentally and socially. Personally, being able to release built up stress through sport has helped me cope at uni. Having made the majority of my closest friends through joining various teams, I can be an advocate for the social benefits of sport. I’m part of the netball and football team. I also recently set up a cheerleading society which is very successfully. We have 8-12 girls attending each week who we teach mostly basic cheer skills to. I also volunteered to organise and hold weekly football tournaments on the 4G pitch, not just for the current football teams but for any students who want to get involved.

Email: okor401@newman.ac.uk

Job Description (summary)

General Duties
All Officers are responsible for the day to day running and management of the Union as an organisation, including but not limited to: ensuring it complies with the law and relevant acts, in particular the Education and Charity Acts, funding and budget monitoring, compliance with Health and Safety legislation, ensuring Union Policies and Procedures are adhered to and representing students.  All Officers are also required to be actively involved in collective work and be willing to accept work at the request of an appropriate body.

Sports & Health Officer voluntary role (non-sabbatical)
Works closely with the Membership Services Coordinator to ensure the Union enables students to create and run a variety of Sports Teams, within the organisations wider goals, providing training, advice, guidance and varied support throughout the year to current and new student groups.

A full job description can be found in the NSU Constitution, Bye Law 1

My Manifesto

As sport and health and officer I would firstly aim to increase sport participation at Newman and in the local community. I hope to work in partnership with the helping hands society to organise sport related events and also to involve outside organisations such as youth centres and the police force. Sports participation is not only about those who compete but also about specatorism. Morale this year at certain sports events has been very low and I would like to boost the interest of spectators next year. 

As students (especially in your first year) learning to be independent and having to cook for yourself can be difficult. However, I want to create a healthy eating guide which includes information about quick, healthy and affordable meal options. I have been in contact with Ahron, the catering services manager at Newman, and have discussed the possibility of working with the cooking staff to provide videos and pictures about how to cook healthy meals. Not only will this help structure meal times, eating healthily will also have a positive impact on mental well being by helping students to feel better within themselves,feel more organised and giving them a sense of achievement. 

Finally, I want to emphasise the important benefits of sport and exercise on mental health and wellbeing. It is important that students are made aware that hormones released through exercise can relax and de-stress them. I want to create an inviting and non-competitive environment for those students who may not feel confident enough to join a competitive sports team but want to wreak the benefits of sports. Therefore, I would like to take on a similar role to the current sports activator by holding free inclusive activities such as table tennis and futsal- along with any other activities recommended by students. 

The NHS suggest that there are 5 key steps towards achieving good mental wellbeing. One of them being to ‘connect’. As sport and health officer, I will be an approachable figure around campus and will make myself available for students to be able to speak to me about sporting opportunities and health benefits. 

Another step is to be ‘active’. This doesn’t necessarily mean joining a team or going to the gym. I would like to take better advantage of our surroundings, including Senneleys park, which would be a perfect area to continue to encourage the stress relieving walks already provided. 

In conclusion, as sport and health officer, I would aim to increase participation, improve healthy eating, and focus on utilising sport to improve mental health and well being.