Hello, I'm Kyla. I'm a second year chemist and I'm the access and outreach rap for the Queens College, Oxford.
Welcome to the pilot episode of the Queen's Access podcast. It's so lovely to have you here.
And I hope you find this a useful resource and learning more about life at Oxford.
But more specifically, about life at the Queen's College.
My guest this week is Saren Ford, who's just finished her first year studying biochemistry and who acts as the female welfare app for the Queen's JCR.
She'll talk us through some aspects of her life at Oxford, and we'll have a chat about how Queen supports the welfare of its students.
I hope you enjoy. Hi, Sara.
How are you? I'm doing well, thank you. How are you? Yeah, I'm good.
Thanks so much for agreeing to talk to me. That's their problem.
So I think to Star, if you could just tell me a little bit about yourself, please, kind of, you know, way off from what your background is.
Yeah, sure. So I live in the southeast of England in Kent, and I went to a selective state grammar for both.
Yes, seven to eleven. And I changed school for sick form to a different state.
Selective grammar in London. So that sick for school was like very competitive to get in.
You have to set a paper for each subject. You want to do in a level in well.
And they had about 20 people go to Oxbridge every year because anyone from all over London where I live, which isn't in London, could get to it.
It was quite easy to travel to.
People came from all over to go there because I knew like a good track record with getting people into, like, group unis.
Yes. So I had quite a bit of support from school and could speak to people who had applied to Oxbridge.
I think no one in the past year had done biochemistry, which is the subject that I'm currently doing.
And I've just finished my first year. But still, the school had experience with people going off to do interviews and things like that.
Yes. You had kind of those resources available to access, if that's what you wanted to do.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, so tell me about your queen's journey.
So not just Oxford, but how did you specifically end up at Queen's?
So I came to Queen's via a quite interesting route, so I didn't apply to Queen's in the first place.
I applied to St John's because I couldn't really decide what college to go to and it was closed to the by chem department.
It had accommodation for all four years. So Queen's does this as well.
But some colleges you have to like, find a house in second year.
So I like that about St John's. And I thought the queen still does.
So I had an interview at St John's and maudlin. It's quite common for subjects to have an interview at more than one college.
Like for biochemistry, currently that happens for almost everyone.
And then I got an open offer underwritten by St John's.
So that basically means that I could have ended up at any college.
But if every space was full, St John's would have to take me kind of thing.
So then on results day, I found out I go into Queen's. So I hadn't even had the chance to look around Queen's on one of the open days.
So my first day of fresher's was the first time I'd even stepped foot into Queen's.
Well, I'm so glad I've ended up here. My college parents, they send everyone a letter in the welcome email you receive if you met your offer.
And then they answered all of my questions I had about the college or my subject
and helped me learn more about life at Queen's and made me feel really welcome. So I'm so glad I've ended up here.
Oh, that's lovely.
I think it's important to talk about that as well, because I don't think a lot of people are kind of fully aware how the OpenOffice system works.
I think it's really interesting to see your perspective from the definitely and my school.
So as I said,
I have quite a few people go to Oxbridge every year and my director of sexual thought teacher hadn't ever encountered anyone with an open offer.
They didn't know what that was or what it meant, really. So there is information about it online, but not a lot.
Well, thank you for. Thank you for sharing that with us with us today. So what do you think is the best thing about studying biochemistry at Oxford?
Because as you say, you were the first person like nobody in the air above you applied for biochem.
So what do you think makes biochem special? Oxford so the boy can.
Department of Oxford is so good and it's reading really big as well.
I know a lot of other unis by chemistry sort of seen as a bit of a niche subject.
But here the department is so big. And also there are a lot of contact hours, others with almost all the STEM degrees the Oxford does.
So you have like lectures, classes, tutorials and practicals.
And that allows you, even though it is quite hectic at times and you do have quite a lot of work,
it allows you to develop and develop a really good understanding of the subject.
And I think that's really one of the strengths of the class.
The amount of different things that you do like different subject areas, because biochemistry isn't just like biology plus chemistry.
It's a whole lot of other things. And you get to learn in all sorts of different ways.
And every Friday and first you have like basically a whole day in the lab.
So by Chemistry Oxford, it's definitely someone I'd recommend to study biochemistry specifically.
