Students’ Union 19 England star trains with rugby team


Students from Essex’s rugby team enjoyed the experience of a lifetime at a training session led by England rugby superstar Ben Foden.


Following an unbeaten season in the national universities league last year, the University team spotted the chance to work with Ben in a national competition run by Multipower Sportsfood.


The competition was based on securing online votes and the team worked with the SU to gather votes from students, receiving an overwhelming response that propelled them to victory despite stiff competition from rugby clubs across the UK.


Passion


“This is a great advertisement for rugby at Essex and a rare opportunity to learn from one of England’s highest profile stars” said Keir Waller, Communications Officer for the Men’s Rugby team.


“The team prides itself on its passion and strong work ethic and so a training session with Ben is a sensational way of kicking off the season – we hope his cutting-edge drills and techniques could be the crucial spark for us”.


The men’s rugby team is one of 57 sports clubs run by the SU across our three campuses, with this year’s collective membership already totalling over 1,650 students.


Helping students love Essex from day one


The Students’ Union (SU) is reflecting on one of the most successful Freshers periods in its history, following an ambitious seven days of support, advice and events for students.


In a survey of over 450 students, more than 80 per cent of first years said the Students’ Union helped them “love it” at Essex in their first week.


This success is as a result of the SU’s widest ever range of daytime and night-time activities, all designed to complement the work of the University in welcoming new students and helping them feel settled as quickly as possible.


During the day, students could attend activities such as ‘speed mating’ sessions to help meet new friends, get free help to find accommodation from StudentLets, and receive confidential, impartial support from the SU Advice Centre.


At night the SU ran an increased range of sold- out events across bars and venues, featuring top music artists and world famous brands like Ministry of Sound, and the first screenings in the new campus cinema, Cine10.


One of the SU’s major new innovations for celebrating the Essex student community, the ‘House Leagues’ programme, also got off to a flying start, with more than 1,000 students attending the first event. By taking part in events from sport to fundraising and debating, students earn points for their ‘house’ – a team linked to the accommodation they live in.


In addition to extremely positive feedback from students, the success of the Union’s Freshers’ campaign has also been recognised externally, with the SU’s marketing team winning in the Marketing Excellence category of the 2012 Colchester Business Awards.


Ben Foden leads the training session


Collection for people in need


The Students’ Union will be running the Give It Away Food Collection project again this year.


The project aims to harvest all unwanted food from student accommodation before the holiday period so it can be donated to Colchester food bank – which makes up food parcels for people in need. The Campus Shop will also be running the “buy an extra item” campaign to encourage donations.


A collection point will be in Square 3 from 11.30am-2.30pm during the last week of term and a mobile collection point will be taken around to student accommodation.


Items specifically required are listed at: www.colchester.foodbank.org.uk


E vteam@essex.ac.uk


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