It certainly feels like winter now, with colder days and longer nights. That hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm, though, and November has been a fantastic month for Student Hubs! Keep reading to find out what we’ve been up to, some exciting plans, and meet a new staff member…
Climate action bristol
This year, Climate Action Bristol is hosting a number of schools, university departments, a construction company and a charity. There are a wide variety of challenges within each of these areas and sustainability, allowing the students to get stuck in for the next six months. Stay tuned for updates – we can’t wait to see how it goes!
The Social Purpose University: Student Hubs’ Conference 2024
As you may have seen on our social media channels, we are excited to share that our conference will be taking place on 24th January. The conference aims to support universities to connect with their social purpose, learn from colleagues delivering outstanding social impact in their communities, and see how these activities are transforming student engagement, belonging and skills in their universities. If you are a member of university staff who support the strategic activities and plans of their universities, this conference is for you, and we’d love to see you there.
Tickets are currently available at an early bird discount. Get them while you can! If you’re interested in presenting, you can submit your presentation or workshop idea – this needs to be done before the 27th November. We’d love to see you there!
Branching up in southampton
Programme Manager, Stephen, recently spent his Saturday leading Southampton’s second Branch Up day of the year. Here are his reflections:
The Second Branch Up day was another roaring success! It was great to see how much some of our attendees had grown in confidence and really great getting to know them better.
In the morning the children learnt about Equality and Diversity through talks on LGBTQ+, Mental Health, Disability and Neuro-Divergence, Germany, African and Caribbean Culture and The World at Large.
The young people reflected on how they felt and their confidence by drawing comics after lunch. Then it was games, games games, with musical statues, duck duck goose, jenga, uno and tin can alley. It was glorious in a ever so slightly chaotic way but everyone had a fantastic time!
Stephen Muldowney-Mizen
in the spotlight
We’re excited to welcome our new Cambridge Programmes Manager, Charlie, who will be supporting our wonderful Cambridge projects. Here are a few words from Charlie so you can get to know him:
Hello everyone. Very happy to be here. I just graduated from my masters degree in Innovation and Anthropology at the University of Bristol meaning I’m very entrepreneurial and human centric.
Personally I love nature and frequently go on exploratory runs or hikes. You’ll often find me at the gym, in the swimming pool or on a football pitch. Sometimes I’ll be enlightening my inner mojo on a yoga mat or falling asleep in a sauna.
My sustainability/social journey officially started in Nov 2020 when I recruited a bunch of innovation coursemates to compete for the Earthshot prize. After a couple roller coasters that project turned into a green recruitment platform.
In May 2022 I founded an edtech company with the ex Principle Youth Officer of Botswana. Acting as a co-founder and mentor he has hugely opened my eyes of the need to adopt global thinking to solve the climate challenge.
In September 2022, after my dissertation on climate anxiety, I created a student initiative at Bristol Uni to engage students with sustainability. This led me to become SU Sustainability Champion for the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
In 2023: I’ve been fortunate to be a delegate for UN Women UK, finished top 100 in a global essay competition to earn a place as Leader of Tomorrow at St Gallen Symposium (the essay question discussed which legacies should we replace or maintain. I wrote about replacing colonial legacy), have been invited to the Asian European Foundation’s Society 5.0 Summit as a Young Leader, and won funding to do some front line Amazon conservation work in Peru! (pictured)
I’m super passionate about climate change, gender rights, decolonisation and intergenerational dialogue. I hope to use my anthropological thinking to foster global collaboration by navigating international and intergenerational cultural boundaries in this recently globalised and digitised world. Diversity is incredible and uniforms are boring. Also, I’ve recently become an advocate for system thinking and love the concept of metamodernism.
Working with Cambridge students and the local community is a dream first step and a complete privilege. I’m incredibly excited to engage the extraordinary talent for positive change!
what to look out for
Our Book Club is currently on pause as it undergoes a rebrand – it’ll be back and better than ever in 2024. Keep an eye on upcoming newsletters and blogs for information on how to get involved…!