Tuesday 14-01-2025 - 13:50

First semester has flown past, and so far it’s been great to be your Student Life President. Before going into the new year, I'd like to highlight some of the things I've tried to accomplish to help improve student life at St Mary's. 

One of the first things I’ve been focused on has been the founding of the St Mary’s ENERGY Society. For those of you who don’t know; the purpose of the society was to both provide more exciting opportunities for students, and also more opportunities for collaboration and social interaction between different groups. It has become a space where students can feel “a part of something” where they may not have before. ENERGY has already hosted over 10 events, providing students with exciting opportunities to connect, collaborate, and make lasting memories. Going into next semester, we will be working hard to improve on our events and activities, and give more students a space to be part of a strong social network.

This year, we had a very successful Raising and Giving (RAG) week, raising just over £3,000 for this year's charity Refuge. If you saw me during the week you most likely saw me but didn’t hear me. That’s because I took part in a 3 day long sponsored silence where I didn’t speak for 3 days (or did my best not to). Through this I personally raised £528 towards Refuge. RAG week showed us that working as a collective allows us to really achieve some astronomical things, even in a short amount of time. I will continue to do what I can to encourage everyone to continue to work together towards a good cause.

This semester, I also had the privilege of working with the St Mary’s Cheerleading team to provide Game Day support for our sports teams, bringing some extra spirit and energy to our match days. This comes as part of my ongoing “Community project” where the end goal is a more unified St Mary’s - where we as students actually take some pride in being students here, and where the name “Simmie” actually means something to us. Additionally, I’ve been meeting with creative lecturers and course leads, to discuss how we can integrate academic learning with extracurricular opportunities, and the ways in which your classroom experiences can be better connected to student life outside of the classroom. In all of these things I hope to help build up a sense of culture and community at every level within the University. Going into next semester, I’ve been exploring the possibility of introducing a student mascot. This is just one of the fun ways we can continue to build a strong, vibrant student body where everyone feels included, and part of a wider unit.

As we celebrated Black History Month this semester, I wanted to ensure we created meaningful opportunities for reflection and celebration. I ran the ‘My Black History’ campaign, gathering personal stories from students and staff that will be highlighted later in the year. To further celebrate, I hosted a special Quiz Night and personally funded a trip to The Lion King Musical as a prize for the winner. Additionally, I held a movie night in The 1850 Bar, where we watched the film ‘Remember The Titans’ - which tells a story of one of the first black/white integrated American football teams. It was a good night, and those in attendance enjoyed the film. Going into next semester I will be exploring the option of having more regular movie nights, especially on quieter days on campus such as on the weekends.

It’s been a strong first semester, and as we approach the holidays I am working hard to plan for campaigns and events going into the new year; such as Refreshers, World week, and Valentines Day. Thank you all for the support, and I look forward to seeing you all next semester!

 

Best wishes,

 

David James

Student Life President