It’s been a couple of weeks since we had our first Aspiring Leaders Camp at the Urdd Centre, Llangrannog. Nineteen students joined us for a weekend of team building, leadership training, group activities, gaining an insight about the SU and of course, meeting new people and socialising outside of Aberystwyth.
Arriving on the afternoon of Friday 15th February, we were greeted by the wonderful staff at the centre and having had some time to settle in, we got straight into our first training session, which aimed to help identify everyone’s current personal leadership journey and goals. But it wasn’t all just classroom based, students also got to take part in some fun team building games before we ended our first day with an evening quiz hosted by Molly, our Wellbeing Officer!
“The social games during and after training were really great.“
Day 2 and it was back in the classroom again, but this time the sessions were run by ‘Stand and be counted’. Leading and representing others were the themes of the training, with a key part of the session focussing on how everyone already has the skills to be a great leader, and that leadership isn’t something out of reach! With the morning sessions complete, students enjoyed having a go at archery which was one of the favourite activities of the weekend.
“One of my favourite parts of the weekend was the talks on what a leader meant. The group training and the archery was a much welcomed break.”
With archery over, our afternoon sessions focussed on how students can create change, as well how they can fully make use of the Students’ Union to play a more active role in campus life. With the sessions at an end, the Saturday evening was a chance to socialise further and take part in a murder mystery!
Sunday was our final day, and we ended the weekend by bringing all that had been learnt together through reflection, goal setting and a final team building game.
“The pasta and marshmallow tower task was really fun and was a good ice breaker to start and end the weekend with.”
The weekend was a positive experience for everyone involved and we hope this won’t be last of our Aspiring Leaders Camps! This year, it was the generosity of Aberystwyth Alumni that allowed us to run this camp, so we’d like to say a huge thank you to AberFund for helping us make this happen!
