Croydon College Student life newsletter - Summer 2014

DESIGNED BY MICHAELPAYNE GRAPHIC DESIGN

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UNICEF Pledge Award Ceremony The Pledge Award Ceremony is a prestigious yearly event to celebrate the achievements of students who have worked tirelessly in their local and wider communities on projects they have initiated and led on.

Croydon College students are unmatched when it comes to volunteering - and to prove it they have given up more than 24,000 hours helping others in the local and wider communities throughout last year. At the Pledge Award Ceremony it was revealed the students had accomplished an extra 6,000 hours of volunteering compared to 2013’s figure of 18,000 hours.

To reach the phenomenal total of 24,000 volunteer hours, the students involved themselves in a multitude of events and organisations including the ‘fill the trolley’ competition which saw 2,200 food items donated by students to help homeless families over Christmas, Typhoon Haiyan

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fundraising activities undertaken by travel and tourism Level 3 students who raised £420 in two hours for the relief fund set up after typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines. Closer to home, students helped raise cash for two charities supported by the Mayor of Croydon, the South East Cancer Help Centre and the British Heart Foundation.

Volunteer of the Year Award went to Anton Bland, aged 24. In care all his life, the Hospitality student has volunteered a staggering 1140 hours in addition to his course commitments. He has been helping out twice a week in food stores and four nights a week with the You Group 4, helping people with disabilities. He said simply: “I always try and do what I can when I am needed, to help other people. I have been in care all my life and give time back to help others in society”.

Many students do not realise at first how important and widely transferable the skills they have developed can be but come to recognise the broad applicability of the skills learned through the enrichment programme.

Should you wish to contact the Student Executive members please either email studentexec@croydon.ac.uk or speak to the Student Life Team in the Student Common room (Undercroft).

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UNICEF Pledge Award Ceremony

Anton Bland Student volenteer of the year contributing 1140 hours.

Other inspiring student volenteers at the Pledge Award Ceremony

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Interns

Jo Elmore has decided to take a Gap year following her outstanding A level results, and has been working as a Student Life Intern since September. ‘‘Since working with the Student Life team I have met many more people and worked with a wide range of both staff and students.

My confidence has really improved and I like the wide variety of work I undertake even if at times it is quite challenging’

Christina Ramsay is the UNICEF Intern and she has been leading on the forthcoming FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) Event.

She is currently studying International Relations at Queen Mary’s University as well as working as an intern with the Student Life Team. ‘As an intern I’ve realised I have more skills and attributes to offer in the working environment, by doing the internship it has complimented my studies. I would advise everyone to do an internship to help with their studies. I now have more strengths than weaknesses including the importance of networking, being fearless when you have an idea, and not taking ‘no’ for an answer.’

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placement students I am Sandra Wright and I am a second year student, undertaking a degree in Public Health and Social Care. I am on placement with Student Life. I was rather pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere here.

The inclusivity and diversity is amazing. Student Life is all about interaction with students/young people. It’s vibrant; it’s energising and a hub of activity. I have enough material to inform my subject of study. I was a bit sceptical at first; but I would now recommend that other students take their placement here. Never a dull moment and team members are very friendly and helpful.

My name is Dorothy Moyo, I am a 2nd Year Student for Public Health and Social Care at Croydon College. As Public Health is about meeting and working with people, my placement with the Student Life team has helped me to enhance my skills and knowledge, to get involved, and to interact with the young people from different backgrounds. Though challenging sometimes, I have managed to build my confidence with the support of the staff who I find to be very helpful.

If you are thinking about taking gap year, do pop down and speak to Di in the Student Common Room You never know - you could be one of the next Interns to work with the Student Life Team!!

Reflections – Against Domestic Violence As a result of her involvement with the Cassandra Learning Centre (CLC) Charity Survivors Group, Elizabeth Akindture, health & social care Level 3 wanted to raise awareness about domestic violence and sexual abuse within the Croydon community. “Working with CLC and attending the survivors group once every week was very beneficial and special to me. I’ve never experienced domestic violence

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personally but I knew it is an issue for us young people as some of us unfortunately don’t know what love is”, said Elizabeth. She felt that abuse is a major issue that needs to be addressed, so came up with the idea to host an evening event allowing people to use the medium of song, dance and poetry to get the message across about the injustices of domestic violence.

