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New Master
On Thursday 1 September 2016 Professor Jane Stapleton DCL FBA made her declaration to the Vice-Chancellor. She promised to diligently administer the affairs of the College to the best of her power and ability; to guard all its property and possession of every description, and all its rights, liberties and privileges; and to faithfully keep and do her best to cause others to keep all the Statutes and Ordinances of the College. Professor Stapleton has now formally taken up her post as 38th Master of Christ's College and is very much looking forward to meeting many of you at alumni events over the coming months.
Professor Jane Stapleton with the Vice-Chancellor
The Start of a New Term
The College is getting ready to welcome both new and returning students in the next few weeks and we're all looking forward to the familiar buzz of full term again. This year we have 122 undergraduate students taking up their places at Christ's this year and a great cohort of graduate students. Of the undergraduates, 12% are from Low Participation Neighbourhoods (see below) and 62% are from state schools. Our new intake come from all educational backgrounds and we are very proud, as ever, of the exceptionally high quality of our incoming students. We hope all our students get off to a great start this term.
Low Participation Neighbourhood Summer School
In August the College ran a new Summer School for students who have just finished their GCSEs and who come from Low Participation Neighbourhoods (LPNs). LPNs are postcodes around the country where very few people go on to higher education, as defined by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. This engagement is an important part of our on-going access strategy and the course was a big success this year. The students not only come to College for a four day course, but support is continued throughout Year 12 with a variety of remote seminars and online information up until the point at which they apply. As well as taking part in academic sessions with Christ's PhD students in a variety of interesting and engaging subjects during the course, the students also got a real taste of life at Christ's, meeting current undergraduate students, eating meals in College (including a formal dinner in Hall to celebrate their last night) and other fun activities like a punting trip!
We are grateful to the Simon and Jill Campbell Foundation for their support of this initiative.
Young Alumni Event
On 13 October, the next Young Alumni Event will be held at the UK’s oldest surviving operating
theatre in London. If you graduated in the last 10 years and would like to share a drink and network with other young alumni then please join us around the Surgeon’s table! To book a place and for more information please click here.
Blades Gala Regatta and Dinner
Has watching the Olympic rowing rekindled your desire to get back in a boat and maybe even win a medal? You could be in with a chance of both at this year's Blades Gala Regatta and Dinner on 17 September. This event is a wonderful occasion to return to College with guests, meet up with fellow Boaties and enjoy a great day on the river. We are delighted to announce that the boathouse redevelopment is about to start! Thanks to the generous support of our alumni, work will commence in October. The Blades Regatta will therefore be the last opportunity to row out of the boathouse in its current form. For more information about the event and to book, please click here.
Distinguished Speakers Dinner: Barry Davies
Barry Davies MBE holds broadcast records for the number of Olympic Games and FIFA World Cups covered, having commentated at every summer Olympic Games from 1968 to 2012, and every World Cup from 1966 to 2002. Come along on Thursday 6 October 2016 to hear Barry in conversation with Colin Cameron (m. 1983), talking about his career over nearly five decades. The event will take place at the Athenaeum, Pall Mall, London and includes a drinks reception and dinner. To find out more and to book a place, please click here.
Down at the Bottom of the Garden...
You may remember our announcement in the last e-newsletter about the forthcoming Gardening Diary feature. In this, his first instalment, College Gardener Terry Hayden introduces himself and the gardens, and gives us a taster of what's to come over the next few issues.
"My name is Terry Hayden and I’ve been working as one of the five gardeners at Christ's for over 4 years: a small cog in an important team within the College.
These gardens are an exciting place to work, with some fascinating stories behind a number of the trees and shrubs. We get many questions from visitors and alumni about our more iconic features; the so called ‘Milton’s Mulberry Tree’ (Morus nigra), which was planted the year of John Milton's birth in 1608, the London Plane Tree (Platanus x acerifolia) which is located on the wall line along Milton’s Walk, and of course, the beautiful wisteria in First Court.
In the past year and a half, many of you will have also noticed a big change in the layout of Third Court. This has been a big project for our team, with the aim of creating a place to sit in the summer months, and also an area to keep, preserve and augment the College’s important collection of Bearded Iris. This is an on-going project, with the hope of the collection becoming historically important. We would do this by completing the College’s original collection from 1946 and applying for National Collection Status through the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens.
There is certainly a lot to keep us busy at every time of year, and whatever the weather, and I look forward to sharing this with you over the coming months."
If you would like to leave a comment or suggest a topic for a future instalment of the Gardening Diary then you can do so on our online alumni NetCommunity pages here. Please log on and select 'Discussion Groups' from the Alumni Community drop down menu. If you have forgotten your password then click 'forgotten log in details' and follow the instructions. We'd love to hear from you!
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