Hello, all of my lovely readers!

As per usual, I hope you all are doing well the past month and are excited for the summer holiday coming up very soon. I have had a wonderful month with lots of events as the academic year is coming to an end. The first thing I would like to update you on is my Volunteering and Coaching Academy Award Evening as mentioned in the previous blog.

So many memories and emotions came flooding in my mind as I stepped into the venue. It has been three years since my first award evening when the Academy first started, and this was my last one. I had such an amazing time with all my friends who I worked closely with over the last year to support and develop Loughborough Sport. Everyone was so happy and looked fantastic.

We had a great pleasure of hearing from the Paralympian, also a Loughborough Alumni, Sam Ruddock. He returned to Loughborough to speak at our event and it was such an inspiring talk. He talked significantly about motivation, resistance and determination and I was deeply moved by what he said. It was not only encouraging regarding future career, of achieving dreams or becoming successful; but also of overcome one’s self to be mentally and physically stronger. I gathered all the confidence in me to come up and said hi to him. In the end, I was lucky enough to get a picture.

Another event I attended this month was the School of Arts Degree Show. Each year, finalists from all disciplines within the School of Arts will exhibit their final projects over the course of one week. One of my close friends was in the show so I was invited to the private view, which means I got to come in to see all the works before the public viewing period. Words cannot express how amazing it was!

Coming from a Political Science and Cultural Studies background, I was amazed by the works that were made by the students. The conceptual theories behind each piece required well-thought research and a good level of critical understanding. Even though I was fortunate to learn about these concepts in my degrees, to see how that was transferred into artwork, physical objects or installation was fascinating. I was overwhelmed by how talented these young people are. I was informed that the School of Arts at Loughborough University is ranked highly on the list of best Arts Schools around the country, and the show demonstrated just that. I could not take pictures from the show without the creators’ permission. But should you not worry my friend, here is a handy link to the show if you are interested:
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/aed/degree-show-16/

These were the highlights of late May/ June month, the rest of the time I spent finishing up all the deadlines for this term. Unlike undergraduate students, master students like myself, have another term over summer. Hence, while my undergraduate fellows were doing their exams, I had the luxury of working on my assignments and dissertation from home (my heart goes out to all of the students who are doing their exams, though. I am sure they are working hard and completing exams with good grades).

That being said, it does not mean I can be lazy and put off all the work until the summer. As you can see, I was working away with my cup of coffee and my book in the park since it has been super sunny and warm in Loughborough over the last few weeks.

That is all I have to report this month. I hope you enjoyed this month blog and stay tuned for more over the summer. I am excited for many of the things I have planned over the next few months. Thank you for reading and until next time, Take care!
Kelsie.