Read Co-President, Welfare and Diversity, Jack Kilker's latest blog on his first three months as a Students' Union sabbatical officer.
It’s been a little over three months since I started as Co-President Welfare and Diversity, and so much has happened during that time. Here’s a brief snapshot of what I’ve been doing.
A few weeks ago, I met with Bryony from the Good Night Out campaign, so that a member of our Human Resources team and I could be trained in leading their workshops.
Good Night Out work to tackle sexual harassment in night clubs, but also to empower staff within these venues to deal sensitively and appropriately with the disclosure of sexual harassment, so that they can help to get the outcome that the person who has been harassed wants and deserves.
This training will be incorporated into our student staff training program and I will be helping to train our staff in the coming weeks!
Last week, the Career Starter scheme launched. This is a project that grew out of one of my manifesto points, and will give 10 Royal Holloway students the chance to build their confidence and improve their employability within their Students’ Union, while also receiving a reference to take to future employers.
Also last week, with the International Students Office, we hosted the first Global Café of the academic year! Global Café is a joint Students’ Union and College venture which aims to bring together international and home students for a regular, chilled, cultural exchange, and to broaden the horizons of both.
So many students turned up that we were constantly running out of tea and here’s a picture of me looking stressed but very pleased about it!
Welcome Week
The week before that, of course, was Welcome Week. Our fantastic volunteers (all three hundred of them!), permanent and student staff all came together to put on a week of so many diverse events; from welcome fayres and petting zoos, to DJ Fresh and picnics for students of faith and belief.
A lot of the summer was spent planning for Welcome Week and it was really rewarding to see everything come together!
Over Move-in Weekend, the Students’ Union played a crucial part in moving about three thousand new students into their new homes at Royal Holloway. Our volunteers were stationed at all of the different halls of residence, ready to offer support, carry bags and show people around.
The positive feedback we have received from parents and members of staff from various College departments has been wonderful, and very representative of the work our volunteers put in.
During Welcome Week, I organised a picnic for students of faith and belief, where new students, and representatives from various cultural and faith societies, as well as from the Royal Holloway Chaplaincy, came together to enjoy some lunch.
With Athena, the Students’ Union International Officer, I helped to run the Global Café Selfie Party, where members of the welfare committee and some new and returning international students played some games, had some tea and cake, and caught up about their summers.
On the Wednesday of Welcome Week, along with College Support and Advisory Services and the Student Life Team, we hosted Miller’s Ark Petting Zoo down on Founder’s Meadow.
After a bit of trouble setting up, this turned into a really wonderful day, with somewhere between four and five hundred students, new and returning, coming down to the previously-unused space to enjoy a day with some farmyard friends!
The welfare committee received their training from me and some of our membership services staff on Thursday 17 September, and have been out volunteering and representing the Students’ Union since then.
If you see someone wearing a fetching green polo shirt or hoody around campus, be sure to say ‘hi!’
So, what’s next?
Now that Career Starters is in full swing, the next thing for me is Check Yourself Week and the Stay Safe and Stay Well Fayre on Thursday 29 October.
The Fayre will be all about signposting and self-care, giving our students the tools and the knowledge to support themselves, their friends, their peers and their housemates.
And speaking of houses, I’ll also be hoping to launch the ‘Looking’ guide; the first instalment in my new approach to the housing campaign we run at your Students’ Union.
In the more imminent future, I’ll be running a couple of ‘Have Your Say’ events about housing on campus in the coming weeks, where I’ll be heading to Kingswood and all around campus with some of our Students’ Union staff to find out what it’s been like for new students moving into halls of residence, and if there have been any reoccurring issues for us to work on next year.
Look out for our pop-up stand and come say ‘hey!’
This week also marks the opening of nominations for Hall Reps and the local Englefield Green and Egham Reps. More information is available online on how you can put yourself forward to take a lead on social and representative work for students within your halls of residence, so we can empower you to make your experience of halls to be whatever you want it to be!
The Hall Reps and Englefield Green/Egham Reps are also really important in terms of representing the views of these students, both in terms of Students’ Union democracy, and residences bodies in the local area.
It’s been a stressful, difficult and very tiring couple of months, but every second of it has also been incredibly rewarding and so much fun to be a part of.
Thank you to my lovely Sabbs, who are a joy to work alongside, and here’s to many more Saturday nights at Flawless in Medicine!
As ever, if you have any concerns about anything, or any questions about anything I’ve written here you can drop me an email.
Jack Kilker
Co-President, Welfare and Diversity