A day of celebration for our 2021 Essay Competition finalists
With over 6,000 applicants, Northeastern University London’s 2021 Essay Competition has been our biggest yet. Our lucky finalists (the top 5%!) were invited to our celebratory event, welcoming students and their families to our beautiful new campus in St. Katharine Docks.
Guests were greeted in our hub and offered fresh pastries provided by Natural Kitchen – a delicious local café just minutes away from the university. After a wholesome breakfast, guests were brought into one of our many high-tech lecture rooms, kickstarting the event with our first lecture of the day. Northeastern University London’s beloved Brian Butler explained the benefits of our liberal arts-inspired degrees; the major-minor structure allowing students to explore a range of disciplines and broaden their future career options. He also explained Northeastern University London’s attractive tutorial system, providing students with invaluable time with their lecturers. Brian encouraged our students to get to know their fellow finalists, who were positively keen to get involved, providing a taster of the networking techniques we develop in our LAUNortheastern University London (Life After Northeastern University London) programme.
After a short break, fellow Student Ambassadors Libby and Mia hosted an impressive workshop on Personal Branding and How to Use LinkedIn, explaining the importance of developing an effective profile in our ever-changing and often unpredictable world of work. Several of the parents were understandably in awe of their confidence and professionalism, with the practical benefits of LAUNortheastern University London clearly active in driving students to improve their career-based skills.
Following their engaging talk, our Student Ambassadors were eager to show guests around our bright and spacious new campus. With unbeatable views of The Thames and Tower Bridge, ample study space and state-of-the-art lecture rooms, it was a pleasure to show off what Northeastern University London has to offer. Guests seemed particularly impressed by our fully ventilated classrooms and recording facilities in every room providing much needed reassurance of consistent, high-quality teaching in the event of possible COVID-19 changes.
By this stage, both students and parents alike had certainly worked up an appetite and were provided a lunch of assorted wraps and sandwiches, which unsurprisingly, didn’t last long.
Once everyone was well fed, our finalists were treated to an informative and insightful talk from three of our alumni, detailing their varying paths and experiences of life after Northeastern University London. It was inspiring to see where you can end up as a graduate from Northeastern University London. Following this, hosting moved from past to current students. We split up our guests, putting the parents in the safe hands of Brian, and sent our finalists to subject-led sessions run by our ambassadors, to give them a taste of what it’s like to study their chosen subject at university-level.
Each session provided a useful outline of the various course combinations, entry requirements for each subject and a typical ‘Day in the Life’. More importantly, it was a great opportunity for our finalists to hear directly from students about their university experiences, advising them on accommodation, eating well and exploring London on a budget.
Conversations continued well into the afternoon over delicious canapes of mini beef sliders, falafel and hummus, chocolate cones and lemon meringue tarts. Guests enjoyed bottomless bubbly to finish the evening, and the day overall was certainly successful in showing the incredible opportunities Northeastern University London has to offer.
If you would like to know more about our essay competition or you would like to enter our annual Year 12 Essay Competition click HERE