Round up of sports events and matches: 5x Football events including S4L tournament consisting of 7 teams 2 of which were female.

4x basketball events including a 3 way college tournament which is to become a regular fixture.

7x table tennis events including the term 1 league consisting of over 150matches and the south London championships which we both successfully competed in and assisted the running of.

2x cricket events with including the annual multi college in-door tournament.

2x golf events including the win of the very first skills challenge.

1 pool tournament 1 x volleyball tournament

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The BIG Lunch The Big Lunch was founded by the Eden project in 2009. The aim was to get as many of the 63 million people in the UK as possible to bring their communities together for food, company and conversation. The UNICEF Steering Group planned and led the Croydon College Big Lunch which was held on Friday the 6th of June which was also D- Day. The students worked in partnership with the Borough of Croydon, Age Concern UK, Croydon, Addiscombe Neighbourhood Care Association, Croydon BME and Croydon & Sutton Fairtrade.

The Hospitality and Catering Eco Group were given the challenge to plan and cook the Big Lunch using Fairtrade and locally produced products for the 80 guests who quickly booked their places within two weeks of receiving the student designed promotional materials.

Students across the college

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entered the Bunting Competition which had to be made from any recycled material including clothes, spare fabric, cereal boxes or magazines. The entire student bunting was displayed in Chefs during the Big Lunch and was so popular that it has not been taken down. The winning team were the plumbing students, with ESOL, hair & beauty and motor vehicle students being awarded the Highly Commended for their bunting.

Evelyn Verez, speaking on behalf of Addiscombe Neighbourhood Care Association said: “I would like to thank everyone at the college for this wonderful meal we have received today. The students have been fantastic, very courteous and so helpful. We are so impressed that we have already arranged to come back here for lunch! I cannot say thank you enough.�

Refugee Week

some students’ stories; ‘Now I’m at college, at last I know what my future is’ It’s when the land grabs started in Zimbabwe that I decided I had to leave and come to England. The violence was really bad. I came here alone in 2003 when I was 17. I was so young. When I arrived here, I applied for asylum.

My mum was already here, but she has a different surname from me so I couldn’t trace her – or even prove to the authorities that she existed – so I had to go through the process on my own.

I was held in detention centres in different places for about six months altogether. You have to fend for yourself in those places. It’s terrible there, to see young kids and mums being held. In Swindon I understood what suicidal thoughts were, staring at four walls, being scared. It’s very tough on the children, and you see your friends being deported. It’s not a pretty sight.

Eventually I was released and given a room in a house in Bristol. It wasn’t fit to be lived in, but I had no choice.

I had no money, but was allowed a weekly voucher for food. For the next seven years I was in limbo, waiting for my case to go through the system. It’s such a long period of time. My solicitor helped me, but it was so tough.

During that time, I decided to leave Bristol and I came to London. But when I went to the job centre to try to get work, all the employers wanted me to have work experience.

And there was a gap on my CV for the time I had been in England, so they wouldn’t take me on.

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I wanted to get on with my education. I tried to enrol at college but no one would fund me because they didn’t know if I would be deported back home before the end of the course. They didn’t want to waste their money on me. So that door was closed to me, too.

I tried everything. It was a very tough time for me.

Eventually I got refugee status and a British passport. You can imagine how relieved I was. I was very keen to get on with my education, and I became a student at Croydon College.

First I did an English course and now I’m training to be a nursery nurse.

I support myself through my studies with two jobs. I work at the local gym in the evenings during the week and at weekends I work at the hospital.

Everyone at college is so nice. At last I’m settled. I can make friends and look to the future. I know what my future holds.

The college has inspired me. It makes me strong. The staff make me feel I can do everything. They’re encouraging even when I’m down.

I feel so sad for the younger generation still in Zimbabwe. They have no future, no job prospects.

I wish someone would help them as I’ve been helped. Valerie – Childcare

Sara Greenidge, as part of her on-going volunteering effort towards earning a UNICEF Pledge Platinum Award, has organised a series of table top sales to support her campaign to raise money for CRUK. This involved coming into college on her days off to set up the table top sales, running them during several of her lunch hours, whilst still maintaining her travel & tourism course commitments.

