ASPERGERS STUDIO – USA

REID MILES is a well-remembered and appreciated ex University of Kent’s Post Grad student who has launched a very insightful blog called Aspergers Studio. We are very impressed with both the quality of presentation and content. He is happy for us to share it with you and hope you find it inspiring, useful and engaging.

This is what Reid has to say about Never Fear the Unknown:

“You can’t go through life without taking chances. This goes with what I have said about stepping outside your comfort zone. You will never know what’s out there unless you take the chance and step outside you comfort zone”

Please click on the link: https://aspergersstudio.com/

Bushcraft & Nature Awareness workshops

Need to de-stress? Come along to some Bushcraft & Nature Awareness workshops – running every Monday starting 20th May for 4 weeks.

During these workshops you will discover useful out-door skills, have plenty of hands-on experience of these valuable earth-living skills and the discover the therapeutic value of connecting with nature.

Some of the skills covered will include foraging and wild cookery, camp-fire lighting, survival shelter building, use of tools and whittling. And therapeutic nature awareness, getting up close and personal to nature.

You can attend all four workshops or pick and choose the ones for you! CLICK HERE to reserve your free place

For all workshops please meet in Keynes Atrium at 9.45am to walk to the Community Oasis Garden and start at 10am There will be a lunch break at 1pm, please bring a packed lunch or some cash to buy something (Woodys is the nearest food outlet to the Oasis Community Garden & there is also Park Wood Shop).

Day One 20th May 10am – 4pm

Bushcraft Skills and Therapeutic Nature Awareness Day

On your first day you will discover how to build a Survival Debris Shelter. How to easily construct a water-proof Survival Shelter from natural materials. Where best to site it and what to avoid. A very valuable skill and the first priority in a survival situation.

We will look at what trees are useful for bushcraft and ideal for whittling and then you will be guided how to whittle yourself a useful utensil.

Spending time in nature is one of the best ways to relax and feel a sense of renewal and we will spend some time connecting and having fun experiencing nature in a new engaging way.

Day Two 27th May 10am – 4pm

Foraging, Camp-fire lighting and cooking a wild-food taster and deepening your nature connection.

Foraging is very fashionable these days but more importantly it is a very useful skill to know. But before one goes rushing out into the countryside its important to know what Not to forage, what is SAFE to eat and HOW to eat it.

On this day you will discovering what edible wild foods grow within the Oasis gardens and what wild plants to avoid!

You will then be learning all about FIRE. What to use for tinder and kindling. How to construct the fire. And lasting how to light it using fire-steels and flint and steel.

Once the fire is nice and hot YOU will be cooking a delicious wild taster on the camp-fire using the wild-greens your foraged. Yum!

We will finish the day doing a deep dive into nature connection so you leave the day feeling calm and relaxed.

Natural Cordage Making, Knots, Construct a Bushcraft Chair, Enjoy Wild Teas and Be Mindful in Nature

Day Three 3rd June 10am – 4pm

Have you ever eaten nettles? They are very delicious but did you know they have so many other uses. Did you know you can make STRING from their fibres?

On the third day in this series of Bushcraft and Nature connection YOU will be making natural cordage from that famous stinging plant AND from one of our most prickliest plants that grows just everywhere!

Cordage making is another very useful practical skill. Once you know the method you will want to try making it with further plant fibres you find.

You will be guided HOW to use a Kelly Kettle. Making a fire in its base and boiling water in its chimney. And once we have chosen some wild edible plants from the garden, you might choose that stinging one we used earlier, we can all enjoy a cup of WILD TEA. Delicious!

After lunch you will make use of your newly made natural cordage and construct a bushcraft chair using cordage, a few sticks, hessian and some very useful knots. An excellent skill to know if you ever forget a seat when camping.

Through-out the day we will remind you of the benefit of being mindful whilst in nature and to being aware of all your senses. The last part of the day you will experience a fun nature awareness exercise that might leave you feeling rather surprised and slightly puzzled.

Observation, Animal Tracks and Sign, Silent Movement and Deep Listening.

Day Four 10th June 10am – 4pm

How to use nature to Chill-Out! You will be experiencing simple awareness exercises that you can use in your daily life as you walk around campus to aid you in de-stressing and feeling more centered and calm.

These skills not only have a therapeutic benefit but are used when animal tracking. Observation and awareness skills are very important when tracking and today is all about Animal Tracking. How NOT to disturb every wild creature when your wanting to get up close in order to observe them. How to walk silently and use your peripheral vision to enhance your observation skills.

We will bring in some animal skulls and pelts for you to study. And you will be examining animals tracks and signs within the Oasis Gardens and surrounding areas. Find out who lives there? What do they eat? What have they been up to?

We will finish the day with the Drum Stalk. This is often a favourite for many. A fun nature awareness exercise using all your senses!

CLICK HERE to reserve your free place

 

If you have any queries, please email us at wellbeingevents@kent.ac.uk

 

Free Times Higher Education

Photo of a gigantic red apple with its bottom part made of a half world (depicting the southern part of South America). The apple is divided in two by a horizontal glass that creates a platform. There is a female student walking on its surface on the side.

We have been informed that the University of Kent has an institutional subscription of the  Times Higher Education – THE .

THE is the London based United Kingdom’s leading weekly publication on issues related to higher education. THE is best known by its year report on the World University Ranking.

