If I thought term one was manic, I’m not quite sure how to describe term two. In the penultimate two weeks of term, we had four energetic days of Varsity, 8 exhausting days of elections campaigning, and three of CCSU’s biggest events on consecutive nights (Sports Fed, Student Activities Awards & Elections results night).

In the middle of all this madness, the usual day-to-day SU routine carried on, and we hit 60 societies! CCSU has never seen such growth in societies in such a short space of time, so this is really incredible – a massive well done to all the dedicated students who have taken the time and effort to establish 28 new societies since September.

Christ Church TV

Another great win for Student Activities in term two was the Christ Church TV (CCTV) launch, which saw a group of students interested and passionate about media, covering their first project: Varsity. The team, led by Adam Hart, filmed Women’s and Men’s Volleyball, Women’s and Men’s Badminton, Men’s Rugby and Women’s Netball. We’ve also just had two brand new high-spec computers installed in the Media Hub, ready for our student media volunteers to use! If you’d like to join our CCTV team and have the opportunity to cover big events (including Summer Ball!), just drop me an email!

Raise And Give

RaG has also seen huge success during term two, with unique fundraisers such as the 24 hour cycle in which students pedalled their way to complete and utter exhaustion in the SU reception on stationary bikes for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Action Against Hunger, the Barcelona Marathon which saw a team of our students jetting off to Spain to run a marathon for World Wide Cancer Research, and the Pole Fitness takeover of The Lounge in which members of the Pole Fitness team taught techniques in exchange for donations.  

Student Activities Awards

Last but not least, my personal highlight of term two was having the privilege of organising and hosting the first ever Student Activities Awards ceremony! This is something I had started planning as soon as I came into office, last July, because I think it’s imperative that ALL of our student volunteers are formally rewarded and recognised for all their hard work. In the initial stages of planning, we estimated 80-100 people would attend, but in the end we had a staggering 216 students register for a place! The night followed a schedule of awards interspersed with showcases from our performance based societies, including Salsa, Dance, Musical Theatre, Drama and Show Choir. After all the meetings and discussions in the months before, to see it come to fruition was incredible and humbling. I feel as though it couldn’t have gone any better, and the feedback I’ve heard from others is incredibly encouraging and rewarding. Ben, our managing director, said that it was the best event he’s attended at CCSU so far!

While all of you are away on your Easter break, I’m in the office planning for term three! Hope you all have a relaxing break, good luck with your last few assignments and exams.

Thanks for reading!

Soph