FOREVER: KEELE - Keele University

Winner of the Best Team
Member Award Keele Key
Fund Telethon 2012
Telethon 2012
A team of thirty student ambassadors
called alumni during November to share
experiences of Keele and to invite support
for the Keele Key Fund. We thank all our
alumni for the time they spent on the
phone with our team of students – and
for their support. We also want to thank
our callers for their commitment to Keele.
Telethon Team Roll of Honour 2012
Manager: Athena Wilson (2010)
Deputy Manager: Zoe Richards
Team: Samuel Bercik, Stephanie Boateng,
Tom Bowen, Madeline Campion, Matthew
Christopher, Nancy Chuchu, Kulthum
Dambatta, Joseph Forsyth, Samuel Hill,
Lizzie Hunter, Kathleen Johnson, Davina
Kanani, Ayisha Karim, Ambreen Mizra,
Christopher Murphy, Bhavini Patel, Afra
Rasheed, Stephanie Rawson, Taliah Safavi,
Amnah Shaikh, Kate Sidwick, Lawrence
Snelgrove, Victoria Spencer, Embri Stuart,
Louise Taylor, Kirsty Trent, Emma Walker,
Jessica Willis, Lucinda Witts.
Over five years the Key Fund has received
pledges of over £500,000 to enhance the
student experience and environment at
Keele. This year we added pledges of a
further £102,144 for the Key Fund.
More and more applications for awards are
being received as students discover just how
influential they can be. The Disbursement
Committee looks for new projects that
enhance the student experience and the
campus, adding these to over 30 projects
that have already been supported.
The great majority of awards benefit
students directly through volunteering,
co-curricular or study-related projects, but
the Key Fund Disbursement Committee
also wants students to enjoy the campus.
We are considering the restoration of
the legendary ‘clock with no hands’ in
the Clock House and the renovation of
the famous (or infamous) Amphitheatre.
These are just the latest in a series of
heritage and campus improvements that
bring new life to the place we called home
for a while and which remains our homefrom-home
forever.
“I joined the telethon team because
I wanted to get more involved at Keele. I
had never worked in this way before and
I thought I would gain some new skills and
enjoy being part of a team.
“I learned a lot about Keele’s history.
I hadn’t heard about the original Foundation
Year before (I soon learned always to call
it FY) but it sounds like a fantastic idea! I
already loved Keele – the campus and the
feel of the ‘bubble’ – but I now understand
so much more why Keele is special
and different.
“I also learned a lot about myself. I wasn’t
sure whether I could make conversation
with people I didn’t know and I had no
idea what to expect before each call. My
most memorable conversation was with a
woman who had worked at the Ministry of
Defence and with the Army. She inspired
me to open my mind up to options I had
never even imagined before. All the alumni
gave me helpful advice but she suggested
some unexpected and exciting ideas.
“My plans for the future are still a bit vague
– joining the Police, maybe – but my dream
would be to become a Scenes of Crime
Investigator. I teach dance too, so who
knows whether something might come of
that? That’s in the future, but for now I am
glad I made some new Keele friends in the
telethon team. I am proud that we were
able to have some successful and enjoyable
conversations with alumni. I hope they
enjoyed them too.”
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