Crankstart Newsletter, 1st Edition (MT23 Week 4)

Crankstart

Newsletter 1st Edition, MT23 Week 4

Hi Scholars!

We are so excited to announce our inaugural newsletter, brought to you by your 2023-24 Crankstart Council.

We are hoping that you will join us on our journey to improve and grow the Council to foster an inclusive and transparent scholarship community.

In this newsletter, you will find a recap of our events so far this term, a glimpse at the steps the Council has taken to improve your experience as a Crankstart Scholar, and an insight into the future!

Thank you all for attending events and helping us improve the Council! We hope you have had a lovely term so far and congrats on making it halfway!

Here’s to many more milestones and excitement ahead, The Crankstart Scholarship Council 2023-24

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A Message From The President Hi Scholars, As we are reaching the end of 4th week and entering into the 5th Week Blues, I hope that this newsletter can be a little spark of joy for the rest of term. Congratulations to you all for getting this far into term and a warm welcome to all the Freshers – you should all be immensely proud with yourselves for getting into Oxford, and we are excited to welcome you into this community.

It was lovely to meet several of you at the events we’ve ran so far this term and talking personally with some of you at the Welcome Drinks was an amazing opportunity for us to better understand your wants and needs; something we can hopefully achieve throughout this year.

Happy Bonfire Night and I hope you are all having an amazing weekend. There are new and exciting things coming very soon, so watch your emails and the Instagram for new events, opportunities, and keep a big eye out on the Ball Instagram...

Keep safe, take a break when you need to, and can always reach out to us.

Glowing regards, Kian (Crankstart President)

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welcome scholars

Contents Behind the Scenes Council Constitution Council Expansion

Crankstart Ball Events so far this Term

Welcome Drinks

4 4 5 6 7 8

Crankstart Council 2023-24 Members and Roles

9 10

Looking to the Future Future Events Feedback from Scholars

12 13 14

Contacts and Social Media

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Behind the Scenes So far this year, we’ve been focusing our attention mainly upon transparency, effectiveness and inclusivity.

To aid this, we’ve been undergoing new ventures, including expanding our social media presence thanks to our Communications Officer, Ranya, and this new newsletter, which we will be releasing bi-termly in week 4 and 8. We hope that by distributing this newsletter, you can get a better idea of what we’ve achieved so far and let us know if you have any feedback to make life as a Crankstart scholar better! Here’s what we’ve been up to:

Constitution One of our main priorities has been ensuring accountability and effectiveness of the Crankstart Council. So, we put together a Constitution which will be passed on to future councils to help to improve the Council’s effectiveness. This includes: the Council’s objectives and values, a conflict-of-interest policy, a code of conduct policy, handover regulations, dispute resolution guidelines, and responsibilities of Council members. Find the Constitution here: 4

Council Expansion To spread responsibility and help us to do our best to improve the Scholar experience, we are excited to announce the expansion of the Council! More Information will be released later this term.

Ball Committee Roles We have added a new Treasurer, Welfare Officer and Production Officer. This will help the ball president (Hannah Wilkins) to expand the scale and ensure smooth running of the ball!

Crankstart Council At the end of this term, we will be electing the following roles: Liaison Officer, who will act as a general helper in the Council- responsibilities include assisting other Council members when required.

Events Sub-Committee, including 2 Welfare Officers, who will have the responsibility of attending events and ensuring the wellbeing of Scholars, and an Accessibility Officer, who will liaise on all events to ensure that events are as accessible to all as possible.

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Crankstart Ball We are thrilled to announce the 2024 Crankstart Ball!

It’ll take place in Hilary, and more information will be coming soon, so watch this space! Follow the Instagram @crankstartball for updates on theme, location, date and more!

Here’s some pictures from last year’s Crankstart Scholars Ball:

Our 2023-24 Ball President, Hannah Wilkins!

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Events so far this Term Week 1: Candle Painting We ran a candle painting event at Christ Church. It was great to see all your creativity and we hope to run more creative events in the future. Special thanks to the stunning Christ Church Art Room <3

Week 2: Walk in the Park We had a lovely walk in Uni Parks to round off week 2, despite some questionable weather!

Week 4: Study with Me Rhiana (one of our Events officers) spent the afternoon in the Social Sciences library studying with scholars!

Week 4: Ice Skating We had a great afternoon ice skating at Oxford Ice Rink. It was amazing to see some of you grow in confidence so much over such a short time period and be so open to chatting with new people!

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Welcome Drinks It was amazing to have the opportunity to meet so many of you at the Welcome event at the Natural History Museum. A special thanks goes to the Administration office for organising this event and Irene Tracy, the Vice Chancellor of the university, for giving an inspiring talk to kick off the academic year.

Our very own Irene Tracy!

Kian (President) and Francesca (Vice-President) were excited to have the opportunity to meet scholars and hear some feedback about what you want to see in the future! Thank you so much to being open to these conversations and attending so many events this year already!

