Meet Our Officers: Philip Crowe

 Hi. My name is Philip. I'm a transition year student at the Abbey school in Tipperary town. As Secretary of the NSE (National Student Executive) it is my job to take the minutes of every meeting and to make it available to the rest of the NSE and to organise NSE meetings once one has been called for. Also, I help to organise Annual Assembly and if any other officers need support with an event they are running I assist them in organising it.  I ran for the position because I believe it is vital that student voice is heard and that students should be involved in the decision-making process on issues that will affect us more than anyone else. Also, because I'm in TY, I can devote more time to ISSU than I would be able to in other years. I started as Secretary in December but I still plan to do the best I can as Secretary in the upcoming months. Hopefully I'll see you all at Annual Assembly.

Meet Our Officers: Glen Kiely

 I am a 6th year student of St. Munchins’ College, Limerick. I am passionate about education and learning, student voice, photography and fitness. I was appointed as Education Officer in August, with the hope that I could address the problems facing second-level education in Ireland today. I ran for this position because I felt that, with the ISSU, I could be an advocate for students and our education! During my term in office, I hope to confront various issues. I will be undergoing meetings with education spokespersons and publishing my, and the ISSU’s, thoughts on relevant matters. I hope to further student’s stance in their own education. That’s it from me, Glen.

Meet Our Officers: Joe Mee

 My name is Joe and I'm a transition year student attending Scoil Ruain Killanuale. I am dyslexic and practice no religious. As a result of being different, I felt isolated and even bullied. I then did research on the topic of dyslexia and found many students had as bad or even worse school experiences. Talking with my peers and reading research on minority groups, I found one distressing fact. If you are different you will not be fully accepted in our education system. Therefore I want to help represent the minority's, giving a voice to those that often cannot be heard.  I want to help achieve a school system that allows all students to achieve their full potential.I hope to have a productive year and encourage anyone that is in a minority group to come forward and be heard.

Meet Our Officers: Kate Lehane

 My name is Kate Lehane and I am proud to be representing the students as Student Council Support Officer. I come from Malahide, Co. Dublin and attend Malahide Community School. As a student in TY I thought that now would be the perfect time to become an officer as I can dedicate myself to the position. I ran for this position as I am very passionate about student voice (not just providing the voice but allowing students to learn what that means, how to use it, etc). I want students to be aware of how important and beneficial their voice is. As we are the future law makers, politicians, legislators, workers I believe we should all be educated on the issues that affect us now.  Outside of the ISSU and NSE I love watersports and volunteer work. In the summers I volunteer at my local sailing school and am training to be a sailing instructor. As Student Council Support Officer my main aim for this year is to increase membership, represent the union and obviously promote the student voice. I hope to meet as many interested students and teachers at events, training days and meetings in the coming year as possible!

Meet Our Officers: Ellen O'Rourke

 Hi I'm Ellen and I'm International Officer. I'm from Dublin and recently sat my Leaving Cert in St Louis High School, Rathmines. Soon I'll be starting European Studies in Trinity College; in the meantime, I'm very busy with ISSU! I ran for this post because I had such a good experience with student council in my own school(s) (at home + in the Middle East), and wanted to get involved in a bigger way - now I represent international students in Ireland as well as Irish students internationally (plus I thought ISSU was really cool - and I still do!). So far this year, I attended the OBESSU GA in Amsterdam, became a No Hate Speech Youth Ambassador and even spoke at the TY Expo. My main focus for this year is a campaign for the integration of migrant and refugee students in Irish second-level schools...I can't wait to share more details with you soon! If you really want to get involved, or even if you have any questions or ideas, please don't hesitate to email me ellen@issu.ie!

Meet Our Officers: Chloe Griffin

 Hey Everyone, My name is Chloe Griffin and I am the Campaigns and Communications Officer of the ISSU. I am a Transition Year student in Scoil Ruáin which is a small school in Tipperary. This year I decided to run for office because I felt that the ISSU has so much potential to create stronger communication links with you guys and to get all interested people involved. One of the most effective ways to do this is through social media and by carrying out successful campaigns on matters that affect students directly so we can all join together and become stronger 'Ní neart go cur le chéíle' so they say!. Aside from student voice I have many other interests, I love sport and play basketball and football, with that I also love music and have played the piano and guitar.  I am very passionate about mental health and feel there is lots of room for schools to contribute to this subject. With that, I have planned to host a mental health awareness day entitled EMPOWER in February of this year to teach student councils how to introduce coping mechanisms into schools and to retrieve feedback from you guys and hear your ideas. I hope to see you all there! Also at the beginning of my term I decided to revive the ISSU Newsletter, every month it is filled with information and behind the scenes action on all things ISSU. You can subscribe on the newsletter section under Student Councils on our website.That’s it from me. Keep your eyes peeled on our facebook, twitter, snapchat and Instagram for all the latest.