Hello, hello! Another week has flown past, keeping Katharine, student ambassador Richard, and I busy sorting out this year’s employability event, which we hope our attendees enjoyed – even if they came purely for the pizza! But first, here are some announcements.
- The following week will be the last planned week of industrial action at the University – studies will hopefully return to normal from 15 March. Students may choose to support the strikes by not crossing the picket line.
- As part of the fourth-year entrepreneurial module, UNA, a social events platform for over 50s, has been created by one of the groups. UNA's mission is to build a community of people who connect and create quality social interactions via local events. The word UNA translates as "together" in Latin, which sums up their goal to bring people together. To have a look at their platform, head to: www.unacommunity.co.uk. This is also a great opportunity to gain an insight into what this module consists of, and could help students decide if they want to take it in their final year.
This week, we ran our yearly employability event, which featured a range of talks from alumni and a skills workshop by the Careers Network. Students were interested to hear about life outside of LANS, finding out how each alumnus’ journey has led them to their current jobs. Tom Crawford kicked things off by talking about how graduate schemes had led him into a Customer Solutions role at NatWest, followed by Kunmi Williams who explained the advantages and flexibility of working in a smaller business as a marketing co-ordinator. Mitchell Groves discussed how being able to choose different options in LANS led him to teaching, and Jeevan Rishi-Raj gave useful advice on how to best spend the rest of our time in LANS. We were joined by alumnae Sophie Peters and Ella-Jane Crawford over Skype, with Sophie talking about her freelance career in New Orleans as an artist generating multiple income streams, and Ella-Jane informing us about networking and recruitment. The talks were followed by an illuminating Q&A session where students asked about how alumni had found selling the LANS experience to employers.
The talks were followed by a workshop from the Careers Network which discussed what kinds of employable skills doing a LANS degree has brought us and how best to communicate these through CVs and at interviews. The main point I took away was to make the personal profile section of a CV unique by avoiding a list of generic statements, and focusing primarily on the single skill that one feels is most developed in themselves.
After that, pizza and prosecco were enjoyed at our networking event, which allowed students to mix with our alumni, ask more specific questions and collect contact details. Thank you to all who attended our employability event and left feedback, it has been very informative and we hope to use it to make the event even better next year!
This year’s LANS society ball was a resounding success with everyone looking elegant and enjoying a lovely meal with quality company. A massive thanks to our wonderful committee who’ve spent much of their year organising the event and made sure it all went smoothly on the night.
If you are in the Birmingham area, here are some upcoming events that we think you’ll find intriguing.
- WANBA and LGBTQ+ Association are organising a pop-up art gallery and are calling for works from artists who come from under-represented backgrounds. The event itself will be held Saturday 14 March, 19.00-22.00, mac Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park.
- Water World Day 2020 – This year, the University of Birmingham is marking World Water Day with a day of discussions, exploring water sciences research across the uni. Speakers include Sera Lewise Young who will talk about a new way to quantify water access and use and Luca Marazzi who will talk about restoring wetlands. Register here. Friday 20 March, 08.30-17.00, School of Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences.
To our alumni, it’s not too late to sign up to our Cultural Programme events! Here’s what we still have planned for this term:
- Exploring creativity with puppets with guest Sophie Huckfield. Wednesday 11th March, 3pm in the LANS hub.
- Six: The Musical, Friday 13th March @ 6pm. This will be at The Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton (transport to be provided).
If you would like to attend any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact our Cultural Programme lead, Julian, at J.P.Paenke@bham.ac.uk.
Every Friday, the Barber Institute holds a free Lunchtime concert to add a little bit of culture to Friday afternoons. This week Joel Sachs, pianist, conductor and music teacher at the Julliard School of Music in New York will be performing Ives’ ragtime and hymn inspired first sonata. Friday 13March, 13.00-14.00, Concert Hall, Barber Institute.
Do you use cue cards for presentations? Or buy packs of revision cards to help you feel organised prior to a busy exam season? We’re getting in there early (before the stress hits!) and advising you on sustainable alternatives. Instead of condensing notes onto paper, try using apps like Quizlet. Not only can you insert your notes into a virtual revision card format, but the app also allows you to convert your answers into lots of different memory games. It’s free and means you no longer have to worry about losing all those cards you spent hours making look pretty…
We’ve made it to the bottom! Good timing, too – my laptop was just about to run out of battery. If there’s anything at all that you’d like us to signpost in the newsletter, whether it’s an interesting event you’re involved in or there’s something online that you’d like people to see or even fill in, we want to know! Email us at axd819@student.bham.ac.uk or kop709@student.bham.ac.uk and we’ll try to help you out – please go ahead, emails really do staves off the loneliness!
Thanks for reading,
Adam & Katharine
Your LANS Media and Communications Ambassadors