The Europe Day celebrations at USP College kicked off on Tuesday, 6th of May, with a very special guest coming into college for a Q&A session with our current junior ambassadors!

Jayden O’Brien, our Lead Junior Ambassador for USP College, joined the EPAS programme in 2022 alongside friend Ri Goodyear. Over the next two years, Ri was an integral member of the EPAS team at USP College before her departure for university in 2024.

For Europe Day 2023, she won a competitive contest of junior ambassadors across the UK to become the keynote speaker at that year’s Europe Day celebrations in Westminster, speaking in a packed hall of over 400 MPs, ministers, lords, councillors, diplomats and former MEPs.

Through this experience with EPAS, Ri was able to unlock many opportunities which she would have otherwise been unable to experience. She made many important connections in the diplomatic and political world and found herself embarking on a political career with the Green Party. Reflecting on this, Ri praised EPAS for the opportunities it gave her, which felt very significant to her as someone from a working class background, a group who are typically ignored or left behind in modern society.

Since leaving USP College, Ri has become a leading figure in the Green Party. In the 2024 local elections, she stood as the Green candidate for the Thurrock ward of West Thurrock and South Stifford, one of the first Greens to contest an election in the Thurrock area. While she didn’t win in this Labour safe ward, she did win a formidable 10.5% of the vote, which is very high for a political newcomer from a new party which has little to no local presence.

A few days ago, Ri stood in Thurrock once again in the 2025 local elections, this time in the ward of Ockendon where there was a by-election. It was in this context that Jayden thought to invite Ri back into college for a Q&A with current ambassadors to discuss her political career and her experiences with EPAS.

Ri’s Q&A covered a series of topics, including house building, immigration, Brexit, Green political strategy, cross-party cooperation, transgender rights, the electoral system, the Green leadership election, university tuition fees and several other issues. Ri was at our Palmer’s Campus, but the Q&A was done cross-campus using USP College’s state-of-the-art immersive room technology!

The session had very high engagement with our junior ambassadors and was enjoyed by all!