Celebrating Freshers’: The JCR & Fresher Rep Awards

 

Freshers’ Week is over for another year! I don’t know about everyone, but I have had an amazing two weeks! My own personal highlights include: the launch of our brand new nightclub, Pulse, testing the Wetness of Water, (it’s not only wet, but cold!), seeing all of our amazing clubs and societies at the Bunfight, grabbing some free pizza at the Freshers’ Fayre, tasting cheese and wine in The Bridge and watching Sub Focus at the Freshers’ Ball!

 

Possibly my best memory of the two weeks, and the cheesiest, was seeing thousands of new students, some who had never been away from home before, leave home, come to University, and have an amazing start to their time at the University of Southampton. The thing that made it extra special for me, was to see all of the volunteers I look after, making this happen! Not only did they provide the ideas for some of the amazing things that happened over the past two weeks, but they were instrumental in actually making sure the two weeks happened. From helping students move into their new flats, to getting on the buses and travelling to every event with the new students, all I know is, Freshers’ Week wouldn’t have been the same without them.

 

So, to focus on some of their achievements, we decided to hold the 2nd Annual JCR & Fresher Rep Awards.

 

Most Welcoming JCR

This was the first category of the night, and was awarded to the JCR that we thought had been the most welcoming to new students across the first weekend, whether that be through the amount of people who turned up to welcome the new students, and help them move in, or just the sheer presence of the JCR at the halls. The results were as follows:

Highly Commended: Liberty Point JCR

Winner: Connaught JCR

 

Best Dancer

Nominations for this award were from the JCR and Reps themselves, though I think for some of the nominations, you could replace ‘best’ with ‘worst’!  When all the nominations were counted, the results were as follows:

Highly Commended: Alex Brockman, Private Rented JCR

Winner: Simon Monk-Chipman, Bencraft JCR

 

Most Embarrassing Moment

Quite simply, this was awarded to the person who had made the biggest fool out of themselves during the week! I won’t post on here what they were awarded for, but if you know them, they might tell you! The results were as follows:

Highly Commended: Patrick Martinez-Brown, Monte JCR

Winner: Caroline Rogers, Archers Road JCR

 

Most Memorable Moment

Similar to the last category, this was awarded to the moment that the group thought was the most memorable over the two weeks. To save any embarrassment for the winner, I’ll let you ask them for the reason they won! The results are as follows:

Highly Commended: Neal Munyebvu, Archers Road JCR

Winner: Tom Wardle, Chamberlain JCR

Best Event

This was awarded to the best event that the JCRs ran over the        two weeks. Although we had loads of nominations for the    Freshers’ Ball, the winners were as follows:

 Highly Commended: T-Shirt Party, Connaught JCR

 Winner: ABC Party, Glen Eyre JCR

 

 

 

Best JCR Spirit

This was awarded to the JCR that we felt had represented themselves the best over the whole two weeks. Whether that was through all the students wearing their halls colours, or from some of the chants which carried over the music on club nights! The winners were as follows:

Highly Commended: Glen Eyre JCR

Winner: Chamberlain JCR

 

Best Volunteer

The penultimate award of the evening went to the JCR & Reps who were the best of the best over the whole two weeks. All nominations came from JCR and Reps themselves, making this award even more special! The winners were as follows:

Highly Commended: Kinara Rodrigues, Glen Eyre JCR

Highly Commended: Akshar Patel, Chamberlain JCR

Highly Commended: Alex Brockman, Private Rented JCR

Winner: Qhawe Bhunu-Ncube, Bencraft JCR

 

Best JCR

The final award of the evening was the biggie, the best JCR of the whole two weeks. This award went to the JCR who we felt had the best online presence, the best events, the most welcoming to all the students. This was a tough one to pick, as all the JCRs had been superb, but the winners were as follows:

Highly Commended: Private Rented JCR

Highly Commended: Highfield JCR

Highly Commended: Monte JCR

Winner: Archers Road JCR

 

With that, it brought to an end a fantastic evening of celebrating the success of some of our volunteers!

 

If you live in Halls, or are a first year living in Private Rented, and want to be on the JCR, then nominations for the JCR Elections open this Friday, 18th October! Check out our website later this week for more information on how to nominate yourself!