And that is a wrap on the 21/22 Welcome Week! We are absolutely buzzing with last week’s engagement during a range of different activities from Oriam tours and gym sessions to our Sports Union club tasters – it was a huge success! We also held our very exciting Watt Welcome Fair on Friday in conjunction with the Student Union, hosted at Oriam. This was a sell-out event with 1000 students attending across the day, including our students from the Borders Campus.
With over 100 stalls including clubs, societies and University services, there was so much on offer for the students to sign up to. As well as the stalls inside we had other activity going on in our Walled Garden to add more fun to the day, we had our Volleyball, Cheerleading, Boat, Dance and Netball Club doing various activities throughout the day for students to get involved in which also included some competition! We were pleased to have Aleem from our nightclub sponsor Shanghai there to add a little more to the Walled Garden with DJ’ing for the day and to add to the experience outside you can enjoy it all with some drinks and snacks from the Oriam Bistro stall.
This week were continuing our Club Taster Sessions and Oriam Tours, you can sign up to these on the Our Oriam App! These are still free and welcome to everyone to try. You can find out what is on HERE. As of Monday 20th September you will need to have a Oriam and Sports Union club membership to be able to book onto activity on the app.
You would have seen a sea of yellow t-shirts who were our amazing ambassador team throughout the last week, if not you will see them during the year at various events. They worked so hard to help support the SU and Oriam staff team, as well as the club committees make sure that everything is ran smoothly and provide a helping hand to any students who were new and had any questions.
There were so many different examples of these ambassadors going above and beyond but we wanted to highlight a few as some of them in particular done a stellar job in certain areas within the week itself. We have also referenced the Oriam value which they have portrayed –
- Luize Luse & Devon May (No Stone Left Unturned)
Luize who is part of the Promotions and Marketing Team done an exceptional job in helping the SU Staff Team with the branding and signage for the Watt Welcome Fair. She went above and beyond putting in the work for this event at the same time as volunteering in other areas and doing an academic project.
Devon who is the Alumni Executive Officer for this year came into Oriam the night before the Watt Welcome Fair to help the set-up team even though he was not meant to be on that shift. From being part of the event last year he was great in helping lead the team and make sure that everything was done correctly and done in a timely manner. Devon was a great role model to other volunteers who hadn’t worked the Fair before with his enthusiasm and leadership getting everyone through.
- Ellen Simpson & Jade Vincent Borde (Welcoming & Inclusive)
With one of Oriam’s key values being inclusive and welcoming, Ellen certainly did that with standing in the same corridor during the full duration of the Watt Welcome Fair to make sure that students knew how to get from one sports hall to the next. It was great to see how welcoming Ellen was interacting with each student throughout the day regardless of it being a long one and her being on her own.
With an influx of French exchange students coming to Heriot-Watt this year, Jade who is from France used this at her advantage and wasn’t just taken students on English Oriam Tours but was also taken students on French Oriam Tours! This being so inclusive to the French students and making them feel welcomed and part of the WattFamily!
- Jess Maciver (Solution Driven)
Last week there was a slight issue with the Tennis taster session with students showing up at Oriam instead of the taster location, therefore Jess who is one of our minibus drivers thought on her feet and helped the Club out by driving these students to the taster session! This is an excellent demonstration of leadership and taking initiative!