Student ambassador blog: Back to work

Posted 30 April 2014

Maddi Naish, 19, is a second year BSc (Hons) REALM student from Wantage in Oxfordshire.

Welcome back to the Student Ambassador blog, I hope everyone is enjoying the somewhat sporadic warmer weather and sunshine which we are having!

Students have just returned back to Harper Adams after the Easter break, and while there has been a lot of relaxing and tales of skiing and all sorts of exciting activities, it sounds like everyone has been very busy. 

There were many Easter lambing jobs on the Harper Adams Careers Service system, so a lot of students have been spending some of the break gaining that valuable work experience and earning some extra cash. As ever, the Student’s Union has come up with some great events, including the legendary Summer Ball at the end of term which always proves to be a fantastic night.

There has been several events which the Student Ambassadors have been involved with at Harper Adams, such as a day for Nuffield Scholars. Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust sponsors research around the world, and representatives will be speaking at the Harper Adams Forum this week. 

The Forum has a speaker each week from different industries, so there is something for every course. A popular evening this year was an interactive presentation from Owen Patterson, Secretary of State for DEFRA. I also particularly enjoyed Rob Yorke’s talk on ‘re-wilding the uplands’.

Ambassadors have also been running school workshops related to the courses on offer at Harper Adams.

In the last post I mentioned our group assignment for the Smiths Gore Award – that was handed in at the end of last term. Today we had to present our report to our two module tutors, Andrew Black and Simon Keeble, and to Steve Farrow from Smiths Gore who together will decide on which team will win.

Our lecturers have also been talking about the upcoming exams – explaining the structure of the exam papers and what they look for in answers. The exams are all structured differently with some being a choice of essay questions and others a mixture of long and short questions. We have also had a talk from the Educational Guidance team, giving us revision tips and ideas. 

Everyone thinks they know how to revise, but it’s always useful to hear new ideas.  My favourite point was that students who get a good amount of sleep perform 40% better than students who lack sleep.  Now there’s an excuse for a lie-in if ever I heard one!

A feature new to Harper Adams this term is a Smoothie Bar run by the Catering Department.  I tried the chocolate chip shake today which was delicious and I think I will be visiting frequently over the exam period as a post-revision treat! 

Thank you for reading this blog, the next one will be in the heat of the exam period so we’ll see how those revision tips are working out!

To find out more of what I’ve been up, to visit my blog or find me on twitter @maddinaish