Our Widening Participation outreach work with Black and Minority Ethnic Students (BAME) is currently in its infancy and work is being done to ensure we are student led in what we establish, to truly understand the issues that need to be addressed. We aim to work with BAME students, seeking to reduce the barriers that they face when accessing Higher Education.
SUPPORT AVAILABLE
We are currently running a Brightside e-mentoring programme which was targeted (not exclusively) at Year 13 BAME students, which focuses on personal statements and the UCAS process, and seeks to support those students during this time. Though new for this year, this programme will run long term, so if you are a Year 12 student and interested in this opportunity for next year, please look out for the next application round (September 2021).
The Student Support Team work closely with the Student’s Union to ensure we support our diverse community of students. We have a dedicated contact for our outreach work, as well as in our Student Support Team – contact details below. The Student’s Union has a BAME Officer who is also a current student. Their role is to hear the diverse voices of our student body and ensure any issues are resolved. The work we are looking to carry out sees us collaborating with Student Support, the Student Union BAME Officer, and our Equality & Diversity Officer.
This year we celebrated Black History Month at York St John University with a range of online events. A joint statement from our Vice Chancellor and the Student Union Presidents’ details our stance:
“At York St John, we continuously strive to enrich our community by tackling inequalities, promoting fairness and challenging prejudice. Black History Month allows us to collectively remember the history that still lives on, to celebrate the contributions by black people to our society and to centre the voices of black students, academics, and others. Over the next year, the YSJ community will have many conversations about race and take action to promote racial equality. It is vital that we honour black history throughout this process.
The YSJU Black History Month programme is the result of a collaboration between the University and Students’ Union, and we encourage all of our YSJ community to get involved.”
Staff contacts:
- Widening Participation Dedicated Contact – Nicole Clarke n.clarke@yorksj.ac.uk
- Student Support Dedicated Contact – Rachel Fennell r.fennell@yorksj.ac.uk
- Student Union BAME Officer – Kalen Reid k.reid@yorksj.ac.uk
- Equality & Diversity Officer – Marije Davidson m.davidson@yorksj.ac.uk
Useful Links:
https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/black-history-month/
https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/students/supporting-our-diverse-community/