Welcome to the the May edition of the alumni enewsletter. I hope you will enjoy reading it and that you will find something of interest. There is a lot happening at UEL next month - hopefully you will be able to come along to some of the events. We are still on track to publish our first ever alumni magazine next month. If you have moved recently and haven't let us know, then please update your details online so you can be sure to receive the magazine.
Best wishes,
Emma Cale, Development and Alumni Officer
Hundreds of visitors from across London gathered at our Docklands Campus in the sunshine on May 4 for a carnival of arts and culture. Mayfest ’06, organised by the new Institute of Performing Arts Development at UEL, is a showcase of theatrical, literary and musical talent from students and staff, school pupils and local community groups.
The festival featured an exciting programme of events, exhibitions, music, dance, poetry performances and seminars exploring the rich history and future development of the Docks. Highlights of the day included ‘Let’s Misbehave’ by East London Dance, a specially created and choreographed performance exploring the lives and loves of dancers from 16 to 92 years old, and performances by students on UEL's Music Production and Performing Arts degree programmes.
Drama and music performances took place throughout the day, creating a festive atmosphere, and a variety of exhibitions were on display, including ‘Red Square, Yellow Square, curated by Richard Wilson RA, Visiting Professor in Fine Art at UEL.
In the evening, concerts were given by the East London Chorus and Nossa Voz Anglo-Brazilian Choir, and the climax of the event was heralded by the thunderous rhythms of UEL’s famous Samba band leading a 'Green Man' costumed carnival procession around the campus – complete with a dragon!
Mark O’Thomas, Director of the Institute for Performing Arts Development (IPAD), said: “Mayfest was a fantastic celebration of creativity. The sun shone, the programme came together really well and everybody seemed to have a wonderful time. Now we can look forward to building on this success and developing the programme for Mayfest ’07.”
An enterprising student at UEL has founded a new voluntary initiative to help single parents in Tower Hamlets and Newham.
Earlier this year, Sabrina Paul teamed up with friends and colleagues to launch the Mobile Single Mothers Project, which offers a range of co-operative services to single parents including shopping and savers clubs, classes and skills workshops, IT access and training, day trips with the kids, one-to-one mentoring sessions and an online conversation forum.
It has now expanded to become a network of mutual support and self-help across East London. More than 50 people are involved and it is growing every day, with single fathers as well as mothers joining the project.
Sabrina Paul, 26, grew up in Tower Hamlets and now lives in Seven Kings with her two young children. She was inspired to set up the project after winning the National Mentoring Consortium’s 2005 Mentee of the Year Award for her work with IT staff at HSBC in Canary Wharf, part of a pioneering mentoring project at UEL.
Sabrina graduated last year with her Higher National Diploma in Computing and is now in the final year of her BSc (Hons) degree programme.
She said, “I am delighted at how the project has taken off. Being a single parent is tough and can be a lonely experience. People don’t realise how much harder single parents have to work in order to get by, especially balancing childcare with work and study. Our goal is to raise the level of success, respect, direction and motivation within single parent families by sharing our skills and experiences and providing mentoring and support.”
The project not only offers assistance, support and advice, but also raises self esteem, confidence and provides a voice for single parents. It also aims to boost the image of single parents in society.
Jelina, who lives on the Isle of Dogs, joined the project a month ago. She said: “since joining I feel the project has helped significantly with employment and personal advice. I highly recommend it to all single parents.”
Sabrina also wants to encourage single fathers to come forward to join the network. “Both male and female parents should have the encouragement to achieve, aspire and succeed.”
Alistair Robinson of Albert Square, Forest Gate, is a single father of a three year old son, who has been inspired through the project to take the first steps into employment and is looking forward to becoming a youth worker.
Alistair said: “The project has given me a lot of inspiration and encouraged me to make positive decisions about my career. Sabrina is a real motivator and is definitely creating something good for single parents.”
