Students Showcase their commitment to university life
A team of enthusiastic and committed students has completed a successful University first, celebrating involvement in co-curricular activity.
The first Student Education Showcase was an event for both staff and students which aimed to provide a picture of the many different ways students can broaden their academic experience at Leeds and guide them to sources of help to do so.
Three student interns - Georgiana Epure (Politics and International Studies), Caitriona Snell (Biochemistry and Microbiology), and Nicola Reed (English) - were recruited to organise the Showcase and together they produced a creative and inspiring event.
The team set up a blog featuring student engagement case studies, including articles on being an Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholar (by Dominique Triggs, History and Sociology), a school rep (by Sophie Bellin, Earth and Environment), and managing editor for the undergraduate University of Leeds Human Rights Journal (by Lottie Prince). They also established a lively Facebook page and Twitter feed promoting the event, and surveyed students in the Union to build up a picture of the variety of current student engagement activity.
On the day itself, 10 students gave short presentations, which covered subjects as diverse as an individual’s student journey, creating an app used by medical students, and running the Physics Society. Their stories were encapsulated in drawings by School of Design student Sinead Whelan.
The presentations were followed by an interactive workshop and a facilitated networking session.
The event was filmed by LSTV and videos of the presentations will be made available through the blog and via schools.
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student Education, Professor Vivien
Jones, said: “This was a fantastic event. I really enjoyed hearing the
inspiring and varied presentations given by students from across the
University. The relationship between curricular and co-curricular
activity is fundamental to the ways we think about education at Leeds, and this
event motivated both students and staff to come up with innovative ways to
broaden the Leeds student experience beyond the lecture theatre. This will give
it a lasting impact. Congratulations to the organising team – Georgiana,
Caitriona, and Nicola – who combined imagination and a lot of hard work to make
it such a success."
The event was supported by the Leeds Enhancing Educational Practice (LEEP) Partnership and was backed by funding from the Leeds Footsteps Fund.
Posted in: Student education