Liv M here! I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and have come back to university feeling somewhat refreshed. I am here to provide an update as to what we have been up to over the past couple of months!

We are incredibly proud of the Halloweek we presented this year. Fourteen societies put on events during this week, which spanned from Murder Mysteries to Game Jams to Spooky pole dancing. During this week, we put on an eco-pumpkin painting session (kindly facilitated by the Uni Boob Team), which allowed students to make pumpkins that can be used year after year, amongst a myriad of other crafts (and plenty of snacks available to no surprise). We also created mental wellbeing sessions, a scavenger hunt around Abertay Services, film sessions and more. These events were generally well attended, and student feedback was positive at the end of the week!

The online events for Halloweek took the form of a Minecraft building competition and online scribble.Io sessions. The Minecraft competition went fantastically, with 12 students creating some fantastic halloween themed builds. It has now been requested by those that joined us that the server is relaunched to be used for online events and for students to have an online ‘hub’ for activities! The Scribble.Io session also went very well! We will be including this event in campaigns going forward as it is a great way of getting students together without having to bring them onto campus for a physical event.

Livi led this campaign fantastically, and with the support of the rest of the team, created an educational and impactful 16 days of Activism here at Abertay Students' Association.

The wider theme for this years 16 Days of Activism was created within a subgroup of the Dundee Violence Against Women Partnership, which Livi was lucky enough to aid in the creation of. The theme for this year is ‘Imagine if Dundee listened, discover a city without Gender Based Violence’ This theme has inspired the events that Livi organised for the Association to take a specific focus of education, reflection and collaboration. Every event that has been orgainised has the overall goal of educating our students further on their part in ending GBV, listening and reflecting on their opinions and suggestions and furthermore collaborating with local services to create impactful events and materials that can further the impact of the campaign.

A podcast series was launched as part of this campaign, along with many successful events, such as: Right to Roam Playtesting; We are Listening Solidarity Walll; Self Protection Workshop and more!

Improving and maintaining our wellbeing is a passion of mine, due to my background in healthcare. I designed Wellbeing Week to provide spaces for students to relax, try something new and to take a break from the stressors of exam week. Through the incredible efforts of our team here, we hosted well attended events that included: a RevivR CPR training session; a crafternoon; a Positivitree Stall in the Library; a Spill the Tea cafe and some online sessions! As thanks to the British Heart Foundation for providing RevivR software for people to learn CPR, we donated £50 to British Heart Foundation. These sessions were incredibly fun, and if you attended them - thank you for coming, and we look forward to doing it again soon!

As part of my Positivitree project, I look to share with you the wisdom of students, from students. During the Wellbeing Week Positivitree stall, students were asked to write messages to other students around stress. I will share some of the lovely quotes with you below!

Next up, we will be talking about refreshers and starting/returning to university in the new year, and will be looking forward to our infamous Sexual Health and Guidance Week (SHAG Week) which will be taking place mid way through February. Cannot wait to see you there!

 

Laugh, Love, Liv,

Liv M xx