Mike Stoner, who graduated from Kent in 2011 with an MA in Creative Writing, has recently won the Guardian’s self-published book of the month award for his novel Jalan Jalan.

The book, which Mike began to write as part of his creative writing dissertation at Kent, tells the story of a man who travels to Indonesia to start a new life and overcome the loss of his girlfriend, but who is still haunted by her ghost and memories. ‘I had spent a year in Indonesia which gave me some of the most interesting memories of my life, so I used these as the basis for the fictional story. It’s about adapting to a new environment, the concept of time, and an insight into life on Sumatra’ he explains.

The Guardian’s review credits the novel as being ‘an interesting, involving tale of self-transformation, and a welcome blast of heat and spice in this cold, grey British December.’

Since graduating from Kent, Mike has worked as a manager in a language school and has combined working life with writing Jalan Jalan, which he subsequently self-published. ‘Finding time to write whilst doing a full-time job can be very difficult’ he says. ‘I found the best way around this was to try and write between 10pm and 1am the next morning.’

He acknowledges that spending a day or more writing a scene and then realising it was no good was a great challenge. ‘I had to learn not to be scared of the delete button. In the early stages, I found that the main thing was to get stuck in and involved in your work, without worrying too much about the quality, typos and mistakes. Write, write and write, and try not to keep re-reading what you’ve already done – although that’s very difficult! Re-drafting is the hard part, but also the most satisfying.’

Mike, who is currently in talks with a publisher, hopes to get Jalan Jalan on bookshop shelves and to write more novels in the future.

Jalan Jalan by Mike Stoner is available now on Amazon Kindle.

Alumnus Antonio J. Gracia Rodriguez (Darwin 2010), who pursued English studies at Kent in 2010-2011 as part of his year abroad, has opened his own education centre in Andalusia, Spain.

The centre, Academia Atlantis, provides extra lessons to students from primary and secondary education, as well as university students, helping them with various subjects including languages. ‘People have become more aware of the importance of knowing another language, which is why centres like ours are becoming increasingly popular’ says Antonio.

He credits his year at Kent as being one of the best university experiences he’s had. ‘My independence grew, along with my self-confidence, and I made friends from all over the world. I still keep in touch with my old Kent friends, and follow the latest news from the University’ he says.

Antonio always wanted to become an English teacher, and his time at Kent made him more determined than ever to achieve his goal. ‘I learned a lot of methodology and developed my English language skills. I took several courses, ‘English Language in the Media’ and ‘English Language Teaching’ among them, which were the boost I needed to teach English’ he explains.

Two years after leaving the University, Antonio was finally able to turn his teaching dream into reality, and opened Academia Atlantis. He hopes that the business will one day become a certified examination centre. ‘We know this takes a lot of effort, but we’re on the right track. Right now we’re helping university students to prepare for PET, FIRST and CAE tests, which are vital for them as they are required to have a second language certificate at the end of their degree.’

His advice to anyone thinking of setting up their own business is to always plan ahead. ‘Make a realistic budget and stick to it. Try to re-use materials from closed businesses; I saved a lot of money by using equipment from former offices. Also, when dealing with banks for a loan, never settle with the first offer they give you. It’s better to study several offers from as many different companies as possible.’

He admits that the initial stages of setting up a business can be exhausting, but believes that if you stay focused on your end goal, you will overcome any barriers that stand in your way. ‘The best piece of advice I’ve been given is to never give up on your dreams and to always be yourself, no matter what people think or say’.

A national report on industry placements has used Kent’s School of Computing’s Placement Office as an example of best practice.

‘Growing Experience: A Review of Undergraduate Placements in Computer Science’ was published in January by the National Centre for Universities and Businesses, and highlighted the ‘organic growth’ model which is part of the Kent placement team strategy.

The report’s authors said: ‘We surveyed 40 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the UK about the quality and quantity of current computing placement activity, and explored in depth their views, working practices and their perception of the barriers to student uptake.’

The report investigated the relatively high level of unemployment for computer sciences graduates nationally, despite rapid growth in the technology sector. However this trend does not apply to all computer science graduates from Kent, particularly those with a Year in Industry placement. The results of the last National Student Survey showed that 100% of Kent Computer Science with a Year in Industry graduates were employed in a professional or managerial role within six months of graduation.

Katie Van Sanden, one of the School’s two Placement Officers, said: ‘We pride ourselves on being a dedicated Placement Office whose sole purpose is to find suitable year-long placements to complement the theory taught on the course. Over the years, we have managed to build strong relationships with industry, regularly ‘growing’ our own placements organically through the recommendation of graduates to their new employers and sustaining good relationships with employers that last many years.’

Image: Placement Officer Katie Van Sanden visits Year in Industry students at Holiday Extras.
Picture by: Orla Garratt, School of Computing.

School of Anthropology and Conservation alumna Jennie Martin (Woolf 2011) has won the Environment category of the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland 2014 Awards, in recognition for her work with her charity Wild Things!

The Awards feature eight categories; film, art, business, food, sport, writing and the environment, with previous winners including people such as Gordon Buchanan, JK Rowling and Ewan McGregor. ‘Whilst I am not so sure I quite fit in with such high profile names, it is still a fantastic accolade to win this award and have the work of Wild Things! nationally recognised’ says Jennie, who graduated from Kent in 2013 with a Master of Science in Ethnobotany.

Jennie created Wild Things! in 2003 as an environmental education charity which provides outdoor experiences for people of all ages, regardless of emotional, physical or financial barriers, with activities to benefit both the individual and the environment.

‘Our fundamental premise on all our programmes is that our work is embedded with the ethos of providing programmes that encourage a ‘mutually beneficial experience for all’  she explains. ‘We often work with the John Muir Scheme and John Muir’s personal ethos of a ‘Hand, Head and Heart’ approach to caring for and understanding the natural world. At Wild Things! our programmes stimulate curiosity (head), provide opportunities to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in through bush-craft or conservation activities (hand) and we are committed to doing this in a meaningful and fun way (heart)’.

‘I was delighted to win this award’ says Jennie. ‘It has undeniably been a lot of hard work over the past 11 years developing and supporting the charity to do what it does today, and this just couldn’t have been possible without all the people who have worked at Wild Things!. We have a great team and the results of this are evident in the fact that 98% of our participants want to return to do more courses with us.’

To find out more about Wild Things! please visit www.wild-things.org.uk