Sabrina has dedicated the project to her own mother Mary. “I myself came from a single parent upbringing and my mother worked incredibly hard to raise me through childhood illness, and during my teenage years she had to work twice as hard to keep me on track and raise my aspirations.”
Mary Paul, who still lives at Bow Common Lane, Bow, said: “I’m extremely proud of what Sabrina is trying to do. She is a very positive young lady who never gives up!”
The project is voluntary and self-funding, but needs help, particularly with workshop space. If you can help, or make donations of clothing, blankets, financial support, volunteers, equipment, or you wish to join the network, please contact Sabrina via the website. www.themobilesinglemotherproject.co.uk. For more information about the National Mentoring Consortium please visit www.uel.ac.uk/nmc
Did you study at Longbridge Road? Does it hold memories for you? To mark our move from Longbridge Road, Barking campus to our campuses at Stratford and Docklands, as well as our future teaching and learning provision at Barking Lifelong Learning Centre, we are holding Looking Back Looking Forward, a day of retrospection, festivity and fun - on Monday 19 June.
Meet former classmates, your old lecturers, the local community – come and reminisce with our exhibition of old photographs and memorabilia dating from the 1930’s to the present day.
Our Alumni are invited to this event, as well as staff, students and the local community. A series of exhibitions are planned relating to the campus’ past, and we’ll invite the developers in see what the future holds for the site.
The programme includes a visual photographic celebration of our past, present and future with a speech from Vice-Chancellor Mike Thorne and contributions from staff and students past and present, music recitals, a garden party in the quadrangle – all topped off with the last ever Longbridge Road rounders tournament – with FREE BBQ. So, come on - enter your alumni team now!
You must register prior to the day, so if you would like to attend the and/or participate in the rounders tournament please contact Emma Cale on 020 8223 2222 or alumni@uel.ac.uk
Our open days are designed to give a real flavour of what life will be like at the UEL. Prospective students will have the opportunity to talk to alumni, among other things. There will be an alumni stand where prospective students can chat to alumni about the university and the UEL experience. We would also like alumni volunteers from each school to chat to people at the relevant information stands.
Therefore, we need volunteers! We need our alumni to help give prospective students the best and most accurate information and advice as you are the people who know the most!
To register for this event please email alumni@uel.ac.uk or call 020 8223 2222
We will be holding a ‘celebration of success’ afternoon for our graduating International students. The afternoon will involve an address from our Vice Chancellor, prize giving's, afternoon tea and music.
As with our graduation ceremonies, the alumni office will be using this event also to recruit new members to the alumni network. We need enthusiastic alumni network members to help out on the alumni stand and chat to recent graduates about the network and get them to sign up. To volunteer for this event, please email alumni@uel.ac.uk or call 020 8223 2222
Wednesday 7th June 2006 - 11am - 4pm
Docklands Campus, Atrium - East Building, 4-6 University Way, London E16 2RD
At the event you can...
As well as alumni being invited to attend the event as a participant, we would like to invite Alumni Network members to join us for an hour or two within this timeframe to take part in a workshop/seminar or to talk informally to current students about the skills that enabled them to achieve their career goals and also make clear the harsh realities involved in graduate recruitment.
For a list of employers who will be there on the day to talk to about opportunities, please click here http://www.uel.ac.uk/employabilityworks/workshop.htm
Thank you to Sean Kerrigan and Osa Jesuorobo who volunteered on the stand at the March Employability Works Skills event.
If you are interested in supporting your university in this way or would like more information about “Employability Works”, please email me at alumni@uel.ac.uk or call me on 020 8223 2222.
Are you interested in art? Are you an arts graduate?
If so, this event may be of interest to you….
We would be delighted if our alumni could join us for a private view of the School of Architecture and Visual Arts’ final year.
We will be showing an exciting range of work of final year students from our Visual Arts programmes, including Fine Art, Digital Arts and Visual Communication and Fashion and Textiles.
If you’d like to come to take a look around, talk to the students and maybe even buy one of the exhibits, please let me know by emailing alumni@uel.ac.uk or phoning 020 8223 2222
Refreshments will be served.
