Confessions of a Postgraduate Rep

I apologise for my lack of posts over the last 10 days or so. This is because I have been (at the request of everyone else) on a little bit of a break. Where meetings have been replaced with Sims 3 and Roller Coaster tycoon 3. However today, I was back to buisness due to the fact that I had Clearing Training.  Clearing for those who don't know is a scheme that UCAS offer where students who decided to apply for university later than the deadline are able to search and be accepted for their dream course. It is also for people who just missed out on their firm and insurance offers (we don't use reject here at DMU).  I had to learn about a special programme called ADMISS which is essentially a database that has every person who has applied to DMU. It's able to work out your UCAS points and you can search what courses are still taking people and what UCAS Points are needed. It's a deciptively easy programme to use. It's nicer than it looks. Honest. The...

Well guys,  I've only gone and done it. Your DSU Postgraduate Rep has now offically graduated from her undergraduate studies and now can proudly say that I am Kelly Davies BA.  This is the results of 3 long years and I've had so many hightlights (click on http://postgraduaterepdsu.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/my-little-dsu-rewind.html to see my best bits). I'll be honest, graduating is a little bit of an out of body experience. You see people do it all the time on the TV and the whole campus was filled with robed folk, however putting on those robes for the 1st time is a little bit surreal. As we did the final ajustments, all I can remember is one man going (top the front of you hat with your right hand, receive with your right and shake with your left) before I was thrusted to the staging queue. Now I at the this moment was having my gown sorted as it had fallen back during the speeches and was too busy trying to sort that out.  However I fortunlately doffe...

DMU has some right golden nuggets. You know the ones, where you didn't know it was happening, until see a photo and it's 'where's my invite' or 'why did I not hear about this?'. The difference is I actually knew about this event (Cheers Gage) and thank heavens I did. You see, I was lucky enough yesterday to attend the Ghandi Festival of peace. A day long event hosted by DMU Local to help people acknowledge Ghandi's message of peace and unity.  There was a cricket match followed by an evening celebration. Now being the humble student that I am, there are two things I am trained to find. Free food and free alcohol. Now if they are both in the same place, then the angels start singing. Well the angels were definately singing. The indian inspired BBQ lunch was absolutely divine with the Lamb Kebab and the bombay potato salad being my personal favourite savory dishes and I very much enjoyed the indian sweets (like seriously just drop a tray in the offi...

Well guys, On Friday, I am no longer an Undergrad. Myself and Louise will now become the first ever postgraduates to fill an officer role and I will offically be a postgrad. Now alot has happened over the past 3 years and the DSU has alot to thank for that, so with that, I want to do a little hightlights reel of some of my most vivid DSU memories. Bow down to the badass (DSU elections 2017) Ok so picture the scene. Kelly has just been told that she's not getting on her teaching course, she has to film a video to get a role otherwise she's another statistic in the 68% autism unemployment rate. She's had 0 time to prepare and was pretty much on the war path. So what did I do, told some people to 'vote for this badass'. Apparently only 181 people liked badasses because if more did, I would've stolen Mollie's job but looking back, it has to be a highlight of my election campaign this year. Davies the DSU Debater (DSU elections 2017) The 2...

There are alot of people who haven't heard of the SU. There is a bigger group of people who think it's just a bar. I'm here to put the records straight, consider this your one stop tour of all things SU. So the DSU is made up of 4 sections. Each of these sections are designed to make every student here at DMU have the time of their lives. These sections are as follows: Voice Support Life  Activities.  Now, for some peoples, that would ring some bells but allow me to expand for those new peoples. Voice:  Voice is pretty self-explanatory, it's all the things that allow you as students to use your voice. This department covers the following: Councils and AGMs: These allow you to suggest, debate and vote on important policies that shape the very by-laws that everyone must follow from students to officers. It's also a chance to see what we are doing and ask us any questions you may have.  Due to the amount of debating, I now have a tradition that I bri...

Yesterday, I was locked in a computer room somewhere in Hugh Aston. Now whilst this was happening, alot of students were talking to somebody called Kelly about all sorts of wierd and wonderful things. How do they link? I was talking to said students from the computer. You see, DMU have an online chat once a month where prospective Undergraduates and Postgraduates are able to ask members of staff all sorts of wonderful questions about anything related to University life. This could be from requirements to their dream course, how to contact clearing and the UCAS application process to what Fresher's week is going to be like (the calender looks amazing! FYI). So I was one of said members of staff. I had a couple of questions about the types of accomodation we offer at DMU and one student was impressed by how cheap we were in comparision to his old city. I also had one student asking about the social life at DMU (Hey men's football, I reccomended you a couple of times. So how...

Well, today's the day. The first day, I got slightly overwhelmed with this job. On the one hand, I'm proud of myself, I managed 11 days without crying but today I did have a little sob when I returned from Tesco's. You see, up until this point, I've been pretty busy sorting things out, to the point that I've pretty much lived and breathed the role and haven't really had the chance to switch off. So I had a little sob in Tesco's. Not a full blown 3rd year, 'Fuck this, I'm becoming a stripper and marrying a Sugar Daddy' breakdown but a couple of tears that could only be fixed by Netflix and ice-cream. Do not worry now however, as I have now recovered from my sobbing woes and instead now begin to think about my next task. On a happier note, I can now give a sneaky peak into what me and Louise are planning for Fresher's week. On the Wednesday (27th September), we will be having a cake-walk in the afternoon. This is open to all postgraduate st...

Ah 2017. A year where you can order your alcohol, taxi to the club, your taxi home and your drunk food in a couple of taps. A time where make-up mogels make millions from a photo of a lipstick and we can tweet about what we're doing there and then. As a new officer, I am very dependent on social media. For heaven's sake, my only real way to currently explain what I've been doing is via this blog which I argue was one of the original forms of social media. It's quick, easy and more importanly convinient. I don't need to search every single Student Union in the county to see if they have a postgrad officer because we're all part of a facebook group. I don't need to repeat myself to the 11 other officers if there's something important because I can just put it on a group chat. Gelato dates can be established in a couple of glorious tweets. A meeting can be established over a facebook chat and a simple, 'hey would you like to come over and visit so...

There comes a time in every person's life where they make their mother proud. For some it's getting a degree, others it's riding a bike for the first time without dying. I like to think that this particular moment is one that would make my mother proud: Look it's little old me, dead centre of all the postgrad reps. Granted, I don't exactly look photogenic but that's because I can't take photos for the life of me. So anyway, you'll be seeing this mug everywhere, from the website to the DSU booklets (I've had a sneak peak earlier, they look amazing) to the Campus Centre. It's all very bizzare to be quite truthful but I'm sure I'll get used to it. So what have I been doing since I last wrote an entry (I'm sorry it's been so long. I was celebrating the fact that I got a degree and was accepted onto my masters)? Well I met with Jake Betts from DMU Sport to talk about DMU Active. For those who don't know, DMU Act...