Edinburgh Napier University

Originally from Ireland, Daniel Crehan enrolled at Edinburgh Napier in 2017. He applied for university accommodation and was assigned a room at Arran House in Fountainbridge – a decision that would change the trajectory of his life. 

This site is run by Yugo, previously known as The Student Housing Company, a private company that ENU previously had a partnership with to host the University’s students. A couple of weeks into his first year, Daniel started looking for a job and asked the Arran House reception staff to review his CV. Although Daniel had only recently moved in, they suggested he apply for a vacant Resident Assistant (RA) position as it involved planning events for the other students and supporting their wellbeing – something they thought Daniel would be a perfect fit for. 

Daniel embraced the role and utilised the knowledge he gained from his course to produce events that enhanced the student experience. 

“My favourite event has got to be Halloween’s ‘Rave to the Grave’. My course taught me a lot about the benefits of making use of unused and abandoned spaces. There was a vacant retail space at Arran House, so we took over it for a night, brought in a DJ and sprayed fake blood everywhere. It was brilliant.

“I also enjoyed the smaller activities as well. For example, on Valentines Day we organised ‘Gift a Rose’ which allowed residents to send a flower to another student in the building. We dressed as Cupid and delivered the rose alongside a handwritten note.”

A year later Daniel moved to different accommodation, but the company was keen to retain his skillset and offered Daniel another role which was more admin focused. This gave him vital experience in building management, property law, licensing and handling contracts.

In 2021 Daniel graduated from Edinburgh Napier with a BA (Hons) in International Festival & Event Management with Marketing. Like many students who had come to the end of their studies, Daniel felt quite apprehensive about what to do next. 

“I wouldn’t call graduation scary as such, rather, I had a strong ‘whoa’ feeling. It felt like there was a lot of pressure on me to pick a career that I’ll have for the rest of my life. With a degree like events and festival management, there are so many things that I could do that I ended up feeling overwhelmed.

“When I graduated, the country was in the tail end of the pandemic and so I immediately wanted to travel to somewhere different. Yugo offered me a 6-month secondment to work at one of their premises in Barcelona. The accommodation regularly hosts groups of 50-100 students who arrive at the same time. I planned these arrivals to ensure everything ran smoothly. This experience also gave me important insights into a different consumer market.

“But I was also able to dabble in event planning. One of the events I was involved in once again took advantage of the building. The site was 17 stories high; we blocked off about 7 floors and organised laser tag across the space.”

When he returned to Edinburgh Daniel was offered a Summer Sales Manager position at Yugo which is the role he currently holds. Yugo houses over 40,000 students each year across nine countries and their standard student tenancies are between 38 and 43 weeks long. Daniel is responsible for selling the empty rooms for the other weeks of the year. He manages 10 sites across the UK and Ireland and sometimes gets pulled into other projects in another city or country. Not bad for someone who started on this career path by chance! 

Alongside his paid employment, Daniel is making an impact via his volunteering responsibilities. He has been an active supporter of the Edinburgh Students' Charities Appeal (ESCA) since his student days and was elected Chair in 2021. ESCA was founded over 150 years ago and organises events for Edinburgh residents as well as provides support to student clubs associated with any university or college in Edinburgh who wish to fundraise for a cause. Their work has raised over £476,500 for charity since 2015 alone. 

“The Meadows Marathon is ESCA’s flagship event. It’s a running festival held in the Meadows in Edinburgh and raises money to help local, national and international charities. In 2018 ESCA had had a bad year as the ‘Beast from the East’ - the storm that swept over the UK – forced them to cancel the event.

“They approached Edinburgh Napier’s student Events Society to ask for support to organise the 2019 edition as they had ambitions to make the festival the premier running event in Scotland. I was a committee member at the newly formed society at the time and got involved. It was really successful, and the Events Society remains a partner of the festival to this day. I ended up joining the ESCA board as Trustee in 2019 and then was appointed Chair two years later. 

“When I took over as Chair it was a difficult time because the world was emerging from the pandemic, and there was so much uncertainty. ESCA has staple events, not just the marathon but Race to Paris and Edinburgh RAG Week as well. These events roll on year on year, primarily through word of mouth. A student would go to university and get involved with our activities, and then tell their younger sibling about us when they join a couple of years later. However, because things were cancelled, these influencers didn’t get a chance to experience what we do and therefore couldn’t tell their friends. 

“It was difficult to bounce back and we’re still on the road to recovery. However, luckily, we were in an ok place financially before the pandemic and managed to weather the storm. Many charities couldn’t, so we’ve undertaken a lot of work to support these organisations, including using our funding reserves to help keep them afloat.”

The Alumni Rising Star Award recognises the achievements of a recent graduate who has already achieved professional success in their short career and is making a positive contribution to their community. The selection committee commented:

“Daniel only graduated a couple of years ago but is already making a huge impact. A rising star accurately describes Daniel Crehan’s career so far. He is one to watch and is already a role model for Edinburgh Napier students and alumni. We look forward to following and supporting his career.”