#headstyc

My experience of involvement on campus got off to a pretty rough start, when I snapped my leg and tore all the ankle ligaments playing rugby at the end of my first term at York. Spending the rest of my first year hobbling round on crutches unable to put weight on my ankle made getting around on campus hard and I saw my distant dream of rugby stardom brutally dashed. All this, coupled with the loss of my ability to ever really do competitive sport again having done all manner of sports from age 5 to 20, properly knocked my confidence in getting involved with campus-based stuff.

At the end of first year one of my flatmates convinced me to chuck in a STYC application with him so that he had a mate to do it with. I agreed and naively ticked the box to be considered for Head STYC, and after a successful interview, resulted in me spending Freshers Week 2014 chasing after 75 freshers and 12 STYCs, as the sole Head STYC for my block and lost 10 pounds in weight.

It was chaotic, exhausting and filled with all manner of ridiculous mini-crises, yet I can honestly say it was one of the most encouraging and rewarding weeks I had at uni.

The opportunity to spend time with supporting a real mix of confident, shy, outgoing and nervous freshers settling into university was such a privilege. I saw 3 of my freshers come along to church with me on their first Sunday in York.

Being able to lead with personal conviction and strive to set a positive culture of respect amidst a week of excess and insecurity was important to me, and my experience of freshers week led to me running for Chair of Vanbrugh College a few weeks later despite having had no prior college committee involvement. 

I ended up losing by 2 votes in the closest ever JCRC vote at York, but gained an eye-opening insight into the internal workings of the college system at York and enjoyed all the drama and politics of student elections.

I believe that getting involved on the ground in freshers week, through STYCing at UoY, or helping out in similar ways at YSJ, is the most effective means of culture-setting and mission for us as Christians in freshers week. It was intense and challenging for me mentally, physically and spiritually, but if I had the opportunity to do it all over again, I woudn’t change a thing.

One of the most brilliant things about my university experience has been the opportunities I’ve been part of on campus. I’ve been involved in volunteering in local schools, setting up a women’s coding course, Head STYCing (in my third year, controversial), helping in a student campaign, and various other society roles and odds and ends. 

Sometimes my faith has been a real encouragement in what I’ve been doing, and sometimes the the cultures and roles in which I have found myself have felt almost actively in conflict with my faith. I’ve learnt some difficult things about who I am and what my weaknesses are, but also areas in which I have grown over the years. 

From volunteering, I learnt that even though you know you can do lots of things, you don’t necessarily end up actually doing all of the things you could. Sometimes this looks like letting people down and knowing you could’ve - and should’ve - done better. From campaigning, I learnt (even amongst incredibly kind and thoughtful people) that there are negative aspects of competitive environments that can make it hard to keep a clear mind and stay accountable - the line between observation and realising you’re being the opposite of gracious is narrow. 

From each thing I’ve done, in different ways, I learnt that it’s really easy to look like you’re doing a better job than you know you really are. It’s easy to excuse this as being busy or tired, when in fact I’m just tired because I ended up going to sleep late, or spent an hour scrolling through twitter, which manages to sap energy as much as the five emails I ought to have written.

I have accomplished many exciting things, but I’ve learnt that the challenge of integrity is much harder than just getting the job done by any means. These lessons are things I am constantly learning and growing in, and these are not opportunities I would want to have missed. Brilliantly, I’ve learnt, since becoming a Christian again at the end of my first year, that God is so gracious. I have been challenged and grateful in equal measure for that. 

“Freshers week as a Head STYC was one of my favourite weeks of uni. I had the opportunity to get to know and support freshers from Day 1, to get to know more people in college and to have a lot of fun with my friends. I decided not to pre-drink during freshers so that: a) I could deal with the consequences of the weird and wonderful things freshers and STYCs do on those nights and b) so that freshers and STYCs who didn’t want to drink (or drink much) felt comfortable joining in (the girl I Head STYCd with decided to do the same). And to be honest, you get through 6 consecutive nights out much better on cherry tango. 

There’s really no better opportunity to get to know such a big and varied group of people, especially when you’re not living on campus, and it gives you the opportunity to have some great conversations and invite people to things later in the term.