Brilliant. So we were talking then about contract hours and how you.
It was a split, so you give me an idea of kind of what does a week look like in your life, both academically and personally at Oxford?
Yeah, sure. So the typical week varies quite a lot between the different years in the biochemistry course the first year.
Every Friday, I had a lab day, so that was sort of four or five hours in the lab.
I had about two classes a week, which is went to different colleges that biochem students get together and go over the answers
to a problem sheet that could be on mats or biological chemistry or biophysical chemistry.
And then I had about 10 lectures every week.
It did vary a little bit. Sometimes it was more like twelve. And then about one tutorial I had some weeks with, like, no tutorials.
And then one week in the town that's just gone.
I had three in one week. So it sort of averages out to about one a week.
And that's quite standard for biochemistry. Mm hmm. And then around this is like social things.
I started learning to row in classic Oxford fashion.
The river was really high during this past academic year.
So it was a lot of just during the whole of rowing machine. But we didn't get to go out a couple of times.
Did you enjoy learning to row? Yeah. It was really, really welcoming because some sports at Oxford,
they have very competitive teams and things like that where people have been doing
that sport all their lives and they come to Oxford to sort of continue doing it.
But with rowing, it's something that almost no one has done before.
So it's you don't have the sort of pressure, like if you want to try something new.
And that's what I really enjoyed about it. Like, I haven't done that much sport before coming to Oxford, so getting involved in something like that.
Or sorry. So again, a friendly was really nice. Yeah, definitely.
And then what do you kind of what do you fit in in your downtime.
So when you're not, when you're not rowing, when you're not doing academics, kind of when you're not doing structured social events.
How do you how do you relax?
So one of the things I did do during a second term, which is known as Hillary of Oxford all the time to help Strange Night,
is that I learnt to knit as part of a project that was making a blanket for charity.
So I learnt how to do that. So that was quite cool.
And as part of the LGBTQ plus Çok, I met friends that we like, watched wrinkles, dry greys and stuff like Bob.
So that was really nice.
So societies are a good way to meet people from all the colleges that have similar interests as yourself and the college ball.
Even though I don't drink, alcohol was a really nice place to go in the evenings and meet up with friends and have a chat.
And the same for the JCR Common Room. Yeah.
So just I'll just quickly explain for those of you who are listening who might not be familiar with the term JCR Starns Virginia Common Room,
and it represents both a body of people and a physical room that happens in college.
So the Genea Common Room is room in college that has like we've got a TV and a
PlayStation thing and a kitchen and sofas and it's just a nice social space.
It's always open. But the JCR is also a body of students.
So the JCR represents all of the undergraduates in the college. I believe you can opt in or opt out, but the majority of students opt into JCR.
There's a committee called the JCR executive where there's different rep.
So one of the things that I'm talking about with Seren later on in this episode is that Saren acts as the female welfare rep.
I act as the access and outreach rep. So their positions that you can run for within the JCR.
So I just thought I cleared up because I remember being quite confused about what the JCR actually was before I got to work with.
Yeah, there's a lot of folks with specific language, but you want your hair.
You do get to grips with it very quickly. It's just quite disorientating at first.
Yeah, definitely. Well, moving on then, given that we've just talked about it.
So you as I said, the female welfare for JCR. So what does that job entail?
What are your responsibilities within that role? So the term occiput is eight weeks long and in fifth week for all across the universe.
That's known as Welfare Week. So what am I alone with a male welfare rep?
Do is help run events to give people some like added downtime and different ways to enjoy themselves.
So we work, run like JTR, dance in the morning and JCR sort of t's like 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon and movie nights and hot
chocolate and different things like that because the term is shorter than most other universities.
So the workload is quite compressed. So you have a lot going on.
So it's nice to have that sort of halfway mark. So like you, you're more than halfway.
And just to give people a bit of a breather. Yeah, definitely.
As well as running that, my main job is sort of to signpost people to the qualified people,
like the welfare officer in Queens as well as other sort of staff who was specific for welfare or different issues,
as well as just to be that to like have a chat with people if they want that.
And also in terms of like specific places for people to get help.
The Humans of Queens Facebook page has a couple of posts where people talk about how Queens supported them with mental health issues.
So that's a good place to look like people have talked about their experience with the disability advisory service expert.
