The University of Manchester

April 2014

Peer Support Newsletter Celebration Evening Edition

Inside this issue:

Celebration Evening 2014

Overview of the

Celebration Evening 1

Outstanding Contribution

Nominees and Winners 2-3

Peer Support Schemes of

the Year 4

Student Team Working

Awards Winners 5

Sustained Commitment to

Peer Support Award 6

PricewaterhouseCoopers

PDE Course 6

PASS Expectations 2014 7

Peer Support Video

Competition 7

Peer Support Socials 7

Student Coordinator

Training 8

PASS Demystified 8

Peer Mentor Training 8

Social Media and SaP

Website Links 8

On the 3rd April 2014, The Palace Hotel was bursting at the seams with enthusiastic students involved in the Students as Partners Peer Support Programme. Students as Partners and all 1,734 of its student volunteers provide pastoral and academic peer-to-peer support to lower-year students as they transition into higher education in 70 disciplines. Each year Students as Partners holds an Annual Celebration Evening; providing students with a free night of fun, entertainment and recognition of their hard work. The demand for tickets increases every year and 2014 was no exception with 322 students receiving a ticket, there was not a spare seat in the house! On the night, there were several formal presentations, including an inspiring speech about the institutional value of Peer Support from Professor Clive Agnew (Vice President for Teaching, Learning and Students), as well as hearing personal experiences of Peer Support from staff and students. A key-note speech was delivered by first-year Material Science student Tanya Mangoma, who emphasised the impact that Peer Support has on lower-year students. Tanya also talked about how Peer Support has helped her on a personal level; seeing her female PASS Leader succeed in her placement reassured Tanya that women can excel in engineering . The speeches were followed by the most exciting part of the evening: the awards. As well as presenting completers of the PwC Personal Development and Effectiveness Training Course with their certificates of achievement, Andrew Bargery (Student Recruitment Campus and Schools Engagement Leader for PwC) presented the 6 winning teams of the Student Team Working Awards with giant cheques. These teams ranged from curricular through to extra-curricular and had shown outstanding team work during their projects. We think everyone involved in Peer Support is a star but unfortunately we are unable to formally recognise them all. 18 of Peer Support’s shining stars, however, were awarded with Outstanding Contribution to Peer Support Awards for showing excellent collaboration, innovation, leadership and dedication. Scheme of the Year Awards were awarded, with Aerospace Engineering PASS and Speech and Language Therapy Peer Mentoring reigning supreme this year. A very special award was presented for the first time this year, to a person who “always has the students at the heart of any decision and has made so many improvements through empowering students to be creative.” William Carey’s involvement and passion for Peer

Support spans well over 10 years and he was awarded the very first Peer Support Sustained Commitment Award. Aerospace Engineering PASS won this year’s video competition. Their video captures the true creative and inclusive essence of Peer Support. You can view the winning video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6-3oj5dxWM. The night concluded with a Ceilidh and a packed dance floor of students and staff to celebrate their amazing achievements.

Students enjoy the awards and congratulate each other during the ceremony.

Students and staff take to the dance floor to ceilidh the night away!

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April 2014

Nominees Adrian Mascarenhas & Lauren Riddell-Smith, Civil

Engineering PASS

Aimee Tam & Andy Chung, Psychology Peer Mentoring

Alastair Ross & Isobel Wise , Econometrics PASS

Melanie Carrington, Nursing PASS

Alex Guermech & Rory Billingham, Introductory Maths

PASS

Ananya Gupta & Nigel Chan, Electrical and Electronic

Engineering PASS

Bethan Capelli, Life Sciences PASS

Charles Rowlands & Katherine Sadler, Life Sciences

PASS

Diane King, Mohammad Ahmad & Victoria Adunmade,

Nursing PASS

Dr. Alison Fisher, Psychology Peer Mentoring

Dr. Andrew Crome, Religions and Theology PASS and

Peer Mentoring

Dr. Sasha Handley, History Peer Mentoring

Emily Barber & Rachel Balshaw, Mathematics PASS

Stuart Costello, Life Sciences PASS

Evelyn Taylor-Cox & Joanna Wilkerson, Life Sciences

PASS

Gregory Walton & Samuel Richardson, Aerospace

Engineering PASS

Hiu Kwan Ming, Law Peer Mentoring

Patrick Kroell & Thadchajini Rajeswaran, Mechanical

Engineering PASS

Stuart Garthwaite & Thomas Davies, Aerospace

Engineering PASS

Winners Here are the names of the winners and a short description of why they’re so fabulous. Alana Botwright, Speech and Language Therapy Peer Mentoring Student Coordinator. She has given three years of hard work, commitment and dedication to

