Student Stories
Grey College Crowdfunding Platform 2016-17
Great Ideas
Grey’ s Crowdfunding plaform, greatideas. hubbub. net has seen 3 successful projects this year.
Postgraduate Symposium
The MCR runs talks each month, but this project allowed them to run a full day of talks, with prizes. Marcus Lancashire gives a report of the project, which raised £ 295.
One of the key skills required by postgraduate students is the ability to present their work to an audience of their peers. In order to help students develop these skills, Grey College run termly evening symposiums where three or four students present on their current or previous work, or a topic that interests them. In order to allow for a wider range of talks, and to give students the chance to present posters, we wanted to run a day long symposium. This was funded by a crowdfunding campaign run on the Great Ideas framework. The Grey College Postgraduate Symposium project was a great success. Presentations were given on a wide range of topics, from medieval literature to the science of cloaking devices, and all of them were enjoyed by the attendants. The ability to give both oral and poster presentations is a vital skill for anyone undertaking a research based degree, and I hope that this symposium provided an opportunity for people to practice their public speaking skills in a friendly environment. The funds raised through the Great Ideas crowdfunding campaign helped to make the event more enjoyable and professional for all those taking part, and I would like to once again thank our sponsors for their generous contributions to this campaign. The money raised allowed us to print the posters for the symposium, produce abstract booklets for all those who attended and covered the cost of lunch and tea and coffee for all participants. In addition, prizes were awarded for the best presentations:
• Hannah Piercy: prize for the best oral presentation.
• Maciej Matuszewski: prize for the best poster presentation.
• Helen Gienger: audience choice prize. This project was only made possible through the help of a large number of people, and I would like to thank all of those who helped to make the day as good as it was:
• Nathan Young for setting up the Great Ideas crowdfunding system and for his support throughout the project, in particular with making the video.
• Mathew Kirk and Craig Fisher for their support and advice, and for chairing two of the sessions at the symposium.
• Nicola Gittins and the Grey College catering staff for providing lunch and refreshments throughout the day.
• Peter Swift for his constant support throughout the project and for the production of the abstract booklets and printing of the posters.
• Everyone who presented, as without you there would have been no symposium. Also for the wide range of engaging and entertaining talks and posters that were presented.
• And lastly once again our sponsors for your generous donations that made the event possible. In conclusion, the Grey College Postgraduate Symposium was a thought-provoking and enjoyable event. It was only made possible through the donations of our sponsors and the hard work of everyone who helped to organise it, so thank you all for your support.
101km Row for Charity and GCBC
Another rowing entry and Genevieve and Georgia raised money for the boat club and for breast cancer awareness charity, Coppafeel.
Georgia and Genevieve spent a whole day rowing in the JCR, raising £ 1293 which will be split equally between fixing one of the boat club boats and going to a breast cancer awareness charity. In the end, they rowed for over 12 hours.
Grey College Boat Club have been particularly good at using the crowdfunding to support themselves. Last year, Tom Fox told us about his campaign and this year Georgia and Genevieve have carried on the tradition.
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