Blogging My Way Through Uni

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!

🎳 Bowling 🎳

Most university courses would be done by this time of the year but not us! Us chemist's here at Imperial had an extra third term of lectures before our final exam. It was a welcomed break when we all decided to enjoy an evening of bowling to start the term off before it all got hectic. 
It was nice to see everyone again after the long Easter holiday and to spend some time getting to know my fellow chemists outside of the normal schedule at uni. Even managed to get a couple of decent strikes during the game.

🎉 Just for Kids Law - 10th Anniversary 🎉
As some of you may know, the Let Us Learn campaign which I actively work with are under an organisation called Just For Kids Law. Their 10th year of representing minors in legal battles was celebrated this month and it was a special affair. 

👇 Check out the video below to see all the amazing work they have done over the past decade 👇

Highly esteemed guests from organisations such as the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy, Simpson Millar Solicitors and many more. The event was held near King's Cross and we had the pleasure of being entertained by the amazing singing duo of Lizzie and Agnes (fellow Let Us Learn campaigners) after testimonials and speeches from the founders of Just For Kids Law, Shauneen Lambe and Aika Stephenson.

Back with NCS Challenge

Unfortunately I didn't make it past the final interview stages for the Crick-Cavella Summer Programme which I would have been a brilliant experience over the summer months. I have however been fortunate enough to be accepted back onto the NCS Challenge.

My role as a music practitioner last summer was very rewarding and taught me a lot about myself. This time round, I will be a senior mentor, responsible for overseeing the journey of a group of Year 11 Leavers over the 3 week course of the programme and will most likely be working with a couple of cohorts. Looking forward to the challenge, no pun intended!

I hope you are all enjoying the amazing weather that we have been blessed with lately (Perfect BBQ weather!). Wishing good luck to those who still have exams and I hope you all enjoy your summer and holidays if you're lucky enough to have them!

👋👋👋

UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!!

P.S. Make sure you vote 👍

A classroom set up for a samba class from yours truly.

Working across London and with 11 different cohorts was extremely demanding but I had such an amazing time and it's refreshing to see young people actively trying to make a positive change in their communities. I also learnt a great deal about myself and had the chance to improve on my leadership, communication and teaching skills.

A thank you card from one of the groups I worked with.

LuL Campaign

Core LuL campaigners graduating from Shauneen's Leadership Course

Myself and Chrisann outside Queens Park Community School Academy.

We also heard some amazing news over the summer! Two of our core team members, Arkam and Sharon, have successfully acquired scholarships to study Geography and History respectively at Kings College London!!! 🎉🎯😀

Relaxing at carnival after the 3 hour parade with my samba school (Paraiso School of Samba).

The Woodward Hall Senior Team

Cheeky selfie whilst on Hall Senior Duty

It's that time of the year again, where students across the country are at war with their finals whilst resisting the temptations of the good weather outside. In two weeks, first year will have skipped by! Before that though, I've got to sit through my last few exams.

I've taken a step back this month to give myself more time to prepare, nevertheless is has been an interesting month with some healthy distractions. Here are three I'd like to share with you...

Paraiso Costume Launch

Paraiso School of Samba, of which I am a proud member, put on a showcase of all the beautifully designed costumes for this year's carnival season. The night was kicked of with traditional pagode style samba from the amazing band Quintal Do Samba.

The separate sections that will then make up the procession of about 500 odd people representing the school had representatives modelling their costume for this year.

I was lucky enough to sport the costumes that the bateria (drummers) will be wearing for Notting Hill Carnival this year. Sounds weird, but I can't tell you how happy the band is that we've finally got pockets on a parading costume now!

Working for The Challenge

I just finished up the last round of training for a role in the summer as a Music Practitioner for The Challenge. The Challenge is a programme financed by the National Citizen Service that helps put Year 11 leavers in touch with their communities through volunteering.

The programme typically lasts for 3 weeks. The first week consists of team building activities between the groups of participants. The second week, where my role comes in, involves the groups visiting community partners and interacting with them using a skill they learn from the practitioners (art, music, sport, media and drama) as the basis to kickstart their conversations.

I will be working with many groups across the summer, teaching a simplified version of samba to Year 11 leavers across North London. I'm quite excited for this role as I was on the programme myself after finishing secondary school and I look forward to hopefully serving as a positive role model and perhaps helping to spark an interest in samba among the groups I teach!

Woodward BBQs

The amazing team at Woodward (which I will be part of next year) put in two amazing BBQs this month! A large majority of those at Woodward (the university accommodation) will be finding new places to stay and it was really nice to get everyone together before the summer. Also who can say no to free food and drinks?!

There is a strong sense of community here at Woodward and I look forward to helping to nurture that next year with the team of wardens, sub-wardens and hall seniors.

I hope you have all enjoyed the bank holiday weekend!  Wish me luck with my exams.