News Archive

Maddie Mulholland cruised to victory in the Student Guild elections in September, winning with one of the largest margins in years. Next week, the law/finance student takes office as UWA’s 103rd Guild President. Maddie sat down with UWA Forward to discuss her student experience, her new job and the year ahead.

Maddie loves UWA and loves being a student here. “It’s the opportunities I’ve had here,” she said. “I started studying at UWA in 2010 and started in a very broad degree – physics, French and philosophy. I was able to figure out what I wanted to do, which ended up being law and finance.”

While she enjoyed her initial studies, Maddie decided that law was for her after working in a law firm for a year-and-a-half.

“Seeing clients when they come in and how distressed they often are, and how we help them really solidified it for me,” she explained. “I really like that problem solving aspect.”

“Also, with physics, I realised I wasn’t very good at maths!” she laughed.

Maddie was very excited about the election results. “You don’t run for it without wanting the job, because it’s a big job,” she said. “And it’s great to have that warm fuzzy feeling that the students want it to be you.”

And while she clearly has political skills to win, Maddie wouldn’t say she has a passion for politics at all.

“It’s more of a desire to help students have their voice heard and give back to other students. I want to have an impact in my time here, that’s what’s driven me.”

During her term, Maddie is looking forward to building the Guild’s student engagement efforts.

“A key aspect is that students feel they’re being listened to,” she said. “If they feel uneasy about something, my job is to make sure the University administration is aware, so they can respond and I can feed that back.”

“We see ourselves as a partner of the University. The Guild is an independent body, and we need to be independent criticise things that students are really unhappy with. But at the same time a lot of the things that we want to do that the University wants to do to, which requires a constructive relationship. It’s about finding that balance.”

“A lot can be done through communication,” she added.

Maddie also had some very nice things to say about outgoing Guild President, Lizzy O’Shea.

“Under Lizzy the Guild certainly became more visible. And she set the expectation that students’ voices would be heard,” she said.

“There’s no doubt I have some big shoes to fill.”