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I kind of forgot how hard running is when I signed up for this, but I LOVE STAR so doing it anyway #yolo⠀

STAR is the national network of student groups welcoming refugees to the UK. The charity has been a huge  part of my life for 7 (!) years, and in that time the charity has made a huge difference for tens of thousands of people from refugee backgrounds.⠀

I first joined STAR when my friend set up a group at Exeter. I didn't know anything about refugees, but I did to put something good on my CV. I know, it's terrible. But going along to our conversation club for the first time was eye-opening. There I met a group of women who had been all forced to flee their homes. We sat and chatted, shared stories and laughed together. I think what surprised me was how chill the whole thing was - how we weren't acting like teachers but instead created a space for them to gain confidence in their English through real conversation.

From then on I was hooked. I set up a new STAR group when I did my Master's at Surrey, where we ran a campaign to improve access to university for those seeking asylum. We had a new Vice Chancellor start half way through the year, and within a matter of weeks we convinced him to agree to reclassify asylum seekers as "home" students rather than "international" students. This is a very important distinction, as international students are people that have traveled for their education, but asylum seekers have traveled to seek safety.

At the end of that year, I joined STAR's staff team as Student Network Coordinator. I felt so lucky to have found a job doing exactly what I wanted to do. Since I joined the STAR team, the network has grown from 34 groups to 50, which means that thousands and thousands of students are sharing the message that refugees are welcome on their campuses across the country. 

I've now been working at STAR for four and a half years! The time has flown by, and yet at the same time the charity has achieved so much for people with refugee status or seeking asylum:

• 74 universities now have an Equal Access policy offering over 200 university places each year
• 4,458 refugees were supported at STAR volunteering projects like conversation clubs, football clubs, gardening projects and homework clubs for kids last year
• 27,000 people attended STAR groups events that had an educational or awareness-raising aim, meaning that 27,000 people are now more knowledgeable about refugees than they were
• STAR's made a huge difference on national campaigns, with 2,344 people signing petition letters in a single week last year (and we even got a personal shout-out in Parliament recently!)
• Lots of STAR groups have showcased award-winning exhibition Museum Without A Home.
• We launched an open days project, where current students work with their universities to host open days for prospective asylum seeking students so that they know that they can go to university and how to go about it.

This year is STAR's 25th birthday, so please consider donating to support STAR's amazing work over the next 25 years!

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We've got a week to get to the target of £500 - we can do this!!