Snowed-In Edition 2

John Snow College - Newsletter 'Snowed-in' Issue 2

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Contents Page 3 - Welcome Page 4 - John Snow Art Society Competition Page 5 - Welfare Support - Exam revision tips Page 6 and 7 - 'Snowed-in' in Durham Page 8 - Qua -RUN-tine Page 9 - Snow student supports Cancer Research UK Page 10 - 'Snowed-in' Update Page 11 - Snow student leads DUVSO Campaign Page 12 - Snow student turns entrepreneur Page 13 - Alumna offers support to Snow community

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Welcome to Issue 2 of 'Snowed-in'

While lockdown continues across the UK you may be struggling to remain positive and motivated, therefore our special series of 'snowed-in' newsletters have been designed to maintain contact with your College community and help to lift your spirits during these challenging times.

Read how other John Snow students and Alumni are supporting each other and the wider community, as well as learning how you might be able to get involved in some virtual activities and maybe even learn a new skill!

As the exam period approaches you may face additional challenges with studying and exam preparation. Therefore Welfare Officers, Ellie and Jack, have put together a few hints and tips that might help you remain focused and organised. However, if you are struggling, please do not hesitate to reach-out, our College staff are working remotely throughout Easter term (email snow.studentsupport@durham.ac.uk or call +44 (0)191 334 0011).

Just a reminder that Friday 8 May is a specially designated Bank Holiday in the UK to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day (For further information and ideas go online).

Remember these challenges won't last forever and one day we may even look back on this time positively.

Stay home, stay safe.

Lynn Preston Assistant Principal (Student Development)

NB: Work on the Mount Oswald site continues during lockdown, with contractors respecting social distancing.

Our kernel (pictured right) has also been installed. For more information and images of the site head to our College webpage and check out the most recent drone footage within our POVD page.

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Art competition celebrates communities during i-snow-lation Hi Everyone! We have some super exciting news - John Snow Art Society are hosting an art competition!

The theme we want you to create a piece to, is 'community’ - whether you’re inspired by your time at University, nature or your own imagination we’ll accept any art medium format or photography!

The deadline is 6pm on Saturday 9 May, and you can send up to five photos of your piece

to ttdm56@durham.ac.uk (only one submission for photography though please!) and this is only open to members of John Snow College! We’re giving away Amazon vouchers as prizes: 1st Place: £25 2nd Place: £15 3rd Place: £10 So get your submissions in! We look forward to seeing what you all create - hope you’re all safe and well!

Becky Hartley - JSAS President

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JCR Welfare Officers promote positive wellbeing during lockdown JCR Welfare Officers Ellie Caley and Jack Judge have been supporting the wellbeing of our student community with positive messages and helpful ideas throughout the Government enforced lockdown.

The positive pair have worked hard to keep spirits up utilising social media, especially as the length of time individuals need to remain in isolation continues to increase. As we move into exam season, they have produced these amazing visuals, sharing simple but useful tips for effective revision, during these challenging times.

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Even apart, we're in this together - Students 'Snowed-in' in Durham While the majority of John Snow students managed to travel home as the UK went into lockdown some have remained in Durham. Bella Zhang, Priyanka VanamaRathna and Jack Judge share their experiences of living in Durham, now that the majority of the student population are no longer in residence.

Bella has used her 'stay at home' time to appreciate Durham's beauty, taking photos and having picnics in the garden with her housemates as well as indulging in lots of baking.

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She wrote "It's very important to stay positive in the challenging time, many things are out of our control, so within what we can control, maintain a healthy eating style or doing a workout at home can keep us mentally and physically healthy".

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Priyanka has been extremely busy over Easter as she has been heavily involved with volunteering through Durham University Student Volunteering and Outreach (DUSVO): launching a new 'Stressless' campaign, online one-to-one tutoring, penpal initiative to contact and support the care homes they work with. Code club is also making videos and supporting the elderly during these times to help them access Skype and Zoom so that they can contact their families.

