"Aspiration Day"

25/11/2011

Friday 18 November was the sixth annual “Aspiration Day” for YR6, 11 year old pupils attending St Richard’s with St Andrew’s Primary School, located near Richmond University. The purpose of the day-long event, organized by Dr Christine Zaher and Eric Lomotey, President of the student Community Service Club (CSC), is to give these children, who will shortly be going to secondary school, a taste of university life in the hope that this will inspire them to go on to tertiary level education rather than drop out of the system at 16.

The children, 20 in all, toured the grounds, dorms, common rooms, theater, computer labs and classrooms escorted by members of the CSC whom they bombarded with questions en route! They attended part of an Art, Design and Media class being taught by Dr. Jeremy Danziger, which fascinated them. There was a tour of the library conducted by Ms. Olha Pannett and Ms. Elizabeth Courtney, which included an exciting “treasure hunt” for books. The Dean of Student Affairs, Allison Cole-Stutz, spoke to the children about University trips, sports and activities all of which were clearly high on the children’s agenda.

One of the highlights of the day was, of course, the lunch! This was most generously funded by Sodexo via Mr. Chris Hutton. (The University’s stock of ice cream has been seriously depleted, we are told!)

At the end of the day, following a strenuous game of football with members of the CSC (the children won!), goody bags were presented to each child as a memento of their visit.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/1254.aspx