June alumni newsletter 2022
Welcome to June’s jubilee themed newsletter! In a few days the country will be practically at a standstill as we enjoy a long Bank Holiday. Like everyone in the UK, we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for sunshine!
Last month was quite busy at York St John. We welcomed prospective students to campus, marked Mental Health Awareness Week and launched business help for local start-ups and small businesses!
This month is already looking busy. Once we return from the Bank Holiday, we’ll be continuing our work on this year’s alumni magazine, adding the finishing touches to our first Ripon newsletter and, of course, enjoying some of the (hopefully) nicer weather! We’ll also be popping by the month long exhibit by the School of the Arts and enjoying some fantastic events.
A Jubilee year
This isn’t our first jubilee celebration! Our university is old enough to remember the last ‘first’ jubilee, way back in 1897 when Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, the first ever celebrated in the UK.
As part of our commemoration of the Jubilee, we invited the Lord-Lieutenant of North Yorkshire to campus to plant a jubilee tree as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy. This canopy of new trees aims to provide a lasting jubilee legacy, and one for the better! You can see how many trees have been planted on the official website.
We’ve also had a little look back through time. On Thursday, we’ll be posting a big throwback blog post, looking through each decade of Her Majesty’s reign at York St John. It’s only a snippet, but hopefully one you’ll enjoy!
Here’s what’s happening for the Jubilee near York:
- York Minster is hosting a range of events, created a new exhibition and is holding a celebratory concert. Learn more on their website.
- Ripon Cathedral are hosting a fantastic Civic Service alongside their ongoing programme of 1350th events. Learn more on their website.
- You can find out more about the Platinum Jubilee on the official website, including events near you.
York Pride is back
For the past few years, big events have been cancelled, including most Pride events. This month we’re proud to sponsor York Pride again. In June, as in every month, we’re proud to welcome, support and advocate for our LGBTQ+ community.
Pride events are still an important part of LGBTQ+ protest, awareness and celebration. Did you know that hate crimes relating to sexual orientation rose from an average of 1456 a month between January and April 2021, to 2211 a month between May and August 2021? Last June, this equated to 80 homophobic and 12 transphobic offences a day, and that’s just the reported crimes. You can find out more about homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in a Guardian article published last year.
- Learn more about York Pride on their official website.
- Read about 12 LGBTQ+ icons from history you should know about on BBC Newsround
- Read about 10 ways you could be an LGBTQ+ ally via a BBC article
Upcoming events
Looking for something to do this month? Make sure to check out York St John’s upcoming events. From looking at York’s forgotten people of print to the YSJ Teacher Education and Inclusion Conference, we host a range of events, most of them free!
Browse our upcoming events on Eventbrite.
This month, you can also pop by campus to see some fantastic end of degree work as part of the School of the Arts Festival. This is a great opportunity to see brand new talent from a range of courses exhibiting their work. Find out more on our website.
Lots to blog about
Last month we posted two blogs looking at ten things you might not know about life for our first students. The first was about our first York students, the second about our first Ripon students. From a roofless York Minster to a new horn purchase, read them now on our blog.
This month alongside our jubilee blog post, we’ll also be posting ideas for what to do at your next reunion!
Wonderful webinars
Wow, time flies when you’re having fun! Just as the academic term has drawn to a close, so too have this year’s webinars! If you didn’t get chance to watch them live, you can find them on YouTube.
Watch our webinars on YouTube.
The Ripon newsletter
This month we’ll be sending out our first ever Ripon newsletter. Sent only to those who attended Ripon College or Ripon Campus, we can’t wait to reconnect with our old campus and our Ripon alumni.
If you think you should receive this newsletter, but didn’t receive any of our Ripon 1350 emails, please complete this short form to update your alumni record. If you know someone who studied with us who might be interested in receiving our new newsletter, please ask them to complete this form.
Please note that if you complete the form on a mobile device, you might have to scroll backwards to input the correct dates. If you click on the year once the pop-up scroll box has appeared, you should be able to select the year you need instead. Please use the below image for guidance.
Please don’t ghost us!
It might only just be June, but we’re already thinking about our alumni magazine! Every year, we send all UK based alumni a free copy of our annual magazine. And every year we discover we’ve been ghosted by alumni who haven’t updated their details with us.
Please don’t ghost us. You can use our short form to update your address details, contact details and your contact preferences. It should only take a few minutes, but it’ll make a big difference to how many magazines get returned to us.
Stories from YSJ London
York St John has always supported students from a range of backgrounds, but now we take this a step further by endorsing some students with their Start-Up Visa. Admir Kurman graduated from our London campus in 2021 and was the first student we endorsed in this way. He will now be part of our new Fellowship for Advanced Innovation Incubator Centre at our new London campus location.
Admir’s business, called iMago, was launched during his time in the Venture Creation Lab programme. His business is a paint by numbers concept that aims to enhance customers knowledge and appreciation of the art itself.
Find out more about the Venture Creation Lab on our website.
Local start-up help
At the start of May, York St John launched a new start-up centre at our York campus. Called the Enterprise Centre, it offers free, expert support for new businesses. This includes coaching, mentoring, support with digital marketing and finance skills.
You can find out more about this fantastic scheme and how to apply on our website.
York Festival of Ideas
This June, check out the York Festival of Ideas running from 11 June until 24 June. Including both in person and online events, this is a fantastic way of learning about a new topic, or to learn more about one of your passions.
Find out more and view the full list of events on their website.
Your career
Learning is a lifelong journey, and a great way of upgrading your CV! If you’re looking to develop your knowledge on a range of subjects, FutureLearn is a great platform to explore.
Courses are both free and paid for, with a subscription option available if you get really into online learning. Some courses even offer certificates! Here are a few free courses from their selection:
- Learn about web analytics and how to use them
- Learn about Mindfulness for wellbeing and peak performance
- Introduction to Italian
Looking for a job role can be daunting, especially if you haven’t got much job experience! But Prospects have got advice for what to do in this situation. Read their article in full on their website.
Helping tansy beetles
Last week, 40 tansy beetles were released into our tansy habitats in a bid to secure their future. Tansy beetles are a rare and endangered species we’ve been trying to preserve through enhancing their habitats.
Find out more in a BBC news article.
Where did YSJ take you?
Since you completed your course with us, where has it taken you? We’d love to learn more about what our alumni have done since completing their studies with us, whether you left us in 1973 or 2021!
We’d love to do a short blog series about our fantastic alumni community, especially those whose careers took an unexpected turn. Whether you studied in London, Ripon or York, we’d love to hear from you.
If you’d be interested in sharing what you’ve done since completing your course, please email alumni@yorksj.ac.uk.