As DUSVO President Priyanka and her Exec have also tried to make videos outlining how they are managing this situation and also recording videos about the volunteering activities within Durham for prospective students via the DU app. They have also enjoyed planning the Durham Volunteering Awards scheduled for June, including the introduction of an award system for all those volunteers within the wider University who have volunteered with the NHS, their local community or in anyway possible-just to recognise their efforts.

Priyanka is always happy to support any John Snow student that may want to get involved in volunteering, either in Durham, or in their local area. Therefore if anyone would like any more support, guidance or information please contact Priyanka via her DUSVO email: student.volunteering @durham.ac.uk

Jack has been supporting local elderly neighbours who live close to Rushford Court. Between revision and supporting other students as part of his Welfare Officer role at John Snow, he has kindly shopped for and delivered groceries and medical supplies, allowing the most vulnerable residents to stay home and stay safe.

Well done to all of our students who have remained in Durham during these challenging times.

If you have a story that you would like to share with our College community please do not hesitate to send it to our College email: snow.college@durham.ac.uk

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Qua-RUN-tine; John Snow continues to make strides in isolation!

Although many of us at John Snow were hugely disappointed by the premature end to team sporting fixtures, due to the COVID19 outbreak, this has not stopped us from teaming up remotely in a virtual running group. The group amassed over 60 members and ran an impressive total of 1,601.35 kilometers in eight days alone.

On 23 March I proposed that John Snow Running Club create a distance running challenge in order to encourage and motivate members of John Snow College (including myself) to make the most of the daily exercise allowance. The challenge was simple, whoever ran the most distance between Wednesday 25 March and 1 April would claim victory.

I underestimated how many people were willing to take up the gauntlet of this challenge and it soon became clear that the standard of competition was going to be intense. Safe to say, I significantly upped my game in order to keep up with more experienced runners and I know that I was not alone in logging several running personal bests.

The challenge saw some amazing feats of athleticism, including half marathon (and beyond!) distances run by Ailie McGilligan, Pyungte Kim, Sam Renshaw, Benjamin Sutton, and Ben Lawrence. This is even more impressive taking into consideration that several of these runners had never attempted anything close to these distances before. In addition, there was an incredible effort on behalf of other members of the Qua-RUN-tine team who were starting out as complete beginner runners. We all enjoyed some very entertaining descriptions and pictures of team member's runs and the group is a characteristically supportive John Snow community space, (which anyone is still welcome to join on the Strava app! strava.com/clubs/602896)

Whilst this was initially a John Snow challenge, the group soon began to arouse interest from members of other Durham colleges. After a gruelling week of fierce competition Ailie McGilligan, herself a member of Stephenson College, managed to place first. It was collectively agreed that she deserved to take home the (virtual) gold medal after running a staggering 140 kilometres (equivalent to over three marathon distances) in eight days, no mean feat! In any case, the Stockton rivalry has been temporarily put aside for this display of true grit. So congrats to Ailie and a huge thank you to everyone else who took part!

Emily Binns Chair of John Snow Running Club

(Photo: Ellie Caley)

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Snow Student uses his daily exercise allocation to raise money for Cancer Research UK On 17 April, John Snow student Aled Bennett set-up a Just-giving page with the aim of raising £1,000 for Cancer Researc UK, by running or walking 5k everyday, until he reached his total.

Aled wrote, "Cancer is happening right now, which is why I’m fundraising right now for Cancer Research UK. There’s no time to lose!

Cancer has taken away one of my friends at the age of 17, and is now taking away a close loved one. For that reason to challenge

myself, I am going to aim to do 5k everyday until our target has been reached".

Within 10 days, 64 people had donated taking Aled's total to an amazing £769. He is keeping everyone updated online about his daily outings, with many friends taking the opportunity to offer support. He has even recruited his dog captioning the accompanying picture with the quote "Morning walk/jog with little legs".

