First Meeting of the New Academic Year!

The dreaded first year has begun! Talk amongst fellow students has already turned to third year projects and what the third year will bring. Minds are turned to the amount of work, living up to expectations and of course enjoying the last year as an undergraduate!

It has been a busy week for me, meeting lots of fellow biologists via my role as Welfare secretary for the Biological Sciences Society, and also meeting my first year mentees. Today also saw the commencement of third year lectures and the first meeting of the Student Employability Team.

In the meeting we reviewed the project, our group aims and objectives and what participating in the project will mean. We focused on the BioSET project, and agreed that the developments made over the summer regarding the project name and logo were successful. Personally, I am very pleased with the final name and logo and I think that the creative input from various members of the team has given us great results.

We discussed the importance of keeping the project grounded in the aim of improving employabilty of undergraduate biological sciences students and through group discussions we considered the different ways in which we could approach the topic. A team decision to use hypothetical casestudies as a backdrop to provide helpful advice to studies was made. We aim to develop these in small groups and reflect on progress in the next meeting.

I feel the meeting was a definite success and I am excited to really kickstart the project. I am eager to particularly focus on potential career options that look interesting to me, as I think it will be a great benefit to both me and other students.

After my first few days back in Leicester I am already reflecting on the importance of the project. Many of my friends graduated this June and are looking to progress in their various career paths, highlighting the struggles and successes, and the importance of staying proactive and mindful of increasing skills and experience beyond degree studies. It was particulary interesting to talk with new first year students and reminded me of how far my insight into possible career options has developed since beginning my degree. Many students begin the course with an open mind about where their degree could lead, thus this project can be invaluable to highlight the vast amount and sometime overlooked career opportunities available to students.

I also volunteered to be a representative for the student team at the regular employabilty team within the biological sciences school. I think that this role will be very fulfilling and useful, enabling me to communicate student views with regards to what is particularly difficult or areas that extra advice would be welcome.