After a wonderful winter break the Student Hubs team are back with their usual passion and determination. This month we’ve started term two delivery, been supported by a successful new fundraising stream and headed out and about living our values by being social. Read on to find out more.
Kick off in Kingston
Term two of Service Learning is officially go. In January, our Programme Manager Ewelina launched a module for second-year Photography students. Service Learning aims to enhance students’ learning experience by exposing them to real-world challenges. At Student Hubs we take it one step further by adding value to the local community’s creative and social heritage through the partners we work with.
A cohort of 30 from Kingston School of Art, Kingston University, will spend the next few weeks developing a collections of images in response to one of six community briefs. These briefs were presented by Kingston Hub partners (The Community Brain, Creative Youth, Refugee Action Kingston and Kingston Museum) at the launch (pictured below). Under the direction of Anthony Lam, Senior Lecturer in Photography, the students will exhibit their creative collections upon the completion of the project, celebrating youth talent and the togetherness of the Kingston community.
Putting the Fun in Fundraising
Our Cambridge Hub Manager, Toby, has definitely been putting the fun in fundraising. Toby (aka Turtlekite) uses Twitch to stream his gaming from Sims 4 to Tony Hawks Pro Skater. This month he has started encouraging his audience to donate to charity rather than subscribe to his channel. He has already raised a huge £73 with donations from the UK, Australia, the USA and the Philippines!
Toby shared his Twitch and streaming knowledge with the Student Hubs team at our January lunch and learn. If you would be interested in attending or delivering a Student Hubs lunch and learn reach out to sophie.payne@www.studenthubs.org.
Being social
This month our team have been busy getting out and about at several external events. Living our values and being social.
At the beginning of the month, student leader, Will Moody, and our Partnerships and Development Director, Fiona Walsh, presented at the SHIFT 2022 conference. The conference focused on innovative approaches to learning and teaching, and we were delighted to spotlight Engage for Change, our sustainable innovation placement programme at Cambridge Hub.
The pair shared the impact the programme has seen since 2018 in supporting the University of Cambridge’s Sustainability Strategy with student designed projects. Will spoke about the project he developed during the programme and has since led with Cambridge Hub, the Carbon Literacy Project. This initiative has reached over 150 students at Cambridge, teaching them about issues surrounding carbon literacy, sustainability, and how to talk to others about these challenges.
Fiona also attended the GuildHE Knowledge Exchange Coffee Morning to meet staff working in knowledge exchange across the country, and to hear the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) talk about their work, including their upcoming KEF report. Fiona shared a little bit about Student Hubs and our activities across the network, including our One Community Forum work. It was a great opportunity to meet some new sector colleagues and get closer to achieving our vision of mainstreaming student social action.
In the Spotlight
This month we wanted to put our 2020-21 impact in the spotlight – which means we’re spotlighting all of the students, partners, participants and staff who made last year such a success.
Yesterday we launched our 2020-21 impact report and it has been a delight to look back at everything our network achieved. 1436 students participated in social action reaching 1980 community participants through 139 partners. As well as showcasing all of the amazing impact students made the report spotlights the One Community Forum, student skill development across our programmes and our five year partnership with Burges Salmon. I may be biased, but it’s a must read!
What to Look Out For
- To celebrate Student Volunteering Week we have two upcoming webinars. For students a free Idea Generation and Campaigns workshop on 8 February and for staff a session on Supporting Students to be Changemakers on 10 February. For more information and to grab your tickets head to Student Hubs’ Eventbrite
- Our Recent Graduate Survey is closing on 31 January. If you graduated in 2021 and you are a Hub alumni, we want to hear from you. Complete the survey to let us know what you’ve been up to since graduating
- Check out our Blue Monday graphic, full of tips for supporting your mental health and wellbeing all year