She eventually collected a grand total of ÂŁ347.15, a magnificent achievement!

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Mixed Melodyz Choir; Mixed Melodyz were again, very busy this term.

Several members of the choir were invited to serenade the guests at Croydon Town Hall on the 23rd April as they arrived for the Mayor’s

fundraising event. A selection of traditional British songs were sung, such as the Beatles’ ‘All you need is love’. The guests loved the medley and several gathered to sing along.

“Thank you for your lovely singing at my Gourmet Dinner in the Town Hall.

I have never receives so many compliments for fund raising event as I have over the last few weeks and I am still receiving comments as I go around the Borough.”

The choir also performed at a full staff meeting as well as the prestigious UNICEF Pledge Awards Ceremony Event which included the newly elected (June 2014) Mayor of Croydon in the audience!

Christina Ramsay asked the members to sing a rendition of Sam Cooke’s moving ‘Change is gonna come’ to complement the controversial topic of her Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Conference here at College.

The Mayor of Croydon

Working Together for a Safer College Week; Classroom sessions were led by Pauline Miller, from Croydon against Trafficking (CCAT) as well as officers from the Met Police, Trident (Gang Unit) and PREVENT who focus on anti-terrorism issues. The sessions were very well received by the

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learners. Ben Stopani, Student Life’s own Health & Sport Coordinator, led several Heart Start sessions in the curriculum areas. These are always popular with the students.

Ask Yourself Ask yourself how, would you feel Being caged up, surrounded by steel Treated like an animal, passed around like you’re nothing Emotions beaten out of you till, you can’t feel a thing Ask yourself how, how would you feel To be taken from your family, to be someone’s slave No one hears you scream, as you’re dragged from your home To be someone’s slave, no one cares, you’re all alone Ask yourself how, would you feel In a foreign country, in a foreign world So many miles away, your life is worthless Trapped in this lifestyle, from this path you want to digress And ask yourself, as you read these words How you would feel, as a young child Misguided, mistreated, with no one to trust Being a means to mans greed and lust Just one more thing, we’re all human beings So don’t be silent, use your voice These children need our help, they don’t have a choice Ask yourself how, would you feel, lost and forgotten Never to be seen or heard, a distant memoir Like so many who once picked cotton

Ryan was asked by UNICEFUK to read his poem at the Trafficking event

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Outreach Programme

Lieutenant General Andrew Gregory CB, Chief of Defence Personnel at the MOD, presented five very proud Croydon College Foundation Access students with their education outreach certificates at the annual celebration event in Whitehall.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has worked with Croydon College for the past 12 years offering mentoring, specialist talks, visits and employability skills workshops to its students. Students are set very challenging scenarios to work through, to enhance their critical thinking and political awareness.

This group had a very topical exercise, as part of a crisis scenario in which they had to act as the government dealing with a fictional international crisis the other side of the world.

Each student had to assume a different role – Prime Minister, Defence Secretary, Home Secretary, and the UN etc. Each student had to research the issues before making their decision about how to argue their plan of action, and deliver a press conference to other students in the group. This year the MOD has

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worked with around 100 Croydon College students on different skills aspects - from CV writing to problem solving and team-working.

The 5 students pictured represented the 70 strong groups of Foundation Access students. Also present were a group of the Colleges Public Services students who spoke to the 140 strong audience about their course and their thanks for MOD’s support of their course over many years.

Student Blanchard Masivi Boka said; “I pass Whitehall by bus when I go to work, I had heard of Whitehall when I was in Africa but now to actually be invited there... Croydon College made me feel so proud of myself. It was a wonderful experience.” Andy Gillman, MOD project lead for the education outreach programme commented: “Croydon students and staff were a real credit to the college, it has been a joy to support them again this past year – I look forward to catching up with some of them next year in College.”

students at the college have participated in huge organisational and volunteering projects such as the FGM conference and The Big Lunch, but often these are not captured effectively on their CVs, UCAS applications and in interviews.

