Queen Mary English Society

I co-founded and have served as Vice President of this very successful university society. Forming the society was in reaction to there not being a body representing Queen Mary's English students, despite the universities English department being among the highest ranking in the UK. Initially we marketed the society through Facebook and secured Student's Union funding and departmental affiliation and endorsement. With the positive reaction we had, we were able to recruit and interview to put in place an executive committee of English students; delegating them responsibilities. With the infrastructure in place, we moved to engage our community straightaway with a number of popular social events, such as pub quizzes and a nightclub takeover for the launch of our online journal publication (which serves as an archive of all the creative, academic or journalistic writing/expression students want to share). We also arranged a number of events including guest lectures from `Elliot Grove of the Raindance Film Festival and a panel debate on the future of journalism featuring writers from the FT and The Guardian. Additionally, we established revision groups and also reading groups just for the enjoyment of literature. We also organised a very successful alumni evening where many past Queen Mary English students from a diverse range of careers (tv, journalism, publishing) attended and shared experiences with current students. We were able to secure affiliation with the Royal Shakespeare Company; entitling our society to free tickets that were given away in prize draws, and also group membership with the Royal Society of Literature; who granted our society 200 tickets to distribute among our members. We were able to celebrate the end of the academic year with a Shakespearean themed Ball for which I was responsible for securing venue and catering and arranging for musicians to perform.