In progress: The Campus 50 Challenge

Some of you may have seen from my previous blog post that Andy King set me a challenge yesterday. Here is the list which I shall keep regularly updated over the course of my degree to portray my achievements. The challenge began at around 10pm on 22 May 2013. You can see Andy’s progress here. Our friend Annmarie is also taking part – here is her list!

THE CHALLENGES

1. Feed the campus wildlife – The ducks that got trapped in International House garden. Also saved them, which should get me extra points (see photo evidence).
2. Hand in an essay early – Handed one in a week early because I had two due on the same day.
3. Busk on campus for charity – MaRaWthon charity fundraiser on the piazza, the show ‘Insight’, February 2013 and 2014.
4. Kiss someone out of your league – Never kiss and tell.
5. Teach someone something (whether small or large) – Have taught Daniel Cope various things including ‘don’t wear that shirt with that jumper’. On a more serious note, I have taught Boar editors how to use InDesign and the website.
6. Study in every library that exists on campus – Sadly, this has been done. Aside from the BioMed Grid, which I don’t have access to as an English student!
7. Make your own booze – Courge-brini in Southampton. The less said about this, the better (see photo evidence).
8. Have an incredibly elaborate picnic on a uni green space one lunch time – For Andy King‘s birthday on 9 June 2013.
9. Audit a lecture completely out of your field – Went to an MA Physics lecture with Cayo Sobral on 21 November 2014. It was awful. Never again. At least I know I took the right degree, I suppose?
10. Go to the careers office and speak to them completely honestly (whatever your thoughts and fears, loves and hates… – Apparently I’m a good candidate for journalism, so that’s okay!
11. Start a conga at a big union night. See how long you can get it, before leading it as far from the music as possible (if you can get it to a house party or another club night, regardless of task completion, you win the challenge) – At the Warwick Summer Party 2014. Band ‘By The Rivers’ asked us to start conga lines, and admittedly the other line was much longer, but random strangers still joined my line so it definitely counts.
12. Take part in a protest – Reported on them for the Boar. Lots. I was there!
13. Write for every section of the Boar – I have written for News, Comment, Money, Features, Science & Technology, Music, Games, TV, Film, Books, Arts, Lifestyle, Travel and Sport.
14. If you think a lecture was particularly good, try and instigate a standing ovation – I saved this for my last ever lecture, thinking it would be most effective. In fact, even the applause was so lacklustre I ended up having to turn my “standing ovation” into packing my stuff away. How embarrassing.
15. Give your parents an in-depth tour of all the great stuff you do and love at university (It’ll make for an amazing trip for them, and make them feel happy whenever they think of you at university) – Year 1, Term 1, Week 6. They laughed at my job.
16. Win a pub quiz – So basically, I came second in one and Andy King won one by default as he was the only team to enter. Neither of us did any better than this so we decided it counted and called it quits.
17. Go on a blind date – Went to RAG’s blind speed dating event. Slightly cringey but absolutely hilarious and in the end, surprisingly a lot of fun!
18. Pull a postgraduate – Yeah.
19. Celebrate something by doing the classic shake up a bottle of champagne and spraying it all over yourself and everywhere (or at least do it with sparkling wine..!) – At midnight on 1 January 2015, which was also the end of my 21st birthday. No photo or video due to it being pitch black but Olivia Unsworth-Brown can confirm!
20. Go inside (and have a little explore of) every building that is part of the University – Andy King and I did this together on 15 June 2015, and it was the last challenge I completed, which I thought was very appropriate. We discovered a lot of new places and became nostalgic about others.
21. Become a wise mentor for a Fresher doing your course. Tell them what you wish you’d known – I had a Fresher emailing me before term began asking for advice. I hope it says with her for the rest of her university career!
22. Learn a new sport or instrument or activity that you never thought you would – I have learned how to use equipment in a radio studio.
