A Look Back On Term One: Part Four

Mental Health Awareness Week

I’ve worked with Molly Austen, (our Mental Health Rep), to organise Mental Health Awareness Week in November. This was a really interesting week, and 30 people have attended our student-led Let’s Talk About Mental Health discussions. We also ran the It’s Okay To Talk photo campaign, which seeks to raise awareness and tackle the stigma of men’s mental health. This had great engagement on social media and we've even had it done it in official society photos - thanks Drama Soc!

There's still time to take a selfie if you haven't, so please take one and tag @SURHUL!  A Massive shout out to Women’s Football who led multiple events during this week, including a photo campaign and a bake sale to raise money for the Cameron Grant Memorial Trust.

During the term I attended the Student Minds ‘Look After Your Mate’ training, so that I can deliver workshops about mental health and help students to support their friends. It was great! If you're interested in doing a workshop, please contact me.

Black History Month and Disability History Month

This term two of our officers organised successful Black History Month and Disability History Month campaigns. Louisa (our BME Rep) collaborated with the College Archives to produce a display about Black History at Royal Holloway, along with a discussion panel exploring what it means to come out as LGBT+ as a person of colour.

Our Disabled Students’ Rep, Molly, organised a great Disability History Month that included a film screening of Finding Nemo with a chat afterwards about the film's representations of disability. Other events included a workshop on disability and a craftivism session, to help raise further awareness and discussion among students. 

Transgender Guidelines

I’ve written a guide for transgender students, which is currently in the process of being turned into a booklet. The College recently created its own transgender guidelines, and the booklet I’ve created is designed so that trans students can find out about support is available. Once this booklet has been completed, I’m hoping to launch it alongside the College’s guidelines to celebrate this achievement and make sure trans students can access any help they need!

Bright Ideas

With the launch of the Bright Ideas Platform, I posted my idea of Audio Recorded Lectures. I have spoken to lecturers who already do this at Royal Holloway and had support from people that I’ve spoken to at the library. I’m planning to look at how other universities implement this so that we can make progress on delivering this.

Harassment and Violence Working Group

I sit on a new Harassment and Violence Working Group with the College that looks at how we can tackle these issues at Royal Holloway. We're compiling an action plan, so if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on both tackling and reporting these issues, please chat to me.

It's been a great first term and I hope everyone has a great break. See you in the New Year!

Laura Lewis
Co-President, Welfare and Diversity