So that's a unique Y thing to help discuss different options and put things in place early.
So you will have support when you arrive here and they can continue to support you throughout your whole time at Oxford.
For example, encouraging you to apply for funding for disabled students and things like that.
Yeah, no, it's it's it's really nice. I think a point to mention as well would be.
So Sarah and I are quite good friends and we have gone on quite a few welfare dog walks that she's organised.
So do you want to tell the podcast about Bailey, the border collie?
Yeah. So it started when my the previous female welfare rep for the Queen's JCR.
There's a website called Borrow My Doggy and you can basically just take someone's dog who signed up to this.
Go meet them at their house and take the dog for a walk.
So then during the past, before Cobh and I did it sort of like every other week, basically taking a valy,
the border collie who was really, really sweet for a walk or on the Christchurch Meadows so anyone could come.
We have a JCR Facebook page, and I just put a little post on there saying if you want to come of this time, gonna go for a walk.
And people really, really enjoyed that. And I was so glad because some colleges do have like a college cap or college torture's or something.
The queen doesn't have any college pads.
So it was nice to do something like this for people who do miss their pets and also just want to get out in Christchurch Meadows,
which is a really lovely place to walk around.
Yeah, it was really nice and it was really nice to have that kind of set time to decompress because it stopped you.
You know, I know personally I can spend a couple of hours kind of scrolling aimlessly through Instagram.
I think it was really nice to be able to have a dedicated kind of two hours where we did just go for a walk with a very, very cute dog.
Have a nice time. So when we were talking about stress earlier.
So Oxford's an academic powerhouse and it's often viewed from the outside as like it would be a very stressful environment.
So how important do you think the university considers student welfare?
So I think Oxford as an institution could still be doing a lot more.
But the atmosphere between the students is very supportive.
It doesn't really feel like competitive in a way.
And there is also a lot of support on offer.
So we have the JCR welfare reps like me. Everyone has a moral sheesha.
So this term varies in name between the different colleges.
But what it basically means, it's one of the tutors at Queens who does your subjects,
who may or may not necessarily give you tutorials, but they are someone who you go show you if you have any problems.
Queens has a dedicated welfare officer and we also have a dean who is the head of sort of discipline on welfare.
You go to as well as the junior deans who are DFL students.
So they're sort of currently doing a P.H. day at Oxford. So they're a little bit older and they have training.
So from, I think eight p.m. to eight a.m. So if someone's had like a mental health crisis in the night,
you can phone them via the lodge and the lodge.
I don't know. Carla, do you want to sort of explain what that is? And then I can talk about how it sort of links to welfare.
Yeah, of course. So the largest, the porter's lodge. So Queen's, as with all Oxford colleges, has a dedicated rota of porters.
They are in the lodge 24 hours every day, including Christmas.
They're very committed and they deal with a lot of things in Queens.
So they deal with a lot of the security. So they watch the security cameras.
They make sure that nobody comes into Queens who isn't supposed to.
So Queens is closed to tourists. So they kind of they patrolled the they so everybody's post that.
People you go to if you've lost your key. If you've got a university card that just generally kind of the first port of call if anything's gone wrong.
But one of the main things about the courses is if you have any kind of issue, you can always contact them and they'll sign posted to some people.
So to give an example of kind of how important the lodge are in the running of college
is if something happens and you have an accident and you need to call an ambulance.
One of your friends calls nine nine nine while the other calls the Lodge like they're all very important.
They help to sign post. If any medical needs to come into college, they can tell them exactly where you are.
They can take you to them. Everybody has the largest number in their phone and they're also really good in that you can call them.
If you're generally having a bit of a crisis, you can call them even if you're not in Queens at the time.
So if any kind of event happens outside of college and you need to be picked up, you can ring the lodge.
They're very accessible. Another thing to mention as well, which isn't strictly welfare related sort of is,
is the pool of the lodges in Oxford are open to all Oxford students.
So even though you kind of it's not necessarily, you know, you're wandering in and out of colleges all the time.
What it does mean is that if you're in a situation where you feel that you're in danger or you feel that you need immediate health,
you can go into the nearest college, which realistically is probably very near.
The colleges are everywhere. You can go into the nearest college, speak to that porters, and they will contact the queen's porters.