23. Make a difference to a society – I won three Boar awards in 2014, a RaWard in 2015, and the Outstanding Contribution to the Union award for 2014-15 (see photo evidence).
24. Get an internship – With the Guardian in April 2014!
25. Run a society/club circle – Boar News circle, 9 October 2013.
26. Take part in an open mic night – Warwick’s Open M(us)ic on 17 February 2014. My poem was called ‘On Repeat’.
27. Sing at karaoke – Boaraoke, Year 1, Term 2. Sung ‘Forget You’ by Cee Lo Green with Ann Yip and Chris Hackett. There is video evidence which I shall not divulge.
28. Ask someone out who you don’t have a chance with – Let’s just not go there.
29. Forgive yourself for doing a “useless” degree – While travelling abroad, I discovered that the reputation of Warwick as a university has gone far, even across the other side of the world. People found the fact that I was studying English Literature there even more impressive: for once, I felt like I wasn’t studying a “useless” subject after all!
30. Go on a RAG Raid – I’ve been on a few, but my favourite was East African Playgrounds’ London raid, where I was the top fundraiser of the group and raised £208! Photo evidence here.
31. Be involved in a RaW show – I regularly take part in RaW News’ Insight, and have been a guest on other shows. See my audio portfolio for evidence:
32. Be published in INK magazine – Year 2, Term 2. I wrote a poem called ‘Cracking Walls’.
33. Make a zombie apocalypse plan with your housemates – Evidence is on the back of our living room door (Year 2).
34. Take part in an election campaign – Helped Andy King and Bambi Pierce with their election campaigns in my final year!
35. Do a student adventure – I am an adventure leader for Warwick RAG’s trek across Uganda over summer 2015, along with Andy King.
36. Make a friend from a country you haven’t made a friend from before – One of my best friends, Ann Yip, is from Hong Kong.
37. Watch the Super Bowl in the atrium – Did this in my final year with Andy King and George Creasy. Check out my work on it for RaW here.
38. Go to a student cinema event – Watched Kung Fu Panda at the outdoor screening of Year 1, Term 3, Week 10, and Beauty and the Beast in Year 3, Term 3, Week 10.
39. Win a pub golf event – Myself and Matt Jones both got a hole in one at every pub on my housemate’s birthday (not sure whether to be proud of this or not). Year 3, Term 1, Week 6 (see photo evidence). 
40. Win a competition representing Warwick – As the news editor of the Boar I contributed to the win of Student Publication of the Year for 2013. Still very proud!
41. Cook for your flatmates – I have cooked various meals with Daniel Cope, and I also made brownies for our ‘International Tea Party’ (see photo evidence).
42. Attend three Varsity games, preferably one every year of your degree – Saw women’s and men’s lacrosse in my second year, and attended the ice hockey in my final year.
43. Learn the names of everyone in your seminars – Managed this in first year. Pretty sure I’ll struggle now though as my seminar groups are huge!
44. Doodle something impressive in a lecture – This definitely counts, right?!
45. Give a society you’ve pre-judged an honest chance – I thought Warwick Jailbreak was crazy. I did Jailbreak in 2013 and yes, it was indeed crazy. My assumptions were correct!
46. Be in a WSAF (Warwick Student Arts Festival) performance – The Night of Decadence on 24 June 2013 and the Warwick Pole Showcase on 22 June 2015 (see photo evidence).
47. Graduate physically fitter than you’ve ever been – I ran a half marathon before graduation, and I never would have been able to do that before! Read about it here.
48. Get a first on an essay – In my first essay of second year, so proud of this achievement!
49. Work out what I want in both personal and professional lives five years from graduation – I am absolutely desperate to become a journalist, and I now know that there is absolutely nothing else I can do as a career except that, otherwise I will be disappointed. I know that I want to be working at a local newspaper or magazine, aiming to work my way up the career ladder, and I wish to be stable in my personal life with complete independence from my parents and have my own flat.
50. Circle at a different university – The University of Southampton with Joseph Mattocks. Roxanne, Red Light was one of the highlights.

Completed: 50