{"id":11375,"date":"2023-09-20T09:36:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T09:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/?p=11375"},"modified":"2024-05-07T12:59:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T12:59:35","slug":"a-chance-to-discover-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/09\/20\/a-chance-to-discover-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey Of Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CONNECTED speaks to graduate, Jacky Pearce, about her first year memories from Reading and the impact joining societies had on her university experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"JackyJacky, who studied Ancient History<\/a>, joined Reading in 1990. Alongside her studies Jacky decided to make the most of her university experience and joined three societies \u2013 the Ski Club, the RAG<\/a> (Raise and Give) Society and the Atrebates Society (now the Classics Society<\/a>). Jacky found joining a variety of societies in her first year a great opportunity to really discover herself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A continued interest<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Before joining Reading, Jacky was already a member of the Southampton Skistylers ski club and keen to continue while at university. \u201cIt was the largest freestyle ski club of its kind in England, certainly at the time. We\u2019d have weekly practice of both ballet and aerial freestyle skiing. The aerials became an Olympic sport and I got to train with some members of the British Squad and Olympian Richard Cobbing when he was in the area,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

As soon as she had the chance, she sought out a ski club at Reading. She remembered: \u201cWe always went to the nearby Bracknell Ski Centre, although, understandably, there was no option to practice the more dangerous aerials.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the only freestyler, doing leg breakers, front tip rolls, spins and the occasional jump over my poles. I\u2019d have to walk across campus with my specialist skis and poles each week to our collection point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacky was grateful for the chance Reading gave her to continue with the interests she had acquired prior to university. She said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that the University has a range of clubs and societies to help you keep up with your favourite interests. I certainly appreciated it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/strong>In the name of charity<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As well as keeping up with her existing interests, Jacky also threw herself into new adventures and joined the RAG Society. RAG raises money for various local, national and international charities. For Jacky, joining RAG was a memorable moment.<\/p>\n

Jacky said: \u201cRAG was important to me as I really wanted to help raise money. I joined a little way into my first year, and before the end of the year had been asked to join the committee as the Charities Co-ordinator. I was thrilled as no other committee member was in their first year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job was to receive all the letters from charities asking for help \u2013 the \u2018begging letters\u2018 as they were known \u2013 and to weed them down to a shortlist for the committee to vote on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the years the RAG Society has been known for its more creative forms of fundraising, including the famous RAG week, which is a week-long fundraising event. Jacky recalls the RAG carnival and how the RAG Society would go national.<\/p>\n

Jacky said: \u201cThere would be floats to represent different halls, which would be decorated and paraded around town to raise money. Unfortunately, as I was in Wessex Hall, the smallest hall, our float was very basic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe national RAG Raid was where universities across the country descended on London for the day, trying to get as many people as possible to donate. By the end of the day, I think the vast majority of London was wearing a RAG sticker, if only to ward off more Raggers from getting them to open their purses and wallets!\u201d Jacky explained.  But it wasn\u2019t all fun and games. Jacky said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe fun stopped when I had to seriously go through the various charities’ letters. There was no way we could help them all, even with the best will in the world, and I felt so guilty about that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“There was me, still a teenager, with all this responsibility and so many charities were so worthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/strong>Something different<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jacky\u2019s university experience wasn\u2019t all fundraising. She also joined a society related to her studies called the Atrebates Society \u2013 the Classics Society which took their name from the large tribe (the Atrebates) during the late Iron Age and Roman period.<\/p>\n

Jacky recalled the events led by the \u201cindomitable\u201d Professor Tessa Rajak. She said: \u201cThat marvellous indomitable professor with the heart of a slush puppy, specialised in ancient religion.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOne thing she wanted to do was an Atrebates procession , involving all the members of the society, and shown to whomever would come to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jacky found herself in a key role in this show. She said: \u201cI played the role of the \u2018blameless maiden\u2019 and even lecturers weren\u2019t safe from partaking in the performance. Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill was turned into Pan himself, the satyr god. A satyr is or was a nature god, depending on your beliefs, who walked upright with the top half of a man and the lower limbs of a goat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe professor was Head of the Department. He was fierce in his seminars if you hadn’t done the work, but was also a jolly good sport and he was great fun during the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jacky, joining a society was a key part of her university experience.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cMy memories of the planning and especially that of the performance evening itself are that it was great fun, something very different and yet still educational to be a part of.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe societies at university give you the opportunity to discover yourself and discover what is important to you in your first time living away from home. I grew both emotionally and in maturity far more in that first year than in any time before or since.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Did you join a society while studying at the University of Reading? Contact us and share your story<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CONNECTED speaks to graduate, Jacky Pearce, about her first year memories from Reading and the impact joining societies had on her university experience. Jacky, who studied Ancient History, joined Reading in 1990. Alongside her studies Jacky decided to make the most of her university experience and joined three societies \u2013 the Ski Club, the RAG […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":11384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[185,193,195,186,194,192],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Journey Of Discovery - Connected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CONNECTED speaks to graduate, Jacky, about her first year memories and the impact joining societies had on her Reading experience.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.reading.ac.uk\/connected\/2023\/09\/20\/a-chance-to-discover-yourself\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Journey Of Discovery - 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