They'll give you any help you need. So the porters are really good resources.
Arzamas saying you can contact the Dunedin's via the lodge and they can help with mental health crisis's.
They can help with any kind of problems you're having.
They can also help if people have perhaps had too much to drink and they're not exactly in the safe situation.
So what kind of things to seran? Do you want to take over from them? Yeah, sure.
Thanks. I was really good explanation of how the lodge runs.
So as Carla said, everyone has the Queen's Lodge mobile phone number so you can phone them at any time.
And for example, in a case of assault or something like that, they can phone you a taxi if you need to go to the hospital or a specific place.
And again, as Carla said, that's how you can get in contact with the junior deans.
So they all so wonderful that all such lovely people and they all, I think, may be kind of a sort of underrated welfare resource like they are.
They know exactly what's going on in college. They know how to get you the help you need.
Mm hmm. Yeah. Know, definitely. I think that's true. I don't imagine Eighteens got enough kind of appreciation on.
I didn't know they even existed until I go into Freshers Week and we had to acquire them.
And I mean, I personally have never called them. But there's certainly been times where I've been glad that they are there in a situation.
It's kind of been like I think this can be dealt with with the people who are in this situation.
But as a backup, we know that we can. Eighteens on one June 18 lives in each of the queen's buildings.
So they are very, very, very accessible. So one lives in Carrodus Quad one lives and all dates will miss and call it out.
So no matter what year of college you're in, if you're in a queen's building as a junior, Jane.
Very, very close to you. So they're always there to help.
So I think well, I was going to ask kind of what support is available to somebody struggling at Queen's.
But I feel like we've probably covered that. Is there anything else you'd want to offer?
So in terms of just a couple of things to add.
There was also a college nurse and the college is linked to like a GP service on Beaumont Street that you can go to.
And then there's also the Disability Advisory Service, which can which is a union wide thing I mentioned earlier,
that can help in terms of like mental health, like long term problems, and then getting you sort of disability funding and things like that.
Yeah. Now, I think they're both really important resources.
I know I've certainly hit up Beaumont Street a couple of times with some pretty rough cases of freshers flu.
So, yeah, is a very useful resource. And also I fall over a lot.
So by college man, this is probably need me to bandage my knee know. So it's been so lovely talking to you.
I feel as my last question, I'd ask you a bit of a general thing. So what is your favourite thing about college and why?
So there are so many things I like about Queens.
One of the things that I found most useful in first year was how much the second Jesus supported us and got to know us.
So that was really great to find all sorts of bits of advice because Precious Week is only a week long,
but it isn't really long enough to tell you sort of all the workings of the university and the college
and how we don't sort of subject works and all the different things going on like the end of term event,
for example. So that was really lovely to be a seller of a college ball, as I mentioned earlier, even for people who don't drink.
It's a really nice place to go and like, chill out in the evenings.
And I know that alcohol is sometimes something that people are quite concerned about.
So I don't drink alcohol and I've never felt pressured to drink alcohol, even though the vast majority of my friends do drink.
So I thought something that you are concerned about, I would I sort of don't worry too much about it.
And you could people so always come speak to us.
One of the welfare reps or the welfare officer or anybody like that, if you do have concerns about that sort of thing.
But yeah, the second year were so useful for us and I hope that we won't be useful for you to this group.
So, yeah, I think college parenting is a really important resource as well.
It's Lee always talk about.
I relied on my college parents a law that was a topic I was struggling with and I told my college father I was struggling with it.
And about three days later, he sent me about five different links to PowerPoint presentations, explained it.
And he was like, Oh, I don't even study this.
Vanimo but I went online and found some stuff because yes, I know that because I didn't take his A-levels.
So he hit me with a lot of this as its content. And that was I was reading off. Well, thank you so much for talking to me.
I really appreciate that. I've really enjoyed this little chat and I think it's been really useful.
Oh, me, too. Thank you so much for having me. No problem. Have a lovely week.
You too. OK. I'll speak to you soon. Bye. Thank you so much to seran for that insightful conversation.
And a massive thank you to all of you who listened.
There are loads more access resources on the Queen's College website at W W W Dot Queen's Dot Oxford or AC Dot UK Forward slash access dash outreach.
And you can find out more about the college in general through its website, Twitter and Instagram.