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Sat 16 May Celebrating Eurovision with a 'Snowed-in' watch party, 7.00pm

Snowed-in Update JCR President Richard Freeman and his Exec team are working hard to maintain a sense of College community, with a variety of interactive activities and supportive messages. They have confirmed that Wednesday's weekly quiz will continue throughout the exam period.

Instagram Takeover The JCR Exec team took turns to share their 'day in isolation' on a one week take over of the JCR Welfare Instagram account

Snow Some Love A social media campaign allowing Snow students to anonymously express their appreciation for one another.

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26 March marked the start of an online 'Stressless' campaign, providing a space for study relief, motivational posts and volunteering opportunities to help take students mind off work. Daily motivational and informative posts continue, without fail.

Snow Student and DUSVO President Priyanka remains in Durham during lockdown supporting local residents by coordinating an online volunteering campain

Tutoring As a result of school closures demand for 1 to 1 tutoring has increased and DU students have risen to the challenge, to rave reviews!

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Entrepreneurial Snow student uses her time in lockdown to launch an online starter business

While many of us are struggling to fill our days or stay motivated during our time at home, during COVID-19, this has not proven to be a problem for talented entrepreneur, Harriet Rowlands. Hopefully her inspirational story may encourage other members of our College community to try something new during these unprecedented times.

Harriet writes 'During lockdown, I decided to take the plunge and start selling handmade polymer clay and pom pom earrings. Each pair of earrings is designed, made and posted by me!'

'Expressing my creative side has helped me to have focus during lockdown, which I cannot wait to incorporate during ‘normal’ life. If you’d like a little look, head over to the Facebook or Instagram page, thatfunkyfeeling.'

Well done Harriet and good luck!

Feeling Funky in lockdown

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Snow Alumna offers support to our graduating class of 2020 Alumna Kennedy Round (Business & Management, 2017) contacted the College to offer her support to students during these challenging times. Since leaving John Snow College, Kennedy has forged a successful career in communications, but is aware that our 2020 graduates may need a little more of a helping hand (if you would like to get in touch with Kennedy please contact snow.alumni@durham.ac.uk)

Kennedy wrote "I’m working for BT in marketing experience. Keeping connected with our friends and family is more important than ever before and we are coming up with loads of ways we can support our customers and the general public through lockdown. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to be graduating and job searching in this time, if I can help in any way with CV/job application checking, careers advice or just general chat, let me know!"

As a College we are currently developing a comprehensive online Wider Student Experience programme, including employability support and career guidance. We have invited members of our Alumni to support this initiative therefore watch out for both our talking heads series and interactive CV workshops durham.ac.uk/johnsnow.college

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Useful Contacts For all John Snow students, in the case of Emergency, please dial the Unite Emergency Control Centre on 0300 3031611 and ask for Rushford Court, they will then be able to contact the Emergency On-Call Officer.

In the event of an incident relating to Covid-19, contact the University’s Incident Control Centre (ICC) on +44 (0)191 334 0000 or email them at: coronavirus.information@durham.ac.uk

For non-urgent, but nevertheless important student support and welfare issues, email us at snow.studentsupport@durham.ac.uk

We now operate an enhanced College student support service. If you would like an online face to face or telephone support session contact: snow.studentsupport@durham.ac.uk

For those of you who remain in the UK, we remind you to frequently access the official NHS advice and guidance at: nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19

The University is providing Covid-19 updates at the following address: durham.ac.uk/coronavirus

Contact us Durham University Rushford Court North Road Durham DH1 4RY T: +44 (0)191 334 0046 E: snow.college@durham.ac.uk Main Switchboard T: +44 (0)191 334 2000

Values At John Snow College, we enable our students to develop in every area of life throughout their time here. There's a great variety of clubs, societies and organisations to join and excellent support from friendly staff.

Founded in 2001, we are a modern yet traditional gowned college with self-catered accommodation.

durham.ac.uk

© Durham University 2020

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