It’s been a busy semester here at USSU, and our student-led societies have been one of the main reasons for that! Following a stand-out Welcome period where they lined the boardwalk every day, promoting their groups and creating a real buzz on Peel Park Campus, to absolutely smashing the societies fair where we welcomed more than 2000 new students over a six hour period, they’ve been going at full steam. Have a look below to see what’s been going on!

The Performers

Our student performance groups have continued their long-standing production of quality shows, from An Almost Famous Christmas Show to Here Comes Treble’s Christmas Concert. With over 200 attendees to our group’s Christmas themed shows this December, they are all well placed to kick off 2018 in style with a host of events to look forward to!

The Fundraisers

Well our Islamic Society set the bar pretty high as they raised over £4000 for Human Appeal during ISoc Charity Week in October, and were able to follow that up with a Charity Dinner held in Maxwell Upper Hall in early December where they welcomed students from Universities across Greater Manchester. Their chairperson was also involved with the University’s Inclusion and Diversity Week video!

Elsewhere, one of our new societies, CATS (Cancer Awareness in Teenagers & Young People…not the animal!) have been busy in their first semester of running, working with other societies to build awareness for their cause and raising money along the way.

The Eventers

Where to start with this one?! Reboot seems appropriate! Shock Radio have taken over the Atmosphere Bar on Saturday nights and turned it into a proper club night for students on campus and have knocked it out of the park since the off, hosting UV, Jungle, and Halloween themed nights among others, as well as bringing external artists on site and consistently pulling 200+ people to their event. As an entirely student-led event, it serves as a great blueprint to others.

We’ve also had an influx of cultural events on campus, which kicked off during Welcome with the One World Party, fronted by the new ECO-Africa Society. We’ve also had a host of other events led by societies such as Ghanaian, Zimbabwe, Kenyan, Somali, Indian, and Nigerian among others; the latter of which hosted their Independence Day Celebration back in September with the other societies on campus, which included a collaborative performance with SUDS!

Our LGBTQ+ Society arranged a range of events during Transgender Day of Remembrance, including information stands during the day, a memorial service in the evening followed by a celebration event. We’ve also had a range of academic societies host events with external speakers, such as Business, Women of the World, Roots ‘n Shoots Volunteering, Midwifery, and Nursing; the latter two of which have hosted two very successful workshops, with the Nursing Society selling out their Winter Conference titled “What is Trauma?” and Midwifery Society hosting a Hypnotherapy for Student Midwives Workshop.

The Starters

The success of the societies fair has seen an influx of new societies, all led by students. We’ve seen the reintroduction of some groups such as Petroleum Engineers, and Filmmaking, as well as brand new ones such as Zimbabwe, British Asian, Chemistry, and Persian. In total, we’ve had over 15 new societies start-up since October with most of them being either course-based or cultural.

Our new societies which started over the summer have also hit the ground running.  The Politics and Contemporary History Society have managed to establish their framework and look to kick off their think-tank next semester, the Podiatry Society were able to offer free tickets to a student conference to some of their members in a competition, CATS as mentioned have been campaigning hard for their charity, and ECO-Africa have been hosting discussion panels on how to innovate social enterprise in the continent; with their chairperson being invited to present during Salford’s Inclusion and Diversity Week.

The Photography Society meanwhile are up, running, and photographing event after event! They’re always on the lookout for experience and work so let them know if you would like an event covering. If you haven’t seen them about yet, you will in the future!

The Travelers

While the bulk of society trips happen in semester two, that hasn’t stopped some from getting out there. Wildlife have been to Chester Zoo and Donna Nook, Labour Society have been to the regional North West Conference, Enactus have been to their World Cup in London and training in Grantham, while Shock Radio were able to rack up the awards at the Student Radio Awards in the capital.

Next semester they go further afield as trips to Switzerland, Germany, and France are in the works among others!

The Financers

Finally, the Societies and Sports Student Executive has awarded over £5000 of funding to societies for a range of activities and events. This ranges from funds to help with start-up costs of a society, to many of the large-scale event mentioned above. Some events which were awarded funding for include launch events for Enactus projects, a peer mentoring platform for the Chemistry Society, and launch events for Indian and ECO-Africa Societies. The executive have also awarded funding for the Wildlife trip to Donna Nook listed above, as well as the Podiatry Society conference tickets.

It’s been great to see the development of student-led societies over the summer and semester one, and it leaves no doubt in the mind that next semester will be even better as we gear up for the Student Leader’s Conference, Elections, One World Week, Varsity, Annual Awards, and a host of other events.

Follow @USSUStudentOpps on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date. Also don't forget that the International Cafe is back on Thursdays at 6pm in the North Side!