the Speech and Language Therapy Peer Mentoring scheme with fantastic results. Anest Williams, Religions and Theology Peer Mentor. She has worked tirelessly to improve the first-year student experience by introducing new events to the scheme. Anna Lendon & Zoe Aitken, Nursing PASS Leaders. They have shown great creativity and dedication in their PASS sessions. Audrey Valreau & Benjamin Mohankumar, Aerospace Engineering PASS Student Coordinators. They have shown excellent leadership skills and have worked hard to form a tight knit PASS community within Aerospace Engineering, as well as being creative and inspiring to their PASS Leaders. Ben Anderson and Ben Luling-Feilding, Advanced Maths PASS Student Coordinators. They have shown outstanding commitment to getting a brand new PASS scheme up and running and have maintained excellent communication with Students as Partners throughout the year. Caitlin Mitchell, Laura Masullo, Natasha Brewer & Rachael Feord, Life Sciences PASS Student Coordinators. They have worked tirelessly to create a feeling of community and cohesion within the scheme. Charlotte Grace, Chinese Peer Mentoring Student Coordinator. She has motivated her team of Peer Mentors to maintain an excellent range and quantity of activities over the course of the year and has remained exceptionally dedicated to her Mentees throughout. Zachary Wilde, Life Sciences PASS Leader. Zac has been an indispensable member of the FLS PASS scheme this year. Students have continuously commented on how fun and useful they find his sessions and he always has time to contribute to Peer Support activities outside of his role as a PASS Leader.

Outstanding Contribution To Peer Support

We know we have some true Peer Support stars amongst our students, but even we were overwhelmed when we received 37 nominations for the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Peer Support Award. All nomina-tions were put to a panel of staff and students involved in Peer Support which was chaired by Justin Kennedy (Teaching and Learning Advisor for Peer Support). Nominations were judged on the basis of their nominee’s innovation, dedication, collaboration and commitment to Peer Support over the academic year. After some tough decisions, 30 staff and students were awarded 18 Outstanding Contribution to Peer Support Awards. Congratulations everyone, your Sabbs salute you!

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April 2014

Dr. Megan Jobson, Chemical Engineering PASS Staff Coordinator. She supports both the Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering PASS Schemes and works hard to increase staff engagement with them. Faiz Farik, Materials Science PASS Leader. He has been at the forefront of the scheme’s events, organising the PASS Hunger Games, Scavenger Hunts and the scheme’s application for the Student Team Working Awards. Iain Dupere, School of MACE PASS Staff Coordinator. In his role as Staff Coordinator, he has shown tremendous levels dedication, support and guidance to the whole Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering PASS team. Ian Jackson, Sinead McElroy & Valentina Okolo, Chemical Engineering PASS Student Coordinators. They have taken a fun, friendly and focused approach to their scheme this year which is exactly what PASS is all about. Karen Baylis, School of MACE PASS Staff Coordinators. She is always ready to lend a helping hand to her Student Coordinators and is quick to provide brilliant logistical support to the PASS team within Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering

Mia Vamrak Strand, Politics and International Rela-tions Peer Mentoring Student Coordinator. She has excelled in her role as a Student Coordinator through motivating her Mentors well and overseeing a wide range of events, enhancing the first-year experience. Montague Warner, Management and Leisure Peer Mentoring Student Coordinator. He has worked hard to ensure the first-years have a successful transi-tion into university and is always keen to get involved in any opportunities offered by Students as Partners. Olivia O’Connell & Rachael Lewis, Religions and Theology PASS Student Coordinators. They have shown incredible creativity in their approach to their scheme and have worked hard to ensure their Leaders have an enjoyable PASS Leader experience. Rachael Crossen & Robert Foot, Music PASS Stu-dent Coordinators. They have made real changes to their scheme which will outlive their time at University and have been key in allowing their scheme to be-come fully student led. Chukwuka Eluchie, Hafeni Heita & Robel Negasi, Electrical and Electronic Engineering PASS Stu-dent Coordinators. They’ve shown incredible enthu-siasm towards the development of their PASS Scheme and have worked hard towards improving the PASS Leader experience.