For alumni volunteers for all of the above events, travel and refreshments expenses will be reimbursed by UEL
Moving the Public sector in New Directions?
Reflections on Negotiating Change and Higher Education
Wednesday 14th June 2006 at 5.30 pm, The Lecture Theatre, Room LD0010, Docklands Campus
Light refreshments will be served after the lecture
RSVP by Monday 5 June 2006 to: Richard Bottoms on the enclosed card or tel. 020 8223 2203 E-mail: r.i.bottoms@uel.ac.uk
The Alumni Office would like to hold a careers event for our alumni. In order to get the most out of the event and make it as successful as possible, we need to hear your views first! Are you still looking for a job, and if so, what sort of help do you need? Please email the alumni office and tell us what would be beneficial to you, whether it be a CV clinic, tips on job searching, interview skills or anything else you that would help you.
‘5,10,15,20’ - The Alumni Office is planning a reunion for graduates who left in the years of 2001, 1996, 1991, 1986. Further details of the reunion will be circulated soon. Please let me know if you would like to help out with the organising of the reunion by contacting the alumni office.
Julia Hill, who did an Diploma in Higher Education in Independent Study at Stratford, graduating in 1987 would love to organise a get together for all those alumni who also took Independent Study during the 1980's. If this you and you would be interested in coming along, please call us on 020 8223 2222 or email alumni@uel.ac.uk
Each issue we will be focusing on one of our international alumni groups.
The alumni office has old links with our alumni in Sri Lanka dating back to our days as North East London Polytechnic. We have an alumni office in Sri Lanka run by the UEL Education Advisor, Mr Loho Gunasekera.
One of our Professors from the School of Computing and Technology, Professor Chitral Wijeyesekera, recently made a trip to Sri Lanka and regularly visits. We hope in the future to hold an event there for our alumni. If you would like to join the Sri Lankan alumni group, either if you are living in the UK, or abroad, please let the alumni office know.
As well as the UEL Alumni Group for USA and Canada run by Ron Graves, our alumni living in USA might be interested in another group. We would like to introduce you to British and Irish Graduates in America, an organisation established in Boston MA in 2005 to bring together alumni living and working in North America, initially in the New England area. They provide a forum for collaboration between British and Irish alumni groups in the USA and enable US-resident alumni to join in with the extended community of people who have shared educational and cultural experiences of Britain and Ireland. Last September they organised the successful British and Irish Universities Ball in Boston, which attracted over 200 alumni from more than 25 British and Irish universities.
Forthcoming events:
Paperweight covers all aspects of British life, from technology, economy and the arts, to fashion, literature and sports, in a publication of exceptional aesthetics.
Free for all Greek alumni of British Universities. To subscribe and find out the latest news from the UK in Greek, please follow this link. http://www.paperweight.gr/uk_index.php
Win a week for two in Mykonos, with STA Travel
For more information, please visit the STA Travel website at www.statravel.co.uk
The small print:
All prices include tax and exclude airline failure cover. Booking fees may apply. Contiki discount subject to two people booking at the same time and travelling together. Discount does not apply to airport taxes. Discount on tours valid for travel 02 Jun - 31 August except week of 21 July. Package prices correct at time of sending and are subject to availability.
The Women’s Library is pleased to announce a visiting fellowship for original research in The Women’s Library Collections. The fellow will also arrange a public programme resulting from the research.
The fellowship is for £4,500 for a minimum of two months and does not include travel or accommodation costs. The fellow will have use of a carrel at The Women’s Library.
Applications are welcomed for research into newly catalogued collections as well as other areas of The Women’s Library’s collections.
The private donor of the fellowships has requested that applications from women over 35 should be given priority.
The fellowship, which will be available each year for the following two years, will commence in October 2006. It is open to anyone currently not employed full time by a HE Institution and it is not necessary to have a post graduate degree.
