Charlie Walker

What is your role in College and what does it entail? My role is Student Enrichment Coordinator which entails helping the college and JCR with anything student related, especially personal development. This year I have been organising the Horizons talks and community outreach, as well as working with Matthew Warren on music and wellbeing, and the Durham Inspired Award. I am assigned to work two days a week at Marys, two at Hilde Bede and a day on the Student Enrichment Directory team.

How long have you worked in this role and how did it come to fruition? I graduated from Durham in 2017 and worked with the Student Union for a couple of years in admin. A pilot for my current role was advertised in April 2020, and I knew it would be a more student facing role which was really what I wanted, so I applied.

How has your role helped the Mary’s community? My role is about helping people and is therefore focussed on personal development in its direct sense. So much of what students at Mary ’ s do is about the community. My role is then to help students reflect on what they ’ re doing and what transferable skills they ’ re gaining from these experiences, and to help them think about developing those in future.

What is your favourite thing that your role has allowed you to do? The Horizon talks are the most interesting, as people come in from outside college, whether it be alumni or college contacts. The tagline is to introduce, inspire, and innovate. They are all about introducing interesting people, generally someone you wouldn ’t encounter in Durham outside of the academic world. The aim is to inspire people to think differently about things and innovate in terms of thinking of new projects to work on.

What is your favourite memory from Mary’s? My favourite memories have to be meeting new people and discovering our differences. Often there ’ s a conflict of interest between the sporty members of staff and the JCR, and myself and others who would much prefer a croissant and crossword in bed! Another great memory was when Emma and the JCR executives took me to a College dinner which was lovely and helped me ease into the role.

What is your favourite thing about St Mary’s College? The College grounds are absolutely beautiful. It really helps the community to have a wonderful space to meet people and thrive. How have you seen the College develop over time? I’ ve seen development through the introduction of the Durham Inspired Award. It is tailored towards people already doing sports or societies outside of their degrees, and gives them a space to reflect on their enrichment in a more structured way. It aims to help them articulate the improvements, journey, and skills they ’ ve learnt from those roles to a potential employer.

Do you have any upcoming plans for your role? I’d like to strengthen college development in terms of multiplying the amount of coordinators so each college has access to enrichment aid. There is also a plan to reach out to the St Mary ’ s neighbours on Quarry Head Lane and invite them to College to build stronger relationships with people living so close to College.

How would you see your role in connection with the wider university experience? Part of my role is about trying to share knowledge between Hilde Bede and Mary ’ s. Hilde Bede have been working on a video on gender and sexuality to aid development around those issues, and I would love key people at Mary ’ s such as WAM to watch and encourage them to use the video and take away key points. I have also been able to learn about what’ s going on in Team Durham, Durham Student Theatre, and Leadership Teams that I can bring back to the College.