The week of the 11th was packed with steps that have put me forward and also back in my project. It began with a tutorial that pushed me to further come out of my comfort zone and circle back to my original interests: storytelling and film. After this week, I’ve divided what’s to come in the next 7 weeks into 5 parts: survey, petition, open letter, documentary rough cut, zine. All while keeping up with social media, of course.
1. Survey
This week, I launched the petition I’d been long working on. I used change.org as the platform for this petition, as my research lead me to find that that was the platform with the most reach and is often effective at enacting change. So I published my petition called “Legalize self-employment for international students” and shared it in all my and Inter.work’s platforms.
I launched that on Thursday and was to meet with Syahadah, UAL’s SU’s campaigns officer, on Friday. During a meeting that lasted around 3hrs we discussed what could make my campaign more effective, and she recommended that I moved my petition from change.org to the UK’s Parliament official petition platform. I was like Ah! I have to launch it all over again, but as long as it’s more effective I’ll do it.
However, Syahadah also recommended that I conduct a 2-week survey prior to posting my campaign with the UK Parliament as petitions with fresh raw data often get more attention. I thought this backtracked me two weeks, I was so ready to hit the ground running with my petition, but now it appears that my petition will be more effective if I wait 2 weeks and gather data from my survey. This will be the second survey I conduct for my project, and the first one I made seems to be close enough to what I need again, so I’m not completely starting from scratch there.
2. Petition
Once the survey has gathered two week’s worth of data, I’ll use such data in my petition for the UK Parliament and launch it there. The petition will be addressed to key gatekeepers such as Kevin Foster MP, Minister for Future Borders and Immigration.
What has been great relief through the re-launch, is that Syahadah I quite willing to support me out through this together with UAL’s Student Union. She has offered to help me distribute my survey and petition and has given me great advice on what to keep in mind throughout this process.
3. Open Letter
At the same time the petition launches, I will put out an open letter addressed to the same gatekeepers that the petition is addressed to. I already have the draft for this, now it’s also a matter of waiting for the survey findings.
4. Documentary
Since there’s close to no chance I’ll be able to change the law regarding freelancing on a Student visa by December, I’m going to explore some stories from international students while my campaign runs in the background. I’m planning on putting together a rough cut of a documentary-like short film, where international students can share their experiences in the world of art and being unable to do independent work.
I’ve already heard from a couple of people who would be willing to participate, and I’ve included in my survey a space where students can express their interest in being part of the documentary in a survey. As an active admin member of the Latinxs Collective society, I’ve had chats with Latin international students who relate to my project, and I can also be in close contact with other international societies and chat with as many people as possible to get about 5 to 10 testimonies for the documentary’s rough cut.
5. Zine
Last but not least! I will condense all my findings into a zine-like report. As a visual person, I thought it could be an effective way to put together what I’ve done throughout the course and my campaign and present it as a zine. Mostly digital, but I’m considering printing a few copies as well.
Conclusion
5 things but lots of work ahead for the next 7 weeks!