Clifton Hill House

International Students Representative

As a third-culture kid, my multicultural background is something I've always celebrated. It's what motivated me to apply to be on the JCR for my halls of residence in my first year of university as the International Students Representative. Even in just my first few weeks, it was clear how diverse the backgrounds were of the students at CHH.

As a nice bit of history, Clifton Hill House, after the efforts of May Staveley, became the first halls of residence for women in the South West, which allowed women from outside of Bristol to come and study at the University. I was already familiar with how enriching diversity of cultures, languages, and perspectives can be from my own childhood, but was eager to help maintain an environment where everyone feels welcomed and excited to learn about one another.

JCR Events

As part of the ten-person JCR committee, we were responsible for running student events for residents of our halls and nearby accommodations. These events included welcome, winter, and Valentine's formals, relaxing activities during exams, a Chinese New Year celebration, LGBT+ awareness month, a silent disco fundraising for the National Deaf Children's Society, and a summer barbecue. The year culminated in our largest event: the annual Constitution Ball in June which ran over two days for more than 1,200 students.

While each committee member had their own title and point of focus, we all had to work flexibly in order to ensure our events ran smoothly. My interest in graphic design became useful for creating enticing posters and flyers to promote our events.

LGBT+ Awareness Month

I'm particularly proud of co-coordinating LGBT+ awareness month in February for which I created twenty-eight "Gay of the Day" posters to celebrate and educate students about famous people from the LGBT+ community, starting with the former resident of Clifton Hill House, John Addington Symonds.

With each new day, I placed the latest poster in the dining hall next to the cashier where students would wait for their food. As the month went on, we filled the wall opposite the common room with the posters which brought some nice colour to an otherwise bare wall. To my surprise, a few of the posters kept going missing, but I happily replaced them knowing that they were well-received.

We were very pleased to hear that the posters started quite a few conversations between students and catering staff about the latest "Gay of the Day". The posters also started some fantastic conversations and reiterated that our community was one which recognises and celebrates individuality.

These posters helped hype up the activities we had planned for the month. Each Thursday, we showed a new LGBT+ film, ranging from Moonlight to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We fundraised for Stonewall by selling rainbow shoelaces and ended the month with a club night.

Clifton Hill House Alumni Association Logo

In efforts to bring together former and current residents of the accommodation, our committee set up the Clifton Hill House Association (CHHA), for which I designed the logo. Inspired by Clifton Hill House's 'three horse' insignia, I worked with the CHHA to create a revamped logo for them to use in their branding.

Summary

In my role on the JCR, I rediscovered my love for event management.  With hosting any event, there are bound to be a lot of moving pieces, but they start to fall into place much easier as you better understand the systems, suppliers, and students wants and needs. Of course, no matter how much preparation you do, there's bound to be a little chaos on the day: so creative problem-solving, delegation, and communication among the organisers are paramount.

My experience on the JCR also gave me a lot more practical design experience and taught me more about how intentional design can be used to get people excited about events, talking about inclusion, and generally contribute to a happier, more inviting physical space.