August alumni newsletter 2023
Welcome to your August alumni newsletter. July was quite the month and August is shaping up to be another busy one at York St John!
Last month, we held our first summer Open Day for prospective students, welcomed students from sixth forms and colleges to campus for taster days and, of course, held Your YSJ Reunion. With so many different groups on campus, it was an extremely busy month for everyone involved. We also asked our Class of 2023 to submit graduation pin badge designs, and welcomed secondary school student Holly into our team for a morning as part of her work experience.
This month, we’re excited to support our York 10k team as they raise money for our alumni-funded scholarships. We’ll also be busy finalising the design for your alumni magazine and shortlisting our Class of 2023 pin badge designs. Part of our team will also be supporting the University on A Level results day by answering phone calls during Clearing.
Happy Yorkshire Day
Today is Yorkshire Day, the day we celebrate all things Yorkshire! As a university with a long history based in Yorkshire, we thought we’d share three interesting things about quintessential Yorkshire experiences:
- Apparently, some people eat a Yorkshire pudding as a burrito or even as part of a pudding! Find out more about this in a recent Guardian article.
- We’ve all seen the Yorkshire flat cap but did you know its origins lie in medieval England, with it really gaining popularity in the late 1500s? We’ve found a short history of the flat cap to inspire your next hat purchase.
- The Yorkshire curd tart is always a firm favourite, but did you know it was traditionally only made at Whitsuntide (the 7th Sunday after Easter)? Paul Hollywood of Bake Off fame explains why in his BBC Good Food recipe.
Your YSJ Reunion
At the end of July we held our first reunion this decade, and what a day we had! The weather wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for, but what’s a bit of summer rain to our alumni community?
It was great to welcome so many alumni back to campus and thanks to our attendee generosity, we were able to raise over £3000 for our scholarship fund. We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who came to campus for our reunion. It was fantastic to meet so many alumni and see you rediscover our campus.
In fact, we enjoyed our reunion so much we’re already thinking about our next one in 2025. So, whilst it’s all still fresh, we’d love your feedback about Your YSJ Reunion, even if you didn’t attend this year.
If you were on campus, we’d like to know what you thought about the reunion. If you couldn’t make it, we’d like to know if there was something that would entice you to attend next time!
Share your reunion feedback on our online form.
York 10k
This weekend we’ll be supporting Denis, Henry, Louise, Matt, Sally and Sarah as they run the York 10K for our scholarship fund. Our aim with this sponsored 10k is to raise £1500 for our scholarship fund. That’s enough to provide 3 half scholarships (£500 each) to scholarship applicants in desperate need who we otherwise would be unable to support.
Find out more about our fundraising effort on JustGiving.
Alumination
This year we’ve been sharing our alumni snapshots on our new blog, Alumination. From alumni working in publishing marketing to procurement management, the aim of Alumination is to highlight the diverse careers of our alumni community.
If you haven’t already, submit your own snapshot to share what you’ve been up to since completing your course with us. Whether you’re currently in your dream job or are still working towards that goal, we’d like to demonstrate the amazing adaptability of our alumni.
Browse Alumination or submit a snapshot.
Supporting alumni authors
Alumnus Jack Linley will be in York on Saturday 9 September from 1pm in Waterstones for a book signing for his latest book, University Tales. Also known as Jack Sheffield, Jack studied with us from 1964 to 1967 and has since written 15 novels in his ‘Teacher’ series. The first book in his Teacher series is now in production for TV!
You can find out more about his newest book, University Tales on the Penguin Random House website.
Local fish and chips best in UK
Whitby has long been a popular town for student trips and days out, but did you know they also have one of the best fish and chips in the UK, as rated by The Times? We’re not sure how they rate a plate of fish and chips, but The Magpie Café in Whitby was ranked 16th in the UK! You can find out more about this on The York Press website.
A well-established local business, if you visited Whitby when you studied with us, where did you get your fish and chips?
News from YSJ
A play commissioned by the NSPCC and developed by York St John’s performance department has had its first performance at a local secondary school. Tailored to students in Years 7, 8 and 9, the play allows pupils to engage with challenging themes of domestic violence, unhealthy relationships and supports pupils to discuss important topics. You can find out more about the play and the NSPCC’s campaign on our website.
You can also read about our work creating a ‘Living Lab’ on the Conversation. Our ‘Living Lab’ supports students to create tangible outcomes as we tackle our local and regional climate crisis.
Another Barbie collaboration?
Over the past few weeks, two films have been hitting the headlines: Barbie and Oppenheimer. Whether you were first in line at your local cinema or you’re waiting for them to hit streaming platforms (or even DVD!), in the Alumni Office, we were scratching our heads trying to see if we could link them to York St John. Everyone seems to be using Barbie-pink, so why not us?
Well, the answer is fairly obvious. Sometimes, there really isn’t a good link to what’s in the news! So, here’s an interesting fact from our past instead:
In 1959, the first Barbie was released and would soon become a familiar face for our graduates as they entered their first schools. Meanwhile in 1959, St John’s College and Ripon College were both still single sex institutions looking to the future.
In Life More Abundant by Gordon McGregor, 1959 is the year that Principal Lamb and the governors accepted their new target of 400 students at St John’s College, but postponed their decision about admitting women. This meant that 1959 was the year that heralded the start of a multi-hostel community where it became clear students would never again be able to all live on campus. Architects drew up plans for more accommodation at Heworth Croft and Limes as well as more facilities for courses including Rural Science and Physics.
Looking for a summer read?
Did you know the York St John library team post book reviews on their blog? If you’re looking for your next summer read, make sure to see what they have to say about books including Circe by Madeline Miller, Getting Things Done: the art of stress-free productivity by David Allen and many more. Browse their reviews on their blog.
Plus, remember you can get a free alumni membership for our in-person collections! Find out more about your alumni membership on our website.
If you’re not looking for a book to read, but are interested in short articles on a range of issues, many of our academic staff have written for The Conversation, including a recent article about The Great British Sewing Bee and the work of Virginia Woolf.
Events
There’s always something happening on campus, so make sure to keep an eye on our university events page to find out what’s happening and when. Including an official book launch, two upcoming inaugural lectures and an Ebor lecture, browse upcoming university events on Eventbrite.
Easy Fundraising
Did you know there’s a way to support our scholarship fund at no extra cost to you? Easy Fundraising is a simple way to support our students when completing your ordinary, online purchases.
- Create an account with Easy Fundraising
- Select us as your cause
- Complete your normal shopping through their link
- The brand you shopped with donates to us, as a thank you
Don’t worry, we never find out what you’ve bought or how much you spent.
You can sign up now on Easy Fundraising or watch a 60 second video explaining how it all works.
