This July, Year 12 students took part in the exciting Your Future Summer School at the University of East London. This five-day programme, supported by Make Happen, was packed with engaging activities and university insight, with an overall focus on celebrating the Year of Health.
Students had the opportunity to explore a range of different career pathways, from business and law, to health, sport and bioscience. They had their questions answered by current undergraduates and got to experience university life first-hand at UEL’s Stratford and Docklands campuses.
Their days were packed with academic tasters and interactive workshops, and they worked hard on their own group video projects – planning, filming, and editing them across the five days to showcase at a final screening. The summer school concluded with a certificate and awards ceremony to celebrate their achievements.
We were thrilled to support ten Make Happen students in attending this exciting programme by providing them each with a full travel bursary. Tina and Kerry from the Make Happen team also attended for two days and had the pleasure of delivering sessions for students on student finance and budgeting at university.
Our student finance session explained tuition fees and maintenance loans, and busted some common myths about financial support, helping students feel more confident about managing the cost of their future studies. Our budgeting workshop challenged students to rank nine university costs in order of priority and decide how much of their hypothetical student loan to allocate to these costs. One team budgeted so well that they had enough money left over for our hypothetical course trip!
Across the two days we attended, students engaged enthusiastically, asked us thoughtful questions, and told us about their ambitious goals for the future. Events like this summer school are a brilliant way to support young people to make informed choices, develop essential life skills, and see university as an exciting and achievable next step.
By Kerry Preston, Outreach Assistant at Make Happen