A2B Induction

On the 12th September I was invited to give a talk about FocSoc to the freshers who had applied to the Uni through the Access 2 Birmingham Scheme. The scheme itself is designed to encourage students from the West Midlands area who wouldn’t normally apply for higher education to continue their studies at university, whether there is no history of university education in their family or their school is in an area where the progression to higher education is low. Students are normally offered a lower A-Level or IB points offer in return for shadowing a current student in their chosen course, completing an online skills test and completing an essay with the aid of a university tutor. Being an A2B student myself I was more than happy to go along and talk about the opportunities that are available to home students and to show that living at home doesn’t mean that you’re going to miss out on the so-called ‘university experience’. Jen (President) and Sparky (VP Sport) also came along to give their presentations about the Guild and University of Birmingham Sport...although Sparky needs to brush up on his knowledge of intra-league fixtures! =) I also took a few members of the FocSoc committee along with me – Dave (VP Finance), Jo (Welfare Officer) and Charlotte (VP Entertainment) to help answer any questions that the students had and to hand out the all important FocSoc sign-up forms!

The highlight of the day though came with my first Officer Group Raid! Tom Marley came into all our offices to announce that there was loads of food left over from the A2B lunch and they said that we could have it. So, on the promise of chocolate cake (which I later found out that Marley had made up!) several of us took a trek over to the Arts building to grab some free grub and bring it back to the Guild, without being caught – something which we failed, and which resulted in Jen falling backwards out of the sliding doors whilst carrying a load of food.