Welcome Week, dodgeball, hall rep events, and fun societies, Ella explains you how to make the most of your first year on campus.
A new city and a new school. This sounds like the beginning of either a dream or a nightmare; my first year experience was closer to a dream.
Admittedly, first year is quite overwhelming; all the inductions, the workload, fairs, activities and more. Campus never had a dull moment in those first few weeks. One of my main reasons for going to university was immersing myself in campus life so I knew I was going to make the most of it.
I was on campus almost every day doing something new from making friendship bracelets in the Welcome Marquee to getting another tote bag from the Guild during welcome week. It sounds like a movie but this is what student life is like!
Hall reps organise events and activities at accommodations to give you the best student experience. As a Selly fresher, I visited Oak Brook Park, Battery Park, Selly Oak Court, Jarratt Hall and, of course, my own accommodation, Bournbrook, to attend these events. Trust me when I say, you won’t be able to go to all of them: there are so many! But that’s the beauty of it; if I missed the Open air Cinema on Wednesday, I could always go to the Vale Festival on Friday (true story). The Vale Village is such student vibes and it honestly feels like you’re in a simulation just being there - perfect for relaxing and socialising.
“Join a society. Are you going to join a society?”
Everyone was on it and so was I. I attended many sports tasters and even kept a log in my notes. Fencing, Judo, Volleyball, Taekwondo, Jiu Jitsu, Archery, Judo, Karate, Dodgeball. I really wanted to do a self defence sport (spoiler: I didn’t end up doing a self defence sport) but somehow I got roped into dodgeball.
Yes… dodgeball. But not those soft balls and no rules dodgeball you might’ve played in primary school. Serious dodgeball. Tournaments dodgeball. Championships dodgeball. The dodgeball community is bigger that you know.
Through my time as a member, I trialled to be in a squad and made it to the women’s second squad out of five. We trained twice a week with a complimentary social session on Fridays and I threw myself into the deep end playing in national tournaments all over the UK! I would definitely recommend joining at sport at some point in your years of education at university.
Evidently from my blog so far, I am the type of person that likes doing things and going outside my comfort zone so of course I had to join a society. Or a few societies. After visiting the societies fair and some taster sessions, I opted for African Caribbean Society (ACS), Baking Society and Cocktail Society. ACS’s Take Me Out event was jokes, making double chocolate chip cookies with Baking Society even though I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate was fun and never attending a Cocktail society event but watching their Instagram stories thinking “I’ll go next time” was truly delusion at its finest.
So that’s how I navigated campus life for my first year of university, how would you do it?
I’m a second year Computer Science student and aim to continue my career being a woman in STEM.