The Outstanding Contribution Awards winners bring out the jazz hands for photos after collecting their awards.

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April 2014

Peer Support Schemes of the Year

PASS

Shortlisted Schemes Advanced Maths – School of Social Sciences Computer Science – School of Computer Science

Winner Aerospace Engineering – School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering Organising and running a successful programme of events and engaging PASS sessions, the students and staff involved in Aerospace PASS have shown great commitment to enhancing the learning experience of the first year students. The PASS Leaders have shown amazing levels of crea-tivity, designing sessions with catchy titles such as “structured ker-plunk” as well as actively contributing to the content of the year wide challenges, such as the Red Bull Formula 1 challenge. Audrey and Ben (the Student Coordinators), having won Outstanding Contribution to Peer Support Awards in 2012-13 and 2013-14, have continued to work hard in their role to take this scheme forward and place it in a strong position for the future.

The PASS Leaders, Student and Staff Coordinators from Aerospace Engineering PASS with Abby Gaya (Sabbatical Intern for Engineering and Physical Sciences), Justin Kennedy and Prof. Matt Jeffries.

The Student and Staff Coordinators from Speech and Language Therapy Peer Mentoring with Leonnie Wharton (Sabbatical Intern for Medical and Human Sciences), Justin Kennedy and Prof. Matt Jeffries

Peer Mentoring

Shortlisted Schemes

Chinese Studies – School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Politics – School of Social Sciences

Winner

Speech and Language Therapy – School of Psychological Science Alana, Laura, Lusanda and Heba have been exceptional Peer Mentor Student Coordinators this year. Teaming up with Rachel, their Staff Coordinator, they have worked to oversee activity and develop future strategies for the scheme. Their Anatomy and Physiology Quiz in Semester 2 provided academic support to first year students. The Peer Mentors have also been involved with the Giving Voice Campaign, which aims to raise awareness about communication and swallowing difficulties.

They have also engaged with the Stroke Association’s National Stroke Awareness Month in a project headed by Dame Nancy Rothwell, in which a team of their students volunteer and engage with stroke survivors.

Two fantastic schemes were awarded Peer Support Scheme of the Year in the Peer Mentoring and PASS Categories this year. Professor Matt Jeffries (Chair of Peer Support Strategy Group) was on hand to reveal the winners. All of the entries for the award were outstanding, but unfortunately, we could not reward them all. Here they are and an explanation of why the winning schemes scooped their award.

April 2014

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The Celebration Evening not only recognises

outstanding students from within Peer Support, but

students from across the university. The Student Team

Working Awards are open to all undergraduate and

postgraduate students who have worked particularly

well as a team during an extracurricular or curricular

project. The awards are sponsored by PwC and giant

checks were presented to students by Andrew Bargery

(Student Recruitment Campus and Schools

Engagement Leader for PwC). Will you be amongst the

winning teams next year?

In the curricular category:

£500 (1st place) was awarded to: Peer Assisted

Learning Scheme (PALS), University Hospital

South Manchester, Medicine Year 4

The Peer Assisted Learning Scheme (PALS) is a

dynamic student-led education project run by year 4

medical students based at University Hospital South

Manchester. They provide basic examiner teaching to

senior students and promote quality peer-led education

amongst the clinical year medics.

£250 (2nd place) was awarded to: Food Waste at the

University of Manchester, Information Technology

Management for Business - Year 2

This team worked on a sustainability project for The

University of Manchester, which is trying to reduce it’s

carbon footprint by 3% annually and 40% by the end of

2020. The team proposed implementing a food waste

campaign which aimed to raise awareness amongst

students and help reduce their food waste.

£150 (3rd place) was awarded to: Inspiring Change

in Nursing Education and Practice, Nursing

These nurses designed academic posters on

therapeutic nursing for presentation at the Royal

College of Nursing (RCN) Education Forum

Conference 2014. As a result of their efforts, the project

is now being taken on by the RCN as an annual award

for student nurses to develop collaborative education

and disseminate best practice.

