2021: A Year in Review

Happy New Year! 2021 was quite the year. Marked by lockdowns, vaccinations and easing restrictions, our activities were limited by what we could do safely. But that doesn’t mean 2021 isn’t a year to remember!

We posted over 20 new blogs on a range of subjects, held our first reunions on campus since the pandemic began and of course, celebrated the Class of 2020 at their delayed graduation ceremony. We also started our new webinar series, created the alumni business directory and started sending out monthly newsletters.

January to March

At the start of the year, we were all back in lockdown and our entire team was working from home. How things have changed since this time last year!

We talked about quite a wide range of subjects! From Kylie Moody and Stuart Billingham’s blogs about their careers to our International Woman’s Day posts about the Cruse Sisters, Ripon during World War II and our post from recent alumna Sinead. We enjoyed exploring York St John’s past and looking ahead to what our recent graduates are achieving in their careers.

In March, we also started sending out a monthly newsletter via email. Including information about upcoming events, careers oppertunities and what’s been happening on campus, we hope you’ve enjoyed receiving more frequent emails from us!

We held our traditional Old John’s Day virtually at the start of March. We also watched the development of our new Creative Centre on campus and watched some fantastic virtual events.

April to June

From April to June we advertised a lot of exciting events. These included those to help your work get published, the fantastic Questions in History series, and how to get involved with Yorkey Dads and Menfulness.

In June, we couldn’t attend any Pride events because of Covid-19 restrictions. So, instead we shared some of the Students’ Union’s fantastic resources about LGBTQ+ history and inspiring figures from the LGBTQ+ community. We also shared research about the science behind a successful football penalty before the first Euros match.

In June, we were also finally able to confirm the provisional dates for the long-awaited Class of 2020 graduation ceremonies, and provide dates for the upcoming Class of 2021 ceremonies.

We also marked Mental Health Awareness Week, reminisced about Heworth Croft and read about former York St John tutor Terry Wawn’s career and his reasons for leaving a gift to York St John in his Will.

July to September

In summer, we interviewed alumni from both sides of the newly relaunched York Literary Review. From those who edited, to those who submitted work, we enjoyed reading about our more recent alumni and their career aspirations. We also heard from debut author Rosie Cammish and how she juggles her day-to-day life with her writing career.

We also ran our pin badge design competition for the Class of 2021. Graduates submitted some fantastic designs, and we can’t wait to present the winning design to our graduates at their February 2022 graduation ceremonies.

We also marked Remember A Charity Week for the first time across all of our channels. Our aim was to raise awareness of leaving a gift to charity in your Will, and how a gift could impact our students.

As a nation we were amazed by the accomplishments of Team GB at the Olympics and Paralympics. At York St John, we were particularly proud of our lecturer Robert Avery who refereed Goalball during the Paralympics.

With the warmer weather also came reunions groups! Although we welcome alumni to campus all year round, summer makes looking round the grounds a lot more pleasant! Over the summer months, we welcomed several reunion groups who enjoyed visiting campus and see how much it’s changed.

If your group of friends is visiting York and would like to visit campus, please let us know how we can help. We can help organise rooms to be open for you to visit, room hire if you’d like to stay on campus a little longer, and even provide a mini-tour of campus. Please email alumni@yorksj.ac.uk to see how we can help make your next visit to York a special one.

October to December

At the start of October, we posted our annual Alumni Magazine to all of our UK based alumni. With articles including information about the latest research at YSJ, the new Creative Centre and about Ripon during World War Two, you can read it in full on our website.

As the weather turned colder, we launched the Alumni Business Directory. Our directory helps alumni by giving alumni discounts as alumni-based businesses. Not only does this help smaller businesses to thrive after a difficult year, it also helps our alumni connect with local businesses of interest. We also launched our alumni webinar series. Our webinars highlight the fantastic careers attained by our alumni and give insight to both students and graduates as to where their degree could take them.

November was particularly busy for us. Not only did we host the long awaited graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2020, but we also marked World Access to Higher Education Day, Giving Tuesday and supported some of our alumni as they gave the John Maw Bowl to the current Rugby team in John’s honour. We also posted Amy Stewart’s fantastic blog about her writing journey.

December saw us enjoying our annual Carol Service at York Minster. We also used Scrooge to highlight how Christmas is the perfect time to think about your legacy and enjoyed some time off work to celebrate with family and friends.

The year ahead

After a year marked by pandemic restrictions, vaccine rollouts and lockdowns, we hope that 2022 is the year we settle back into normality. As people around the world celebrate the lunar new year and the start of the year of the tiger in the Chinese zodiac, we can’t wait to see that the rest of the year brings.

Already we’ve launched a reunion survey so we can begin planning for the future, prepared graduation materials for our Class of 2021 graduation ceremonies and helped one of our alumni celebrate their 100th birthday with a surprise honorary degree!

We can’t wait to see what 2022 brings, including more campus tours with returning alumni, our annual magazine and celebrating our amazing alumnae in March.