Sabb Blog 2018/19 #3 – VP Student Activities
Throughout the academic year, your GUSRC sabbatical officers will provide an update on the work they’ve been carrying out to make your experience at the University of Glasgow even better. Our third blog for 2018/19 comes from your VP Student Activities Scott Kirby
Hi pals, it’s been a hectic couple of months for myself and the team here at the SRC, and now is my chance to tell you about what I’ve been doing as your Vice President of Student Activities.
Freshers’ Week
Wow Freshers’ Week…how long ago did that seem? Taking part and helping organise Freshers’ Week was by far one of the best things I’ve done and was one of the most enjoyable projects I have been a part of. If you told me 5 years ago that I would be one of those people stood on the Bute Hall stage addressing over 200 Freshers’ as part of the Freshers’ Address then I absolute would not have believed you.
This year was overall a grand success as we worked closely with the 3 other student bodies to ensure some of the closest collaboration between the 4 student bodies in recent years especially training all 400 Freshers’ Helpers. On top of this we made a point of putting on more events targeted at ‘non-traditional’ students and also giving clubs & societies more opportunity to demonstrate their activities for Freshers’. In the end we put on nearly 70 events over the entirety of Freshers’ Week, from campus tours to Student Life Talks to Scavenger Hunts.
Big shout out and thank you to all the amazing Fresher Helpers who joined us this year and to those who helped make Freshers’ Week happen!
Improving Student Employability
This year I have set my sights on also trying to work on student employability and graduate attributes. Part of this includes working towards reviewing extra-curricular recognition recorded on the HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Report) transcript, the document you get when you finish university that tells you what degree classification you got. I At present if you have been a President of a Society, a class rep or have won awards for your academic ability, then all of this gets recorded on Section 6 of the transcript. I’m currently looking into how the HEAR approvals process can be reviewed so that students are recognised for many more of the amazing things they do by acknowledging more volunteer achievements on the transcript.
Raising and Giving (RAG) Committee
The Raising and Giving Committee are committed to fundraising for a range of charitable causes throughout the year. We have lots of plans for the rest of the year, including bringing Therapy Ponies (YES PONIES!) to campus, putting on an International Ceilidh and putting on a reverse jailbreak! We will be working in collaboration with the GUU, QMU and GUSA in second semester so watch this space for some great events to get involved in!Follow the RAG page at: https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowUniRAG/ to keep up to date with what we have planned.
VCS Awards
The Volunteering, Clubs and Societies awards were created several years ago to acknowledge those who have made some fantastic contributions to the university community through Volunteering projects, Clubs and Societies. We know that there are some really hardworking volunteers and committee members across the university that deserve to be recognised and celebrated for what they do. After all, we are a university of World Changers, so this is a great opportunity to find and recognise those people! If you know anyone that comes to mind when you read this, then you should nominate them on the 26th November when the nomination period opens up!
There’s a fancy swanky dinner and cash prizes for the shortlisted nominees who get to attend the awards ceremony on the 1st March. So have a think and get nominating!
If you want to find out more about what I’ve been up to or have any questions feel free to get in touch by emailing me at s.kirby@src.gla.ac.uk. You can also follow my Twitter account @GUSRC_VPSA.