SELA recently celebrated its official launch with an event
held in the Pam Liversidge building. Although the SELA cohort have been hard at
work together for a good couple of months already, the opportunity was taken to
introduce the cohort, the SELA board, and the motivations and purpose of SELA
to a wider group of people from across the university.
As the cohort arrived the smart casual dress code afforded
the room an air of sophistication usually uncharacteristic of university
students; many of us were nervous to introduce SELA, a concept that had already
become a much-loved part of our weekly schedule, to a wider audience with
varying degrees of knowledge about the programme. However the tone was positive
and relaxed as our guests started to arrive and began to chat with the cohort.
The guests included the staff and heads of various engineering departments, and
other university departments which have been supporting SELA’s development.
Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Mike Hounslow kicked off the
official proceedings with a speech highlighting the growing need for leadership
skills in undergraduate engineering education.
He then passed over to Neil Hopkinson, SELA director, who
presented an interesting talk about the history of SELA, from its initial
conception as a manufacturing leadership academy, through the administrative
processes involved in getting it off the ground, all the way up to where it
stands today.
After Neil’s speech the room was afforded a glimpse into
SELA from the perspective of two members of the cohort: James and Saheela. They
spoke about their opinion on what makes SELA a positive and enriching
experience for undergraduate engineers. James mentioning the positives of
SELA’s diversity and Saheela highlighting how SELA will help to strengthen
relationships between the university and industry.
And so ended the official proceedings of the event. The
cohort and guests stayed for a while after the speeches, making connections and
talking about their enthusiasm for what they had heard. As the food was
finished off and the room began to empty it gave us a chance to reflect on the
event. Overall it had been a great success, we had been given the opportunity
to talk to academic staff in an environment that would have been otherwise unavailable to us and
introduce them to our exciting project and our great team. The guests seemed to
leave with the same enthusiasm for SELA that we hold ourselves and many
valuable connections had been made.
So that was it, the countdown was over, SELA was launched
and the only way now is up.
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