May Alumni Newsletter 2021
Welcome to your May newsletter
Welcome to your May newsletter! May has been a busy month, including International Nurses Day, Mental Health Awareness Week and Eid! Restrictions have also been further eased, allowing us to socialise with more people, no matter the weather. As we begin to look forward to summer, we hope you find time in the coming month to spend time with loved ones.
Mental Health Awareness Week
In May we celebrated Mental Health Awareness Week. This year, the theme was to ‘Connect with Nature’ to showcase the benefits of being in nature to our mental health. The grounds team wrote a blog post about the positive effects of gardening which you can read on the brand new sustainability and green spaces blog. Our university website has a great list of resources you can access, including a guide from Mind on bringing nature back into your life, a RSPB guide on creating a wildlife friendly garden and a guided mindfulness meditation on YouTube. You can look at the full list on our website.
Next time you’re near campus, why not see if you can spot some of the features on our new Nature Map?
Menfulness and Yorkey Dads
Poor mental health can affect anyone, at any stage of their lives. YSJ alumni, Jack Woodhams and Dan Braidley, co-founded Menfulness, a York-based group that supports men to access mental health services and support groups, whilst also supporting York-based Dads. You might remember their ‘hair school’ that was in the news at the end of 2019 – a space for Dads to socialise, find support and learn how to style their daughters hair.
Menfulness supports local men in a variety of ways. This includes helping them to access free counselling sessions with 3rd year counselling students at York St John, and with their partner Serendipity. This not only helps men access mental health help quicker, it also provides vital work experience for our students. Menfulness also runs a wide range of local activities, including football, a running group, and working on the Menfulness allotment. You can learn more about the activities on offer on their website.
During the third national lockdown, members of Menfulness compiled a MANual of 20 top tips for feeling tip top, including useful contacts, social media tips and advice for staying positive. You can read their top tips on their website.
If you would like to find out more information about Menfulness, please see their website, including information on how to take part and how to support them.
In case you missed it
Our Events team hosted a range of events last month. From information on how to get published, to discussing President Biden’s first 100 days in office, there was plenty to attend! You can watch recordings of all online events on the Events YouTube channel, including the independent publishers showcase and the new Archbishop of York’s inaugural lecture for the ISJ.
Upcoming events
This month there’s a range of events happening online, with some student events beginning to happen on campus.
Every year, we look forward to the Art Degree show to see what our final year Fine Art, Photography and Illustration students have created. This year on 2nd June, you can watch a virtual tour of the exhibition on its opening day.
York Festival of Ideas is still ongoing, and you can catch two York St John events from the series: Re-creating York’s Hidden Stories and This Gift Comes with Side Æffects.
On 13th June, find out about James Montgomery, a Sheffield-based poet, radical newspaper editor, hymn-writer, philanthropist and abolitionist who in 1795 was twice imprisoned in York Castle for publishing poems critical of his government.
Webinar series
Starting in September, we will begin hosting our first webinar series. For alumni, presented by alumni, our webinars will be on a wide range of topics from a range of speakers.
Is there a subject you’d like to see a webinar on? Email alumni@yorksj.ac.uk with your suggestions and we’ll see what we can do!
Do you have a topic you’d like to discuss? Whether career, life or travel based, we’d love to hear from any of our alumni willing to do a webinar with us. Register your interest by emailing alumni@yorksj.ac.uk
Blog updates
Last month we asked you to send us your memories of living at Heworth Croft and we had a great response. The blog post has only just been released, so go take a look!
Connect with us: Join our LinkedIn group
As the jobs market begins to reopen, we’re happy to relaunch our LinkedIn group in collaboration with the Careers Team. We’ll be posting job opportunities, career advice and about your alumni benefits.
Have a career question, or have great career advice for newer graduates? Use our group to share your questions and advice and connect with your alumni community.
Pin Badge update
This month we sent out pin badges to everyone from the Class of 2020 who requested them late last year. We have just over 100 left! If you would like the chance to receive a free pin badge in the post, please complete this short form.
York Music Stories
The Music Memoir Research group in Creative Writing at York St John are currently running a creative research project collecting memories about live music, music venues, club nights, record shops and anything else music related that you recall in York. If you would be interested in contributing to the project please feel free to send an email to yorkmusicstories@gmail.com with your thoughts. You can also chat online to one of our researchers, please email us or contact the lead researcher Robert Edgar, r.edgar@yorksj.ac.uk. You can also post a message on social media. Any and all memories are very welcome.
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