It is imperative that students are encouraged to aim higher and acknowledge/promote their competencies and achievements which will increase their progression prospects. Students are often very humble and do not promote the skills they have gained outside of their academic achievements at college. A new initiative of holding Mock Interviews was put in place for those students who volunteer their time to make positive differences to the local and wider communities. Over 40 students attended the Mock Interviews with high profile employers such as Amnesty International, Croydon Child Trafficking, Refugee Council and London Citizens. The aim of the interview was to persuade the employer why they should be employed based on the unique

volunteering had developed in them.

After completing an evaluation of the process, 97% of the group stated that they felt more confident about attending an interview.

“Just to say I enjoyed taking part in today’s exercise and I hope I did what you wanted. Thank you for giving me the opportunity once again to step outside my comfort zone and find another skill set I can use.

Much credit should go to you and all your team; you create such a supportive environment which it’s stimulating to work in,” said Don Davis, Cancer Research UK, after the interviews. Of those who had previously attended an external interview only 33% had mentioned their volunteering experiences and the skills that they had developed through volunteering. This demonstrates the importance of this work and it will now be a main priority and focus to provide Mock interviews for student volunteers with top employers each half term from October 2014.

Mock Interviews

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A speaker from the Brook Street Advisory Clinic’s Education dept. visited College early in Term 3 to deliver several workshops and focus group meetings on the choices available to women and couples who are faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

The workshop inevitably touched briefly on religious and moral views about abortion, but was presented in a neutral fashion.

The aim was to give young people factual information about abortion and adoption so that they are able to make informed choices.

The facilitator set ground rules emphasising respect for different views, making it clear that the session was not about sharing personal experiences.

‘The views and information gained from the feedback that your young people offered is to be used to inform local training days for professionals, so we welcome their comments’ Laura Hurley Project Manager

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Croydon College Every Wednesday (term time) Room F116 Just Drop In 12 noon – 2pm

FirstStep Croydon Event Having achieved an agreement from the Manager of the Whitgift Centre to become a safe haven, students who have been working with London Citizens as part of their Pledge Project, assisted in the planning of a borough event to seek a firm commitment from employers to offer young people work placement and training opportunities.

The FirstStepCroydon Event saw young leaders, employers, council and education organisations work together to improve the journey for young people into work. Employers attending the event included Croydon Council; Dotmailer; Whitgift Centre; Croydon BID; Allianz; Barclays; Wates; Willmot Dixon; Age UK; Croydon CVA; White Label;

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Matthew’s Yard; Waitrose; Croydon Radio and Fairfield Halls. The young leaders and leading employers have committed to work together to provide placements with expenses during the next academic year.

“At the Employment Event I spoke about the difficulties my friends and I have faced while looking for work experience. I am glad I shared my story, as I think this has helped to raise awareness to the employers who usually are not so keen on giving young people work experience. At the end of the conference various employers offered about 200 placements for young people, which I think was a huge success,” said Kamilla Gut, a member of the college UNICEF Steering Group.

Croydon College students have once again proved they are at the forefront of community engagement in Croydon by helping launch the Croydon Speakers’ Corner project.

The project, which was organised by Croydon BME Forum and Croydon Voluntary Action, is designed to provide opportunities for local people to express their ideas and opinions about a range of important issues.

Speakers had the opportunity to address their fellow citizens for 60 seconds on subjects close to their hearts from a specially created, portable Speakers’ Corner, which was set-up outside the former Allders department store on North End. The event, which took place on Saturday 28th June, was filmed by the College’s media studies students, who also recorded College representatives Ryan Raghoo and Christina Ramsay as they talked about Human Trafficking and FGM issues. The Speakers’ Corner logo was designed by a Croydon College learner after the student group had been given a professional artwork brief.

Peter Bradley, of the Speakers Corner Trust, commented: “The students have sat on our steering committee, designed a highly professional logo for us and spoken brilliantly at the launch. It’s difficult to imagine Croydon Speakers’ Corner without Croydon College and I hope students will regard it as their platform from now on.”

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The Queens Award for Volunteering The Queen announced on 30 April 2002 the creation of a new award to mark the occasion of her Golden Jubilee and to become its legacy. This award, given annually, recognises and rewards excellence in services provided to the community. It is given to groups of 2 or more people, rather than individuals and emphasises the importance of recognising their outstanding achievements through giving their time to enhance and improve the quality of life and opportunity for individuals or other groups in their local community.

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