Hello from Winchester School of Art
Winchester School of Art
Blog:
Hi there! My name is Jaspreet Rana. I am studying Graphic Arts, specialising in Motion Graphics, at Winchester School of Art (WSA). I have just finished my first year here at WSA and have been fortunate enough to secure this amazing internship.
With a particular focus on Winchester School of Art, Denise Barbour and I are among 2 of the 20 interns working on the Southampton Opportunity Project. In addition to researching the opportunities available to students at WSA, we are also involved in several employability- and student welfare-related projects.
Today I am working alongside the Mission Employable Team at the beautiful Avenue Campus. Just like Verity from the Mission Employable Team, I am also in the process of establishing a peer mentoring scheme and will be comparing and exchanging ideas with Verity who has already established a peering mentoring scheme in her role as President of the History Society and is currently in the process of implanting a similar scheme across the Faculty of Humanities.
The scheme Denise and I are working on is different from the usual one-to-one buddy scheme and varies quite significantly from Verityâs one. What we have come up with instead is an initiative which involves a committee of advisors and aims to ease first year studentsâ transition to University life. The scheme is called F.Y.I., First Year Insight.
F.Y.I is a peer support scheme which aims to support first-year students during the 6-week transition period at WSA. This exciting new initiative will be run by second- and third-year students and will provide incoming students with a âFirst Year Insightâ into life at the WSA campus. The F.Y.I advisors are there to support, advise and inform students on anything and everything to do with University life, thus making their transition into University life a smooth, friendly and most importantly welcoming one. So that they are easily recognisable on campus, advisors will be encouraged to wear a bright blue wristband. These advisors will also hold regular question and answer sessions to ensure that students receive as much support as possible during the initial transition period. In addition to the on campus support, first-year students will be able to contact advisors through a closed Facebook group where students can raise any concerns they may have.
We only embarked on the recruitment stage a couple of weeks ago and we have already received an overwhelmingly number of promising applicants. Once we have reviewed all the applications, the successful applicants will be notified by August 28th ready for the schemeâs launch during Fresherâs Week, the week commencing 22nd September.
This kind of scheme has never been implemented at WSA before so it will be interesting to see the results. At the end of the first 6-weeks, both the advisors and first-year students will be asked to complete a survey in order to gauge how successful it has been and identify any room for improvement. On the basis of the responses, a report detailing the strengths and weaknesses will be compiled so that scheme can be further developed.
As well as the implantation of the F.Y.I scheme, we are also organising a Welcome Week, an event which has not taken place in recent years. Unfortunately WSA students regularly miss out on most of the Welcome Week activities over at the Highfield Campus; therefore having our own Welcome Week will allow students to become acquainted with their home campus. During the Welcome Week, there will be a whole array of events on offer hosted by SUSU both on campus and in halls of residence. In addition to the evening events, the café will be the venue for information several stands manned by representatives from Enable Services, Winchester Tourist Information Centre, Creative Service and F.Y.I. will even have their own stand!
If you would like to be involved in any of these events or are interested in having a stand please contact me on the email address provided below.
This is just 2 of the many projects I am involved in, but the overarching aim of all my work is in helping WSA to provide students with a much more holistic approach in the most beneficial and efficient way as possible.
Jaspreet Rana