Citizenship Project: Celebrating International Women’s Day

Pictured: Palmer's EPAS Ambassadors with MP Jen Craft for International Women's Day.

As part of USP College's EPAS spring term program, the EPAS groups in Seevic and Palmer's campus ran a variety of citizenship projects. This Palmer's-based group focused on International Women's Day and included the following EPAS ambassadors: Nabilah Haque, Jen Rodwell, Tia Belchambers, Beatriz De Souza, Kacper Gala, Grace Mitchell, and Harry Jagger.

Project:

We decided to focus on celebrating International Women’s Day and bring awareness to Palmer's campus in USP College. Our main aim was to inform, educate and celebrate the achievements of women across the world who fought and advocated for the many rights that we now have today. 

We began with Jen and Beatriz setting up the bake sale at 8:30 providing chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes and hot chocolate. We raised over £150 and have donated this to a local domestic abuse charity called Changing Pathways. After this at 11:45, we set up a rosette making workshop. This was a great success with students making colourful rosettes, inspired by the Suffragettes and rosettes being a key symbol of their fight for women’s rights. It is also a reminder that the struggle for gender equality continues today. At 13:00 we had our local MP Jen Craft come in and talk to our students in the theatre about what it is like to be a woman in politics. This was a great success as many students asked questions and enjoyed the talk, giving many the inspiration to get involved in politics. 

Pictured: Bake sale at Palmer's.

Pictured: Poster advertising the bake sale and International Women's Day.

Pictured: Rosettes made in the style of the original Suffragette rosettes.

There were issues communicating with different College departments, but we were able to overcome this and communicate with teams in person, so the event was able to still run smoothly. 

Pictured: The EPAS display board for International Women's Day including famous female figures from history.

Another improvement we could make is reserving more time to focus on decorating the room so that we could have a lot more emphasis on the Rosette making event. Again, we were able to adjust our time and organise a successful event on the day. 

Overall, our day did run according to plan. Challenges did arise during the day, but we managed to sell all of our cupcakes and cookies, raising money for a worthy local cause.  Our efforts were also recognised by a local MP who came down to talk to our student body.