In the extracurricular category:

£500 (1st place) was awarded to: Madagascar

Medical Expedition 2014

Madagascar Medical Expedition 2014 (Madex2014)

hopes to be the first ever expedition of its kind to be run

Student Team Working Awards out of The University of Manchester. 3 final year medical

students will be travelling to the jungles of northern

Madagascar to conduct invaluable research into the

incidence of schistosomiasis in children, contribute to the

national screening and treatment programme and to aid

international understanding of the spread and extent of this

neglected tropical disease.

£250 (2nd place) was awarded to: The Marriage of Figaro

— Student Opera

Between December 2013 and February 2014, this team

organised and rehearsed a production of Mozart’s The

Marriage of Figaro in The Martin Harris Centre. It ran for 2

nights at the end of January 2014 to sell-out audiences.

The quality of the production, which was completely student

-run, was extremely high. Professor Philip Grange (Music’s

acting Head of Department) described it as an ‘a

phenomenal landmark in the history of achievements in The

Music Department at Manchester University.’

£150 (3rd place) was awarded to: M.A.T.S.C.I. -

Maximising Activity for Top Class Students through

Collaborative Integration

The Materials Science PASS Leaders and Student

Coordinators have worked in tandem, devising, developing

and delivering creative new ideas to make lasting

improvements for their PASS scheme and The School of

Materials.

The establishing of strong cohesion within their team made

it possible for them to share their ideas freely and

implement them within a matter of weeks. Having organised

numerous events such as the Hunger Games and

University Challenge to engage their first-year students,

they were able to facilitate learning through physical activity

and friendly competition. They are building a foundation

that will continue on in the following years.

Winners of the Student Team Working Awards pose with their giant cheques.

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April 2014

This year 115 students involved in Peer Support took part in the PwC PDE Course. Running over 7 weeks in Semester 1;,this course provides students with the opportunity to be trained by staff from PwC as well as Students as Partners. The course is geared to equip them with the essential skills many graduate employers are looking for including commercial awareness, networking and presentations skills. The course, described as a “great experience,” culminates in a presentation in the style of a business pitch to fellow students and PwC staff, as well as a very useful talk focusing on applications,

interviews and the graduate recruitment process. This year’s final business pitches saw some very impressive and innovative presentations, most notably from Mamma Nature. This team represented an ethical food company and prepared treats for the group to enjoy during their presentation. The efforts of all the students who successfully

completed the course were rewarded at the Annual

Students as Partners Celebration Evening where they

received their PwC PDE Certificates from Andrew

Bargery (Student Recruitment Campus and Schools

Engagement Leader for PwC).

PricewaterhouseCoopers Professional

Development and Effectiveness Course

Students as Partners introduced a new award this year to recognise the continued commitment and dedication of students and staff involved in Peer Support. There was no-one more deserving of winning this first award than Will Carey (Teaching and Learning Advisor for Student Engagement). Will (pictured right) has worked with Students as Partners since 2004 when he became the first Sabbatical Intern. During this time he has helped to introduce 20 PASS schemes and 30 Peer Mentoring schemes in disciplines across the University. He has interacted with more than 10,000 PASS Leaders and Peer Mentors. In his nomination, he was described as “incredibly dedicated and hardworking” and “always supportive and caring to those who request his help.” On receiving his award, Will said “It was a fantastic surprise and quite humbling to hear Marcia and Justin reading out the comments from students and staff. I have been so fortunate to work with amazing colleagues in Schools and as well as an unbelievable supportive team in TLSO (including more than 40 Sabbaticals). Thank you.”

Sustained Commitment to Peer Support

Students pose in their PwC teams for photos with Andrew Bargery during the Awards.

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April 2014

Peer Support Socials are an opportunity for everyone interested in Peer Support to meet, network and, most importantly, have fun! They are open to all PASS Leaders, Peer Mentors, Student Coordinators, Staff Coordinators, Peer Support Alumni or new recruits. Many people coming to university join a society or sports team to help them feel part of a community. Students as Partners believe that many people take part in Peer Support activity to meet new people, feel part of a community and build up both their professional and personal networks. We have found that Peer Support Socials are a great way to encourage networking in an informal, safe and fun environment. After all, Peer Support should be fun! Peer Support Socials are a brand new project for Students as Partners. Our first social was a curry, held at Shahenshah on the Curry Mile (pictured right). Rich conversations about Peer Support were held between staff, students and alumni. Of course conversation was

not just limited to Peer Support! On Tuesday 27

th February PASS Leaders, Peer

Mentors and Student Coordinators joined Students as Partners for drinks and nibbles at Kro Bar. Many productive conversations were had but most importantly everyone had fun! Why not join us for our next Peer Support Bowling Social? Email your Sabbatical Intern for more details.