The current issue features topics like: How near is biology to competing the puzzle of life?; Are the universities hotbeds of left-wing bias?; Where there is smoke…the horror of fire in the Amazon, and so on

The subscription allows all students unrestricted access to THE online.

To access your institutional subscription you can register/log in using your university email address via our THE homepage: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/

 As you are currently registered to THE with an individual subscription please do call + 44 (0)345 521 7111 or email membership@timeshighereducation.com if you would like to turn off your auto-renewal.

Best wishes

Dr. A Velarde

Value Exam Preparation Programme for Stage 1 Students

Dear Student.

Worried for the upcoming exams?

Are studying in the following academic schools?:

  • Anthropology and Conservation
  • Computing
  • Economics
  • Law
  • Business
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Maths

You can access to a personalised study plan and a small group preparation sessions (weeks 25 and 26 +) depending on the exams time table.

Interested?

Applications are open online  at https://www.kent.ac.uk/learning/school-support/value.html?tab=how-do-i-join

Curious?

Full details of the programme can be found on the attached  files (pdf).

Need more details?

For an informal conversation please contact Angela Koch via value@kent.ac.uk.

Best

Dr. A. Velarde

July Events on the Global Cafe

Our friends from the Global café inform us that students are welcome to come to taste world food and enjoy a multicultural engagement  from 2 to 13 July. Please find the schedule below:

They are offering lifts to students to take the students to the events for next two weeks. The minibus will arrive at the Keynes Bus stop at 7.15 pm and will wait for 10 mins and then leave. The minibus will have a Global cafe summer special leaflet in it’s window. For more information please contact Baiba on 07999556555.

The minibus can take a wheelchair and the event venue is wheelchair friendly. The minibus is for free and give students lift back also after the event. 

Please bring friends.

 

The last weeks at Uni and feeling Homesick?

Dear student.

We are approaching the end of the academic year and many students may be feeling homesick. Perhaps the Football World Cup may be creating some  of this?  Why not revising some techniques to help you deal with the feelings and emotions that come with it. Please find enclosed a video resource produced by Coral from the International Team.

Keep going!

Exams

Link

Wooden pieces of a table game with the word EXAM

The exams’ period is, for many, one of the most stressful time for students. No matter how much we know that an exam is mainly a method to consolidate learning, it feels as it is something more. We hope we could help you a bit.

If you feel  anxious remember to prepare holistically. This is to find out a healthy balance whereby what you eat, drink, exercise, and rest, matters too.

Graphic of light bulb with words inside such as Stress Management, Nutrients, Living, Live, Care, and similar others

While you revise it is important that you also take care for yourself by finding out some healthy space to relax, meditate, exercise, eat and sleep in moderation.

Graphic of a music notation made of bits of instruments like saxophones, keyboards, guitars, tambourines, etc.

The BBC (radio 3) has created a web program TUNE MIXTAPE that may help you with your preparation. It is announced in the following manner:

“Whether you’re preparing for exams or struggling to concentrate at work, Radio 3’s In Tune Mixtape is here to help. Each 30-minute mix contains an uninterrupted stream of amazing classical, jazz, folk and world music to help you focus and get the most out of study sessions”.

Pleas clink on this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3bJmm2cGDwXvlV9SP1NgBKr/music-to-help-you-focus

Good luck!

Guess Speaker Professor Mike Oliver

A wheelchair-user facing a post with the slogan "way in" before a flight of stairs

A special Lecture took place on 29 November 2017 on “Disability History, Bleeding Hearts and Parasite People”, by Professor Mike Oliver.

Bringing Prof Oliver to his Alma Mater as a distinguished Guess was an long goal we tried to achieve for the last two and a half years. It took the commitment of the students and staff behind the Disability History Month to make it possible this time.

Prof Oliver is an ex-student of Kent and internationally recognised for the creation of the Social Model of Disabilities. His PhD thesis is in our Templeman’s Library.

For a text copy of the lecture please click on https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentsupport/disabilities/documents/mikeoliver.docx

The Disability History Month (UKDHM) organises interesting events during the academic year and have also publishes its programme of events on www.kent.ac.uk/dhm.

For further information about the social Model of disabilities please click on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_model_of_disability.

New January

The photo shows part of the earth and the sun rising in the east in the December Solstice

Happy new year!

At this time of the year, we also welcome students from all around the world who come for the last two terms!

We hope you join us in the events and experiences we have been been working on.

This week we would like to introduce you to our Oasis Project. This initiative has the aim of provide a therapeutical place in an ecologically motivated environment. Many International and UK students and the local community participate. For more information please click on https://www.kent.ac.uk/studentservices/Oasis%20Garden/index.html

International Mental Health Adviser Stone Fitzgerald is organizing a workshop run by Owen Okie (from an enterprise in Scotland (Scoraig) called EarthMind Fellowship CIC. The workshop is this Friday 12 January between 1.30 pm and 4.30 pm. In the workshop Owen will explore the relationship to nature and the ecological responsibilities individuals and communities have. If you want to join a students’ group please send us an email at A.Velarde@Kent.ac.uk (There are limited available places)

On a complementary matter, the International Discussion Group run by International Mentor Coral Warner has moved from Wednesdays to Thursdays at 2 pm.
On the 25th of January the group will meet in the usual room in Eliot Becket Court (room 16). The following week the group will meet in Rutherford R.Cl.19(16)
If you want to join the group please let Coral know at C.A.Warner@Kent.ac.uk (There are limited available places)