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A Reminder of your Council Members Taken from the Crankstart Scholars Guide, distributed earlier in term, here’s a reminder of Crankstart Scholarship Members: Crankstart Scholars have the opportunity to meet one another and get really involved in being a scholar thanks to the strong student community. This has predominantly been built by The Crankstart Council - an annually elected student body of scholars who plan socials, events, an annual ball and provide a peer point of contact for all Crankstart-related topics.

The 2023-24 Crankstart Council

PRESIDENT KIAN

Kian is from Chelmsley Wood and currently reading Fine Art at Christ Church.

A fact about Kian: “I went to a State School Sixth Form - I am the only person EVER from my school to go to Oxford.”

VICE PRESIDENT FRANCESCA Francesca is from Lancashire and currently reading German and Portuguese at Pembroke College.

What she wants to achieve: “I want to bring greater transparency so everyone knows what Crankstart is and what it can offer.”

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Members & Roles BALL PRESIDENT HANNAH Hannah is from Caerphilly and is currently reading Experimental Psychology at Jesus College.

Why she’s here: “Crankstart Ball was one of my favourite nights of 2nd year. I can’t wait to see where the night takes us this time.”

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER RANYA Ranya is from Tower Hamlets and is currently reading Psychology and Linguistics at Jesus College.

A fun fact about Ranya: “I’ve taken an average of 500 photos per week since 2021... and those are just the ones on my phone.”

EVENTS OFFICER SEUN Seun is from Birmingham and is currently reading History at Wadham College.

A message from Seun: “Some things I love about being a scholar are the amazing opportunities that come along with it, and the wonderful people you meet!”

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EVENTS OFFICER RHIANA Rhiana is from South East London and is currently reading History and English at St. Peter’s College.

Some things she hates: “Inequality, discrimination and then (way less) ketchup.”

CAREERS OFFICER PATRICK Patrick is from Cardiff and is currently reading History at St. Anne’s College.

A message to scholars: “Hey! I'm Patrick, the Careers and Volunteering Officer. I can't wait to get involved and make Crankstart more impactful!”

The Crankstart Council is a necessary and incredible addition to the Crankstart Scholarship - its existence allows for the scholar community to regularly meet one another in a range of environments and events.

It encourages a feeling of connection and inclusivity that many may feel they lack in the stereotypical Oxford environment. These events are also enlightening in a number of ways - from the ball offering an evening of escapism from academia, to study support sessions and careers events enabling scholars to strive even further.

Sincerely, The Crankstart Council

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Looking to the Future Looking ahead into the rest of this term and the next, we endeavour to continue our work, with the help of new Council members, to improve transparency, accessibility and the overall scholar experience.

Here’s what we have coming up (more info to follow):

Open Meeting and Q and A We will soon be holding an open meeting with a Q and A, where we encourage scholars to bring questions, ideas and feedback, or even just listen in!

We’d really love to hear your ideas and meet as many of you as we can!

Cosy Night In Join us for a wholesome, cosy night in in week 5. You can expect pizza, face masks and sleepover vibes.

Come with friends, meet new people and having a relaxing evening away from academic stresses!

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Future Events Movie Night with Oxford Hub Oxford Hub, who runs volunteering programmes and directs scholars to volunteering positions, has very kindly organised a movie night for Crankstart Scholars in week 5- they’ll be showing Billy Madison and there will be a discussion about educational inequality and how you can help reduce it while working towards your 25 volunteering hours.

Surprise Event We are thrilled to announce that we will be holding a surprise event in week 6. Keep up-to-date with our Instagram (@crankstartscholars) and emails- it’s bound to be a good one!

Cookie Decorating We would love for you to join us in week 7 for a wholesome couple of hours decorating some delicious cookies- free food!

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Feedback In week 7 (and throughout the rest of this academic year!), we will be releasing another feedback form via email and Instagram, where we hope to get your ideas of what you enjoyed, what you think we can improve and what you want to see in the future.

You will also have the opportunity to give your feedback at our Open Meeting and Q and A, which will be coming soon!

Getting your feedback means that we can improve the opportunities available to you as a Crankstart Scholar. We are using polls to focus our attention on areas you think need improving to meet your wants and needs!

Here’s the results of our latest poll, which was held in week 3, with responses from 108 scholars: 76% rated of this term’s events so far 5-star.

68% rated inclusivity 5-star.

76% rated effectiveness 5-star.

44% rated visibility 5-star.

From this feedback, we have focused our efforts primarily upon visibility, starting with this newsletter! By adding an Accessibility Officer to the Events Sub-Committee, we’re hoping to improve both the events themselves and inclusivity. We will continue to work towards improving the Council and the opportunities we offer. Thank you for your input, and we can’t wait to see what’s next!

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socials & contacts Emails: Central Crankstart Team

crankstartoxford@admin.ox.ac.uk Crankstart Internship and Careers team

crankstart-internships@careers.ox.ac.uk Crankstart Council

crankstartscholars@gmail.com

Socials for Crankstart Council: Facebook Group: Crankstart Scholars 2023-24 Instagram: @crankstartscholars @crankstartball 15