I’ve been really busy since my last blog helping both the Home Students Association and FocSoc plan their events for Welcome Week and the first term. The HSA have got some great events planned for you returning students that are living at home, including a Salsa evening, a Deal or No Deal night and a film night in the Guild. FocSoc have got all the usual Welcome Week events for those freshers who aren’t living in University accommodation, whether they’re living at home or in private accommodation in Selly Oak. They’re going on all the Freshers Fest club nights out (see http://www.freshersfest.com/ for the timetable and to buy tickets) as well as planning loads of their own events. There’s a Welcome Day on Saturday 20th complete with a BBQ, as well as a sports day, quiz and football and netball tryouts happening throughout the week. We’re still finalising all the details at the moment, but as soon as they’re sorted I’ll post them on here.
I’ve also had a meeting with some members of the University’s Student Advice and Support department discussing the plans for home students during Welcome Week. The Uni have booked the area outside the Avon Room for us to use on the Saturday and throughout the next week, so we’ll be working with them looking at ways we can use the space to promote FocSoc and address the issues that affect home students in their first few weeks at uni, such as ways of getting to uni.
The Uni have also included a section about home students in their Welcome Guide that gets sent to all new students:
Staying local
Are you local to the West Midlands?
Will you be living off-campus duringterm-time?
Each year up to a quarter of all first year students choose to live with their family, partner, friends or by themselves within theWest Midlands area. We realise that during the first few weeks this can mean local students do not always have the same opportunities to meet other new students. There will be a Staying Local welcome area in the Avon Room (R23). We would encourage you to use this area to meet new students with whom you can explore the campus and attend welcome events or even just to take a break and eat lunch. Staff from student support services will be available to answer any questions and offer advice on Saturday 20 September, and thereafter from Monday to Friday at key times throughout welcome week.
Within the Staying Local welcome area there will be a commuter lounge. This is an ideal opportunity to find out more about public transport links, keeping your bike secure, personal safety, car shares and much more. There will be information on display including the Guild of Students’ Freshers Off Campus Society (FOCSOC). Visit the Guild of Students website for more information and sign up for a buddy visit (www.guildofstudents.com).
During your first term there are ongoing opportunities for you to meet other students. Most Schools provide an induction programme where you will meet students on the same course. There are also numerous Guild societies that you can join to meet friends with similar interests.
This level of publicity is brilliant for FocSoc as it means that they’ll be able to reach so many more students. FocSoc always send out booklets detailing their Welcome Week events to the list of students living in the West Midlands that we receive from the Uni. However, there are always students that are missed out, often because they went through clearing. Having the Uni publicise FocSoc to every new student means that those whose details we don’t receive, and so don’t receive anything through the post from us, know we exist and can contact us if they want.
Apart from that, I’ve mainly been trying to focus on my dissertation. I know for most people this seems crazy, spending my summer doing it but the Geography ones have to be in in the first week of February, and with so many events planned for the first semester I figured that it’d be better getting as much done as I can now rather than leaving it and having a massive panic come Christmas! Being the holidays you’d have thought that the uni would be really quiet. While the Guild is pretty dead in terms of students, the library is pretty full. Give it a couple of weeks though, and I’m sure that’ll all change!
I’ve also been watching a fair bit of the Olympics whilst I’ve been at home. I’m a bit of a tennis fan, but I’ve found that I’ve not been watching it at all. Instead I’ve been captivated by the swimming and the great Michael Phelps. I remember watching him four years ago in Athens racing against Ian Thorpe. To achieve what he’s achieved is absolutely amazing – the most decorated Olympian of all time at the age of 23, especially when you consider that relay against France when everyone thought the USA were down and out, and his winning his seventh Gold by just 100-hundreth of a second. I was absolutely gutted that I missed the men’s 100 metre final though. For me it’s the highlight of the Olympics, and where was I? At work. I did see a replay of it later on though. I was absolutely blown away by Usain Bolt. The fact that he practically stopped 20m before the line and started celebrating – amazing! I can’t believe it’s over already but now it’s on to London 2012, which hopefully, will have as many amazing sporting moments as we’ve seen in the past two weeks, although it’s going to be pretty hard to top that opening ceremony!
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