September newsletter 2024
Welcome to your September newsletter. Last month was a busy one on campus, as we spoke to prospective students during Clearing, and held our Summer Open Day. In August, we also welcomed lots of alumni groups to campus, including a large reunion group! The Class of 2024 submitted their pin badge designs, which we shortlisted at the end of the month.
This month, we’re excited to finalise our alumni magazine and welcome our latest graduates into our alumni community. In September, we’re looking forward to seeing which badge wins our pin badge competition, and welcoming our new cohort to campus.
Coming up at YSJ
International Day of Sign Languages
This month, we’ll be marking International Day of Sign Languages on Monday 23 September. Did you know, there are over 300 different sign languages around the world, and over 70,000 people in the UK use British Sign Language as their first language?
If you’d like to learn the basics of British Sign Language, York St John is running a 9 week course starting this month. For more information about what you’d learn, please visit our website.
Black History Month
Next month, we’ll be marking Black History Month with a range of events and activities for students, staff and our wider community to get involved with.
At the end of October, join us online or in person for a lecture by one of our honorary graduates: Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin. During her lecture, she will discuss the Church’s role in challenging racism. You can find out more information about this event, and to book your free tickets on Eventbrite.
News from YSJ
York St John has joined over 100 institutions who have signed up to the Student Minds’ University Mental Health Charter Programme. This new Charter will help us develop and expand upon our good practice. For more information about this, please visit our website.
Last month, thousands of people across the country opened their results, and thousands decided to use Clearing to find their perfect University place. At York St John, we’re proud to support these students by giving them an accommodation guarantee, so they have one less thing to worry about as they start their new adventure. For more information about this fantastic guarantee, please see our website.
Last month, ten Class of 2024 students performed at Edinburgh Fringe Festival! This is the first time that York St John Drama and Theatre students have performed at the festival, which last year sold 2.4 million tickets to over 3,500 shows. For more information about their performances, please see our website.
Ask Our Alum
In the next few months, we’re excited to launch a brand new initiative called Ask Our Alum. But to do this, we need your help!
Ask Our Alum is a new way for our alumni to support each other, and our students. The idea is simple: alumni join our Ask Our Alum community and answer career or industry questions from alumni and students. Unlike mentoring, you will not need to commit to meetings, training or giving any time. Your details will also not be shared, and all communication will go through our alumni team.
All you need to do is commit to answering questions within a reasonable timeframe.
Interested? Complete an alumni snapshot to take part!
Class of 2024 pin badge
Last month we held our annual pin badge competition for our graduating class. We had a fantastic response, and are very excited to see which one our graduating class choose.
Join us in Darlington
If you live in the North East, there’s still time to book your free ticket for our first North East Network in Darlington.
Join us on Wednesday 30 October at 6pm at Hash Bar and Kitchen for an exciting new alumni event:
- Connect with other local alumni
- Take part in a free quiz
- Hear from your Alumni team
- Enjoy light refreshments
Book your free tickets on Eventbrite:
With you, we can do more
This month, we’ll be marking Remember A Charity Week as part of our ongoing Fundraising work.
Leaving a gift in your will can be a way to support the causes that mean the most to you. You can choose to support more than one charity in your will, including large charities and ones more local to you.
Did you know that as a charity, you can leave a gift in your will to York St John? By leaving a gift in your will, you can support students thrive during their time at York St John.
Make your will for free
At York St John, we’re passionate about supporting our students and local community. Our Law Clinic helps us do both by providing free services to our community, and giving our Law students real life experience in their field.
Our Law Clinic provides a free will writing service for our community. For more information about the process, and what to expect, please email lawclinic@yorksj.ac.uk .
York 10k
Last month, our fantastic team gave up their Sunday to run the York 10k. Alongside personal bests, some of our running team completed their first 10k to raise money for our alumni funded scholarships. You can read how our team did in our latest blog.
Thanks to the generosity of our community, the York 10k team have raised over £1600 for our scholarship fund, and there’s still time left to donate! You can see how much we’ve raised on JustGiving.
Do you remember your first week studying with us?
Later this month, we’ll be welcoming students back to campus, with many joining us for their first term. Over the years, the must have items for a student bedroom have changed, but some things are still the same!
During our Welcome Week, students will still be buying posters to brighten up their walls, plants to bring some greenery inside and , of course, getting to know their new home. In the past, we sent all new students an equipment list. Over the years, this changed from an itemised list detailing everything a student needed, right down to an umbrella, and became much shorter and less prescriptive.
Our earliest students had to bring a range of items we might find odd today. For example, for several decades St John’s students had to ensure they brought appropriate hats with them for different occasions. Magazines from the time detail how many students received an unofficial inspection of their hats when they’d finished unpacking by second year students!
Upcoming events
There’s always something happening on campus, and in the next few months there’s plenty of exciting things you could attend! Here’s three exciting events coming up soon:
- On Wednesday 11 September, join an online screening and panel discussion of a new 30 minute documentary film called O Brave New World about the arts, criminal justice and higher education. Find out more about this exciting new film and book your place on Eventbrite.
- On Thursday 3 October, join us for the book launch of York St John’s Professor Abi Curtis’s latest novel: The Headland. Exploring grief, belonging and the unreality of time and space, find out more about the book launch and book your place on Eventbrite.
- On Monday 4 November, join our hybrid event discussing what to expect from the US Presidential Election. Held by Professor Luke Nitcher from York St John and Professor James H. Cavanaugh from Chapman University, California, this is sure to be an interesting and informative event. Find out more and book your ticket on Eventbrite.
Browse our other upcoming events on Eventbrite.
Feeling nostalgic?
Do you miss wearing your branded sportswear? Our sports team are rebranding their sportswear, so now’s your chance to get some of our old brand sports kit to make your next park run, friendly football match or lounge wear more York St John!
Items range from socks and shorts, to a branded beach towel and jackets.Browse our available items on our sportwear website.
Webinars
This summer, we’ve been busy filming our next webinar series. This year’s series includes alumni from a range of industries and from across all of our campuses!
Keep an eye out for our announcement about who’s taking part soon, but in the meantime, you can still watch all of our previous webinars for free on YouTube.
Heritage Map
Did you know our original college chapel cost £1050 to build? Built in 1851, in today’s money, that’s around £120, 000! You can learn more about our history in our audio heritage tour of campus.
The Parrot
You might remember a few months ago, we told you about some students who were supporting our English Literature department to transcribe the work of a real-life Lady Whistledown! You can now read their work for free to see how a real Lady Whistledown wrote in a satirical periodical.
Good luck Sally
This month, Sally, our Fundraising Projects Officer, will say goodbye to York St John. For the past two years, Sally has reinvigorated our fundraising work and has been at the centre of alumni events, including our 2023 reunion, last year’s Christmas event in Ripon, and this year’s Community Festival. Eagle-eyed alumni might also recognise her as being part of our York 10k teams and as being the face of some of our recent social media videos.
We’re sure you will all join us in wishing her the best in her new role outside York St John.