For information on how to apply, please visit www.londonmet/thewomenslibrary/about/fellowships.cfm
Brush up your IT skills, learn how to take stunning photographs or become a novelist; discover psychology, take a business course or even a wine appreciation Master Class!
These are just some of the exciting short courses we are running.
COMING SOON....Life drawing, Counselling, Computing and Photography
Our courses are designed to reflect the interests and needs of both individuals and business in the London community and are constantly updated to embrace what is current in society.
Our courses are tutored by our expert lecturers or in partnership with specialists from industry and our aim is to inform and delight. And remember as an alumnus, you are entitled to a 10% discount!
For further information or advice please contact:
Frances Bronzite or Liz Rowan
Knowledge Dock Tel: 020 8223 4368/7076
E-mail: f.s.bronzite@uel.ac.uk
Dr Fiona Zucker is one of Britain's leading talents in the ancient art of dream analysis. She is now a principal lecturer in clinical psychology at Middlesex University and first became fascinated by decoding dreams durring her work as a therapist.
Dr Zucker did her first degree in Psychology at Manchester University. She then went on to study a clinical doctorate in clinical psychology from UEL.
Following on from her doctorate, she has a practice in London and works there as a family counsellor. For a period of time after she finished her doctorate she stayed on at UEL as a trainee supervisor of psychology students.
'Analysing our dreams is an excellent way of accessing our subconscious thoughts, thoughts that are otherwise hard to uncover,' says Dr Zucker.
'These thoughts can often influence our emotions and behaviour. By recognising certain symbols in their dreams people can bring to the front of their minds hidden emotions and work through them to improve their conscious lives.
'The children and adults I work with are constantly surprised by how useful a tool it can be.'
Together with her husband Jonny, a teacher and writer, Dr Zucker has written the hugely successful book Dream Decoder - a Guide to Revealing Unconscious Desires. The couple are currently writing their second book, Dream Themes.
'It is a fascinating subject and a useful tool for people to analyse many of the issues in their lives - from work through to family and relationships,' she says.
'Symbols are not the only thing that can help decode dreams. The colour we dream in is also often an incredibly important factor.'
Source: Daily Mail
East London is now recognised as a great place to live, work and study. With the success of London’s bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we are on the threshold of tremendous change, and at the heart of the most exciting urban development project in Europe. Infrastructure projects including the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, the Thames Crossing and DLR extension are already underway, and many more developments are planned.
Here at UEL, we are engaged in a £110 million programme of expansion and renewal at our campuses in Docklands and Stratford, and our partnership with the new Barking Learning Centre. We are creating a world class learning environment that is attractive, accessible and welcoming, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with state-of-the art computing facilities, lecture theatres and learning resource centres.
Our transforming vision for the region means the development of a new kind of university, serving the needs of our student community, and actively engaged in outreach and networking activities with local communities and businesses.
The Development Office has launched its campaign to seek support in raising capital and endowment funds for this major programme of development that will underpin our strategic commitment to the regeneration of East London and the Thames Gateway as a region of national and international social and economic importance.
Our campaign was launched in September 2005 with a donation of £500,000 from the Jack Petchey Foundation to create the Petchey Centre for Entrepreneurship.
Our campaign is supported by a wide range of individuals, businesses and trusts, including alumni.
“I am proud to be supporting Transforming Horizons, UEL’s campaign for East London and the Thames Gateway which will bring immense benefit to education, enterprise and the economy of the region.” Colin Kingsnorth, Chairman Laxey Partners UK Ltd and UEL graduate in Economics 1986.
“UEL has a proud track record of providing opportunities for local people, raising aspirations and educational attainment in a region with historically high levels of deprivation. Today, UEL is at the forefront of working with partners in industry, education and the diverse communities of East London to find new ways to tackle social exclusion and boost employability and enterprise for people of all ages…Together, right now, we can transform the horizons of millions of Londoners.” Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.
We would like to involve our alumni to in this important campaign. If you are interested in obtaining further information about it, please contact the development office on e.cale@uel.ac.uk 020 8223 2222
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