Snapshots from our students

University Challenge

John Hughes Arts Festival

What will the past look like in the future? Who controls how we perceive the past? What would the future look like if the past never existed? Does either future or past ever exist? The 2023 theme of Retro Future explored all these questions and visitors to the festival which ran from 10-12 Februar y were blown away by the results.

Congratulations to the Jesus College University Challenge team for reaching the quar ter finals of the BBC Two competition after their impressive per formance against University College, Oxford Hamish MacGregor (2015, Cancer Genetics), Juliette Tindall (2018, Modern and Medieval Languages), Joshua Kaye (2020, Mathematics) and Sameer Aggar wal (2018, Engineering) will represent the College again as one of the final eight teams. We’re all rooting for them!

THE JCSU CELEBRATES GREEN WEEK, REFRESHERS WEEK AND A NEW MULTIFAITH SPACE

The JCSU and MCR Green Of ficers, Ezra Grosz and Hannah Comfor t, organised events in College for the University-wide Green Week in November Students, staf f, Fellows and alumni were invited to attend a discussion at the Intellectual Forum about what we can do as a community about the climate crisis, as well as a plant-based Formal, an intercollegiate green pub quiz and a houseplant sale

The JCSU Freshers’ Reps organised a successful Refreshers Week for undergraduates at the beginning of

Lent Term Events ranged from a film night, a trip to escape rooms, a pub crawl, a Refreshers Week formal, a walk to Grantchester, a trip to see Hamlet at the ADC, Just Dance and Mario Kar t games, a board games night and a pub quiz swap with Sidney Sussex College A par ticular highlight was a 70s disco-themed inter-college Superbop that Kieran and Lizzie organised with help from the Freshers’ Reps and Ents Of ficers at 10 other Colleges

During a tour by the Domestic Bursar, Haajrah (the JCSU Ethnic and Religious Minorities Of ficer) visited the multifaith space during its construction works, gaining insight about what the room will look like once renovations are complete

It involves a generous space that can be divided by a cur tain for segregated prayers, as well as a kitchenette area for preparing drinks The multifaith space will be fully carpeted and include showers and bathroom cubicles for people to prepare for prayer and reflection. There will be two entries for segregated prayers, as well as a shoe rack, cloak pegs and lockers to store any belongings required for faith-related events A notice board will allow dif ferent groups to signpost meetings and prayer times and online booking may be available in the future.

Nicole Ling Yan Lee, JCSU President

Mcr News

We welcomed new students with a Freshers’ For tnight including tours led by the Por ters, taster events in cricket, rowing and football, a nature walk led by Rhona Watson and a Welcome Formal Hall Trips to Grantchester, the Botanical Gardens and Jack’s Gelato showed some of the highlights of life in the City of Cambridge

The MCR was ver y pleased to return to the Hall for our Christmas Dinners, the first main College events held back in the Hall. The kitchen staf f did an excellent job of supplying great food

Student Achievements

William Ashton (2019) organised a two-week tour of Hamlet, per forming in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and London. Fellow Jesus students Laurie Ward (2020) and Tonye Igali (2020) were par t of the production Laurie played the par t of Ger trude, and Tonye designed the costumes They per formed at the ADC Theatre in Januar y as the final destination of the European tour and received a five-star review from Varsity Laurie took her own play Real, Mad World to the Edinburgh Fringe, where it received excellent reviews.

PhD student Ariel de Fauconberg (2020) was awarded the prestigious Bracken Bower Prize, for the best business book proposal by an author aged under 35 Ariel was named winner of the £15,000 prize at a ceremony at the Victoria and Alber t Museum in London in December for her book proposal Before the Dawn: Racing to net zero on the front lines of climate innovation

PhD student Amy Wolstenholme (2020) per formed her prize-winning poem for peace at the London Peace Symposium. Her poem won first prize in the Poetr y Society’s Young Poets Network earlier this year You can read Amy’s poem and more about her experience on our website

Engineering undergraduate Katy Car tlidge (2018) featured in the Depar tment of Engineering magazine for her four th-year project on whether an ice volcano can help restore Ar tic sea ice

Sports News

The Boat Club finished Michaelmas Term with strong per formances in the Fairbairn Races The men ’ s first crew came second, the women ’ s first crew came four th, and the men ’ s first novice crew and the women ’ s first novice crew both came second Following the Christmas break, 24 rowers, four coxes and four coaches headed to Por tugal for a week’s warm weather training camp. Training twice a day on a purpose-built rowing lake, good progress was made by all. Well done to the Jesus Ultimate Frisbee team, who won the Frisbee ‘Indoor Cuppers’, the end of term tournament against all other College teams in December The team went into the tournament seeded four th out of 14 teams, and won all of their 6 matches, with a decisive 10-2 win in the final and we all had a lot of fun. Thanks to the Por ters for leading the singing after dinner The New Year got of f to a great star t for the MCR with the Burns Night Dinner This was a real success, with special thanks to Jake Moscrop for the Address to the Haggis, Oscar Cor tés Azuero for the Address to the Lassies and Sara Crozier for the Address to the Laddies As usual the kitchens did an excellent job, with dinner highlights including Haggis bon-bons and Neaps and Tatties

Mark Turner, MCR President

Par ticular congratulations to ‘Most Spirited Player’ Imogen Perkins (2020, co-captain), ‘Most Improved Player’ Jago Foord (2022), and ‘Most Valuable Player’ Luke Piggott (2022), all voted for by the team

Jesus Women’s and Non-binar y Football (photo above) is through to the Cuppers finals for the second year in a row They won the semi-final 3-1 against PCCH (Peterhouse, Clare and Clare Hall) Not to be left behind, the Men’s Football team smashed it with a 13-0 win against Peterhouse in the Plate Well done to the Jesus Rugby team, who won 28-21 against the All Greys in the first round of Cuppers. It was a close match with excellent play from both sides.

As fans geared up for the World Cup in November, we enjoyed our own football contest here with the annual staf f versus students football match (photo below) Rain and a shor t burst of hail failed to dampen spirits. It ended in a resounding 3-0 victor y for the students. Team captain, Head Gardener Lee de Grammont, is already planning the staf f comeback!