This month has been full of surprises to say the least, luckily they have't been of the spooky kind! Wouldn't want to speak too soon though. I've been surprised by just how much work is being done by the younger generation to bring about positive change. Let's start with...

🌍 WMHD @ City Hall 🌍

From spoken word artists sharing their artistic pieces to an author sharing her battle with anorexia, we were reminded of the importance of discussing mental health in a safe space and being a champion for those who might be suffering at any point in time.

The biggest surprise of the night was when students from Hendon School came up and spoke about all the campaigning they have been involved in, ever since their principal committed suicide. Their drive to raise awareness and support others was truly awe-inspiring. They have won numerous awards for their efforts and even have an app out there to provide support for those who seek it.

Pupils from Hendon School displaying their mental health charter in 2016 © Jenny Desborough

🎼 🎻 Chineke! Foundation 🎻🎼
Out of all the BlackHistory Month events across London, the one that left the biggest impact on me was hearing the story Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE and  how she overcame the barriers she has been presented with in her life.

Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE Image by Eric Richmond

Chi-chi was unfortunate enough to receive a career-ending injury which put her athletics career to a halt and at the age of 18, she took up the double bass and avidly pursued a career in music. The rest, as they say is history, Chi-chi has won numerous awards and international recognition for her musicianship.

Chi-chi has witnessed first hand that she is always one of the very few if not the only BAME musicians in the orchestras that she's played in. She set up Chineke! Foundation, a BAME majority orchestra, to address this issue head on! Find out more below...

🌊 LUL Away Weekend @ Brighton 🌊

© Sharon Evi Akaka

The Let Us Learn campaign is growing from strength to strength, with a whole host of new members joining the core group and a few long-standing members leaving us to study at their respective universities, we have come to a very critical point.

The majority of our time in Brighton was spent reflecting on how far we have come as a group which was a big shock for me. I realised how much we had accomplished in the little time that we have been up and running. It was also a reminder what we stood for as a group and what our aims for the future were.

There has been a major restructuring in how we will be moving forward as an organisation and expanding our remit is one of those. I cant tell you too much though but I can tell you that I will be the leader of the "Education Team" overseeing, organising and building a network or primary and secondary schools along with universities with the aim of raising awareness and educating our network on migrant issues.

© Emmanuel Opoku

I almost forgot...

🎃🎃🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃🎃🎃

After what was perhaps the hardest set of exams I've had to sit in my entire life, I'm glad to let you all know that I made it into my final year of my BSc Chemistry course at Imperial with a 2:1 overall! Exciting stuff right? It's also been a very busy summer...

Myself and the rest of the core seasonal staff team for Hounslow Wave 5

I was fortunate enough to have worked for 2 months in the summer as a Programme Leader and a Senior mentor for The NCS Challenge after really enjoying working as a music practitioner last summer.

Read more about that here: http://bloggingmywaythroughuni.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/what-summer.html

This time around, I had more responsibility in the sense that I was in charge of the wellbeing of and logistical management of six core staff members and about 60 Year 11 Leavers. My leadership and communication skills were constantly being tested. It wasn't easy, at all! The majority of the role was residential meaning it was very intense and demanding.

The working day started as soon as I woke up early in the AM right till I dropped to sleep to sleep, mostly in the AM too! Being part of and witnessing the positive impact the programme had on the young people made it all worthwhile though.

🤔 Business as usual at LuL? 🤔
As my summer was quite busy, I found myself having less and less time for the Let Us Learn campaign over the past couple of months but upon my return I was glad to see how much work the campaign had managed to accomplish.
As some of you may know, the fight is not yet over and young migrants all across the UK are having a tough time accessing student finance and pursuing their dreams through higher education. Once again, we have managed to work very hard to secure scholarships for a select few.

We have also  decided to set our sights at tackling the issue with processing times for applications at the Home Office which take AAAAAAAAAGES! That will be alongside our main efforts to open up access to student finance and that has been titled "Chasing Status", cool title right?

Super-selfie from one of our monthly gatherings at the LuL HQ!

🌇 Back at Woodward 🌇

I've also reprised my role as a Hall Senior back at our halls of residence which has been a lot of fun already. Working with other students to ensure that the new cohort of freshers have a nice experience during their time here at Woodward Buildings was a lot of fun last year and I look forward to carrying on this year!

Organising events, ushering freshers to and from uni in the first few days and helping them move into halls has been the bulk of my duties so far as a hall senior and I'm really looking forward to the events we'll be holding over the coming year, I'll be sure to keep you guys updated!

A poster I made for one of the events coming up during Freshers' Fortnight

I hope you are all had a good summer (or whatever little sun we got these past couple of months) and it's nice to be back blogging again. Really looking forward to my final year, especially the major project this year which will be mainly based in the labs.

👋👋👋

P.S. Keep yourself educated this Black History Month!