It has been a pleasure to be the UMCB President (Welsh Language Students’ Union) this year. I feel that I have been able to give a little back to the community that has shaped me as a person and a young adult, and that is basically the reason why I ran for the role in the first place. I feel that this job has prepared me for the wider world of work, fostering in me a number of essential skills necessary for the professional workplace.

As I also ran for a second term I was able to reflect on the year I had already had this year. I looked back at my manifesto and campaign from last year and although I haven't been able to achieve every goal on it, this highlighted the need for me to continue for another year so that I can develop these ideas/campaigns that I have now started on e.g. campaigning internally with the university for renovations to the John Morris-Jones hall of residence.

I am very fortunate in the comfortable situation of Welsh language standards within Undeb Bangor and the University in general this year so I was able to turn my gaze towards external elements that would have an impact on our Welsh language standards and policies. With the help of my colleagues within Undeb Bangor, we were able to present a Welsh language and bilingualism policy idea for the annual NUS Wales conference. This conference was held in Bangor on the 22nd of March in our Activities Hub. I am proud to say that our policy idea and all amendments were passed. It was also great to hear positive support for the policy from all the higher education and further education student representatives present at the conference.

Although I had a great year, it didn't come without its challenges. I believe the two main challenges I have faced this year are student engagement and providing the best experience for students through the cost of living crisis. The two are actually connected. Many of UMCB's traditional events such as the Intercollegiate Dance hel din Aberystwyth can be costly. And with us in a cost of living crisis, students this year have had to face the unfortunate challenge of prioritizing either affording their social life or affording their welfare and day to day costs i.e. weekly shopping and rent. Because of this, students have not been able to engage with our social events, so we have tried to adapt those so that they are more affordable. An example of this was when it came to our Gloddest night to celebrate Christmas, I held discussions with local venues to ensure that we could get the best choice in terms of cost and quality for hosting the event.

I must say that the highlight of the year for me was the Intercollegiate Eisteddfod. This year's Eisteddfod was held down in Lampeter on the campus of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David on the weekend of the 3rd-4th of March. I am proud to say that we have won the Eisteddfod for the 8th year in a row now, thus bringing the intercollegiate shield back to the north for another year. No feeling has come close during this year to the one I had when I lifted that shield after it was announced that we were the winners. It was that moment that made all the hard work throughout the last year worth it.