Summer time has well and truly started. For us at Student Hubs this means things getting quieter with our university partners and student network as delivery winds down for the academic year. But that doesn’t mean we’re slowing down – the team are busy collating impact data, reflecting on the year gone by and making improvements and plans for 2022/23.
New starters
The team has been inducting five new starters this month. We’ve welcomed two new members of the team to support exciting project work, and three summer interns in Kingston and Southampton.
Jay Chard (pictured below left) is our Sustainability Programme Manager, collaborating with the Open University in Wales on a version of Engage for Change – our environmental innovation programme. Jay will be spending the summer empowering students to think creatively about climate solutions and change at the institution. As a recent master’s graduate himself, Jay shared “I’m passionate about engaging young people with the climate and ecological emergency. I’m looking forward to working to working with students to create meaningful, lasting and effective action”
Iona Gillies (pictured below right) is a Media and Communications student at Leeds University who has joined the team to facilitate knowledge exchange through building meaningful connections in the community with Leeds Conservatoire through our One Community Forum model. Iona shared “As someone who is extremely passionate about the arts and how they can be used as a force for social change, I am very excited about the opportunities that this Forum is going to create.”
Finally, Mahalia, Jenifer and Michael have joined the team as our Hub summer interns. Mahalia will be supporting evaluation and development work in Kingston whilst Jenifer supports their communications and marketing. Meanwhile Michael will be working on Invent Plus in Southampton.
Student committees
We spent the month of June celebrating our 2021/22 student committees, and onboarding out 2022/23 committees! Southampton Hub have been having regular committee meetings and training sessions with their new student leaders and Bristol Hub have been busy facilitating an induction day and chatting one to one to each new individual about their role.
In Kingston Hub three of their new committee members are familiar faces to the Hub. Doreen trained as an Empower mentor this year, and the Social Work student will be stepping up to Empower Project Coordinator next academic year. Pharmaceutical Science student, Uzair, tutored a secondary school pupil this year and enjoyed the experience so much that they will be returning as Schools Plus Project Coordinator next academic year. Finally, Vindhya, a Business Administration student is joining the committee as Vice-President. This year they volunteered as a Schools Plus tutor all the way from India.
15 hour walk for Student Hubs
On 15 June, Bristol Hub Manager Sorcha Young, and myself, set out on a 15 hour walk to raise money for Student Hubs. In total we walked over 70,000 steps – more than 50km – raising just over £750.
Sorcha wanted to take on this challenge as part of our 15 for Student Hubs campaign because of her experience at Bristol and Winchester Hubs. As a Psychology Undergrad Sorcha joined the Hub’s Social Innovation Programme as a team leader, re-igniting her passion for social action. In her final year she joined the Bristol Hub committee and made friends for life, building a network of changemakers. Upon graduating she got a job at Winchester Hub launching the Social Innovation Programme in the city and has since then returned to Bristol Hub as Hub Manager. I asked Sorcha why she wanted to fundraise for Student Hubs.
“Being back in Bristol has allowed me to build even more skills and bring my love for this work back around to where it first started. Working with students and seeing these journeys happen again and again makes me love coming into work everyday to see the powerful change that young people can make in their local communities.”
You can watch what we got up to on the day in our Instagram reel.
In the Spotlight
This month we wanted to put Southampton Hub Manager, Catherine Taplin-Thorpe, in the spotlight. Catherine attended the NEON Summer Symposium earlier in the month to present on 10 years of Schools Plus. Read more about the theme on our blog.
What to Look Out For
- Our full 2021-22 impact report will launch in January, however over the coming months keep an eye on our local Hubs in Bristol, Cambridge, Kingston, Southampton and Winchester as they celebrate their impact for the year and share their local Hub reports
- We’ll be attending the FACE conference in Southampton next week, and the Student Volunteering Network conference later in the year. If you’re attending be sure to drop by and hear what we have to share
- Check our instagram stories for our usual biweekly alumni wrap-up for more news and opportunities. The next wrap up will be 8 July