Blogging My Way Through Uni

Just released a project that I have been working for about a year now and it marks three years of teaching myself how to produce music electronically. The project features two vocalists from London (Vulcan MC and DRE) as well as collaborations with other producers.

The project is heavily influenced by the electronic music scene and if you want to hear new music feel free to listen here: 

 >>> https://soundcloud.com/deeejaymanny/sets/las-gmbas-ii <<<

👥 Migrants Festival 👥

I was lucky enough to attend the Migrants Connections Festival along with some of the Let Us Learn campaigners. The festival was put together with money raised from crowdfunding and was set up to start conversation between the different organisation supporting migrants in London and for them to come together in solidarity.

Activities on the day ranged from art workshops to hearing the stories of those who have been through the very harsh experience of being detained in a detention centre. We held an interactive session where I spoke a little bit about myself and my story and the audience were treated to a mini-play merging together the experiences of Chrisann, Dami, Lizzie and Zino growing up in the UK.

🤓 Consultancy Work 🤓

Somehow I was recommended to a production company as a chemistry consultant for a scene depicting Johann Jacob Schweppe's initial innovative ideas which led to the birth of the soft drink industry as we know it!

I got to visit the prop store (the same one used by Game of Thrones!!!) to help with chemical set ups that would have been likely in the 18th century, around the time carbon dioxide was discovered and being dissolved in water and used primarily for medication. Unfortunately, the scene was dropped from the final selection of shots but it was an exciting experience nonetheless!

WE'VE MOVED TO A NEW OFFICE!
 

Along with Just for Kids Law, the base of operations for LuL has now moved to Leroy House and hopefully this marks a new chapter of better things to come. More good news is the fact that our very own Dami has got a new position to work in City Hall alongside Matthew Ryder QC who is the deputy mayor for Social Integration and Inclusion, a role we lobbied mayoral hopefuls Sadiq Khan and Zach Goldsmiths for back in April 2016 at the London Mayoral Assemble at the Copperbox. Congratulations Dami 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

I hope you are all getting your daily fix of Vitamin C to fight off the dreaded colds and flus that are popping up everywhere. Winter is coming....

Brace yourselves, it's going to be a cold one. Whether it's waiting for the delayed Central line or braving the elements to cycling to uni, it's been worth it. Here's why...

1st Year Rep Meeting 📝📝📝

It's nice to be back in the position ofAcademic Rep this academic year. The first meeting followed on very shortly after the elections results were announced. Myself and the other rep managed to swiftly discern the most important issues facing the year and presented these at the meeting.

These are always insightful and have helped me with structuring a talk and presenting findings coherently. This meeting was particularly special as Senior Staff and Chemistry Year Reps got to meet each other for the first time. The meeting lasted for 2 hours but we were given free food so I can't complain!

#MincePieFriday

The Let Us Learn campaign has been churning away at plans for an action and we are proud to announce #MincePieFriday!!! So the idea is to visit several universities across London, with the hope of reaching out to those with the power to bring about positive change in the form the availability of scholarships for young, gifted and blocked migrants in the UK with no access to student finance.

We will be visiting with mince pies and our personal stories to try and get meetings with heads of universities. We will be tweeting news/pics from @LetUs_Learn and some stuff on our FB too – please share and follow the events on #younggiftedandblocked and #mincepiefriday hashtags.

Have a look at the video below which is being used to promote the scholarships campaign started by the Let Us Learners in October of this year.

🍲 Chinese Night w/ Friends 🍲

It's been a while since I hosted a themed dinner so it was about time! It was fun to have a few friends around over some homemade (mostly) Chinese food and to have a general chat.

P.S. I have some very exciting news for everyone reading this. But, I can't tell you until the next blog entry. I promise it'll be good... Until next time!

It's hard to think that one month has already passed by since the second academic year officially start! Its been an exciting month.

The step up from first year to second year is a very big one indeed. This year looks to be positively challenging in I look forward to all the experiences to come. Without further ado, i'll tell you what I've been up to this month...

Re-elected as Year Rep 💪🎊

I was lucky enough to elected as Academic Year Representative for my cohort last year. My role was all about finding out the opinions of my peers on how the course/department could be tailored to fit their needs. It was an interesting role which saw myself meeting with senior staff members to pitch ideas formulated through questionnaires and focus groups.

This year, I campaigned to be elected for the role again and after an unsettling voting error that meant that the election had to be postponed for a week, I got the position again (without any persuasion from a box of chocolates like last year I must add!).

Hall Senior @ Woodward Halls

As a hall senior at our accommodation I have been helping out with various events, that were organised before the freshers moved in, to help them settle in and to encourage some social mixing and to create a sense of community over at the halls.

 There have been too many events to mention but the most memorable was the casino night. We set up a mini-casino in the common room which was well received by the freshers. Smartly dressed hall seniors hosted games such at blackjack, poker and roulette with some jazz swinging in the background and an unlimited supply of refreshments.

⚗🔬 Labs Labs Labs Labs 🔬⚗

We have been hit with a  busy timetable of various lab sessions designed to make us better practical chemists. Some sessions are as long as 5 hours!!! It's not so bad as I enjoy being in the labs and taking a more hands-on approach to learning.

We have been synthesising some transition metal complexes, learning to code in a programming language called Python and next week, I will be doing some electrochemistry. Very exciting stuff!

Ernst and Young Black Network Dinner

I was lucky enough to be invited to a black tie dinner to celebrate Black History Month in style (thanks to the AMOS Bursary). We were greeted at the Waldorf Hotel (Hilton in Aldwych) with soft music from a violin and a champagne reception. After a some networking, we were ushered into the banquet hall.

Dinner was served! And as if that wasn't enough, we had highly respected speakers like June Sarpong, Colin Jackson and Nathan Oceng leaving us with some words of wisdom.

🎃🎃🎃 HALLOWEEN 🎃🎃🎃

I hope you have all had an enjoyable halloween weekend and that you enjoyed reading this months blog post. Until next time.

After a little break from blogging for the summer months, I'm back!!! With the summer that we've had I'm sure you haven't missed me too much. I've had a cracking summer and it was so hot that I even caught a tan!

Thought I'd let you guys know how the summer has been with my first blog of the academic year! Here goes...