July alumni newsletter 2022
Welcome to your July alumni newsletter. June was a busy month for our university and alumni community. We celebrated and supported our LGBTQ+ community during York Pride, welcomed prospective students to campus during an Open Evening and sent out our first Ripon alumni newsletter. We were also excited to learn about a large reunion held in Ripon for our Ripon alumni.
This month, we’re looking forward to warmer weather on campus as we come to the end of writing your alumni magazine. We’re also working behind the scenes on some exciting news which we’ll be announcing in the magazine, so make sure we have your correct address to read about it first! We’re also launching a survey about our annual Old Johns celebration to gain some feedback to help our plans moving forward.
In sad news, we were saddened to hear about the death of well-known alumnus Harry Gration at the end of June. A familiar face on our TVs, Harry not only studied with us, but we also welcomed him back in 2018 to receive an Honorary Degree. Our thoughts are with his friends, family and all who knew him at this sad time.
Supporting our LGBTQ+ community
June was Pride month, a month known for its Pride marches to support, welcome and highlight the needs of our LGBTQ+ community. York St John was proud to once again be a sponsor of York Pride, and many staff and student members marched behind our banner.
Last month, we included some links about why Pride marches are still needed due to the rising levels of hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, and how to be a better LGBTQ+ ally. This month, we thought we’d give you some more food for thought.
- Read a York Press article about The Portal Bookshop, a bookshop that specialises in LGBTQ+ literature, and how they’re helping the local LGBTQ+ community. If you’re wondering ‘why do people want a specific bookshop when Amazon or Waterstones exist’; can you name 10 books with LGBTQ+ protagonists? If not… why not?
- Learn more about the UK’s LGBTQ+ inclusivity in an insightful post from our Students’ Union. Considering we were ranked 1st in 2015 and are now ranked 14th in 2022, this post gives helpful information on what’s gone wrong.
Eid-Al-Adha
On Saturday 9 July, Muslims around the world will begin celebrating Eid-Al-Adha. Lasting until Wednesday 13 July, this festival celebrates the prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son when God ordered him to and God’s mercy in stopping him. This festival also marks the end of Hajj, the religious pilgrimage all Muslims will attempt to complete at least once in their lives.
You can find out more about Eid-Al-Adha on BBC Bitesize, including how it’s celebrated.
A lot to blog about
Since our last newsletter we’ve posted three new blog posts! You can read them now on our blog:
- Discover five suggestions for your next Ripon reunion
- Read our five family-friendly suggestions for your next York reunion
Old Johns refresh
Old Johns is a time honoured tradition at York St John, but since the pandemic began, we feel it’s stalled a little bit. That’s why we’d like your feedback about your experiences of Old Johns and what you’d like to see next year.
If you were part of a sport team, club, or a society, please complete our short survey by Monday 1 August at 11:55pm.
It’s tennis time
It’s that time of year again. If you find yourself inspired by Wimbledon this month, why not give tennis a go? The York St John tennis centre has courts available to hire every day from 8am-10pm from as little as £7 for an hour. This is a fantastic, fun way of getting back into tennis or exploring a new sport.
Opened in in 2021, you can book one of three indoor courts or one of three outdoor courts, all year round. Find out more about our tennis centre and book a court on their website.
Since it’s tennis season, we thought we’d share the fantastic throwback above! In years gone by students could play against their friends, tutors and even the principal on these courts! Since this photo was taken, this space has been a variety of things, including a car park!
Did you ever play on these courts?
York Unlocked
Did you ever walk around York and wonder what was behind some of the locked doors and arched windows? York Unlocked is a free initiative opening up over 60 of York’s fascinating buildings to the public, for free. Running 15-16 October 2022, this is a date for your diaries if you’ve ever wanted to see inside some of our more mysterious buildings.
You can find out more and look at which buildings are open on their website.
Events
There’s always plenty to do in York, but did you know about our range of upcoming events? Make sure to keep checking back as events get added nearer to the event date! You can see our upcoming events on our website, including more information about them.
If none of these events are your cup of tea, you can watch some of our events back on our events YouTube channel. In the past two years, we’ve held some fantastic events that are well worth watching back.
Browse our past events on YouTube. The events channel is also the place to rewatch our amazing webinars from this academic year. You can look out our webinar playlist on YouTube.
News from YSJ
In June quite a bit happened at York St John! Our London campus relocated to new premises, we launched a free online course to support autistic job seekers and were recognised for our work on social mobility. Our Head of Programme: Master of Business Administration, Dr Chi Maher published an insightful paper into how charities adapted their practises during the pandemic. You can read more about their paper on our website.
You can find out more about our London campus on their webpages.
Your career
Did you know that you’re entitled to lifelong career support from York St John, no matter when you graduated, or from where? You can talk to a professional career advisor by emailing careers@yorksj.ac.uk .
In the meantime, if you’re applying for jobs, we’ve got a few useful articles for securing your next role:
- If you’re still wondering if you’re ‘dynamic’ enough for the role, Barclays Life Skills has a helpful jargon buster to figure out what the job advert is really saying
- You’ve got a job, but you can’t seem to get your opinion across in meetings. Barclays Life Skills have got some useful tips to use to improve your communication skills.
- Secured an interview, but no idea what to wear? Barclays Life Skills has a helpful guide for what to wear and what the dress code actually means for you.
- If you’ve had an interview, it’s always a good idea to send a follow up email. It just re-states your interest in the role, and can also be a place to include a small detail you might have forgotten to mention. Indeed have a few helpful examples and tips
Leave a YSJ legacy
Did you know that you can leave a gift in your will to charity? Did you know that you can leave more than one gift in your will?
York St John is a university that looks ahead. Over 60% of our students come from underrepresented backgrounds in higher education, and we’re proud to support them to achieve their potential. You can help us support students, just as you were supported during your studies.
Creating a YSJ legacy is easy. All you need to know is the terms of your gift and our charity details (which are at the bottom of this email). We’ll also follow your instructions to the letter, even if that’s you asking us to use your legacy as we see best at the time. Thirty years ago, no-one could have guessed that every student would need a laptop for home study, who’s to say what students will need in thirty years time?
Whether you leave a gift of 1% of your estate or £1 million, we know your gift will make a difference to the lives of our students, no matter its size.
If you’d like to find out more about leaving a gift to York St John, please email alumni@yorksj.ac.uk. If you’d like to inform us of a legacy you’ve already created, please complete and send us this form.
Thinking about postgraduate study?
Did you know that York St John offers a range of postgraduate courses, including Masters by Research and PhDs? Did you also know that as one of our alumni, you can get a fee discount? If you completed your course with in or after 2019, you can get up to 50% off your postgraduate fees. You can find out more about what discount you could receive on our webpages.