The Sabbatical Interns are forever singing the praises of the students they work with and the creative ideas they regularly put into action. What better way to show off how awesome they are than to get Peer Support schemes to show off their activity in a Video Competition? The launch of the video competition saw closet Peter Jackson’s and Quentin Tarantino’s come out from behind their studies to create fun and interesting videos representing their PASS schemes. We received 5 quality entries for the competition from Econometrics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and two rather amusing lip

sync videos from Religions & Theology and Aerospace Engineering (yes, the eager engineers made two videos!). The deserving winners of the competition, announced at The Annual Students as Partners Celebration Evening, were Aerospace Engineering PASS who received £100 for their scheme! The team produced a video of excellent quality and structure which clearly showcased their scheme activity and highlighted the benefits of their PASS scheme. Find the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6-3oj5dxWM Congratulations once again to Aerospace Engineering

PASS on their success!

Lights, Camera, Peer Support Video Competition

Each PASS scheme recently held a PASS Expectations workshop for students interested in being a PASS Leader next year. It allowed them to find out everything they needed to know about the role. The one hour sessions were full of fun and discussion, including activities such as working out what the link was between Macbeth (the play), a

roast beef dinner and the film Titanic and speed dating with current PASS Leaders. We want to thank everyone involved in these PASS Expectations workshops and look forward to seeing all of our new recruits at training. Watch out for your invitation to complete online PASS Expectations coming soon!

PASS Expectations

Peer Support Socials

Social Media The Month’s Best

Tweet:

‘@SaP_UofM That was a wonderful

Celebration Evening. The entertainment was

amazing. A job well done. Thank you all :-) ‘

Kishan Shah, Advanced

Maths PASS Leader

We have Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr accounts where we advertise good practice, communicate with Leaders and Mentors and promote our schemes. If you think something went really well during the year, let us know about it!

twitter.com/SaP_UofM

facebook.com/StudentsAsPartners

studentsaspartners.tumblr.com/

www.tlso.manchester.ac.uk/students-as-partners/

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April 2014

Student Coordinator Training With the end of the year approaching, it is with great sadness that we have to say goodbye to most of our current Student Coordinators as they move on to bigger and better things. It is not all tears and heartbreak, however, as we have now completed 2 rounds of training for next year’s Student Coordinators! These coordinators will officially start their roles over the summer, however, many have

already started contributing significantly to their scheme. It was great to see all the novel and exciting ideas that students came up with during coordinator training and we definitely have an exciting year ahead. Good luck to all the Coordinators moving on and a big welcome to our new Peer Support stars! The final Student Coordinator training of the year will take place on Monday 28th April. Contact your Sabbatical Intern for more information.

Any member of staff who wishes to understand more about what PASS is and how it can benefit their discipline is able to attend a PASS Demystified workshop. These sessions go through the origins of PASS and what it involves, as well as providing those who attend with first-hand experience of a PASS

session. Two of our Sabbatical Interns, Emma Dixon and Holly Jones, went along to run a mock PASS session for our staff members on Tuesday 14th January 2014. They used key PASS techniques and strategies like the ones found on the PASS strategy cards. The next session will take place on 7th May 2014.

Peer Mentor Training

We are now gearing up for our second round of Peer Mentor training with the help our six fantastic Student Coordinators, who will be helping to deliver the training once again. So far, we have trained a whopping 566 new Peer Mentors and we are set to train another 100 between Friday 25th April and Wednesday 7th May. The training is always fun and it’s great to see the amazing ideas that our students come up with. One team of students made this fantastic poster (right) to represent what Peer Mentoring is all about. You can sign up to training on our website here: www.tlso.manchester.ac.uk/students-as-partners/peersupport/mentoring/training/pmtraining2014/ Special thanks go to Andrew Shortland, Mia Strand, Shaun Geaney, Mateusz Malenta, Helen Massey and Sam Taylor for their hard work and dedication during the training period.

PASS Demystified