UoM Stories
To meet, share, and inspire
THE INITIATIVE
We are a group of PhD students that pitched to Manchester Doctoral College to run an event bringing PhD students of all three faculties of UoM together.
UoM Stories is a ‘TED’-Talk/’Humans of New York’-style initiative aimed at infusing a ‘storytelling to inspire’ culture within the PhD research community. We achieve this goal in two ways; a TED style event exclusive to PhD students, and an online platform showcasing inspirational PhD life stories.
This initiative addresses the seclusive nature of research work, and given that 1 in 3 PhD students suffer from mental health issues, there is an unmet need for a university-wide PhD event and sharing platform to learn from each others’ successes and struggles – not the research itself, but the person conducting it.
THE EVENT
The evening showcase in Whitworth Hall on 31st January 2019 – “UoM Stories”, showcased speakers who shared their life stories, with a connection to UoM. The event aimed to bring students from different disciplines all over campus, together. To meet, share, and inspire.
We identified speakers that inspired us and when we contacted them they were enthusiastic to share their personal life stories with us. Our speakers were approached with diversity and inclusivity in mind and we have a range of disciplines and backgrounds represented; encompassing both genders, different races, abilities, age and career stage.
PhD students from all three faculties of the University of Manchester were invited to attend, the registration sold out within 3 days, with 400 students alongside a 75-student long wait list. 44% of the PhD students that attended were from the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, 33% were from the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and 23% were from the Faculty of Humanities.
We are delighted to announce that the event will run next year with Manchester Doctoral College, and we were awarded a Commendation from the University of Manchester Making a Difference Awards for Outstanding Public and Community Engagement Initiative.
Below are the inspirational stories shared by the speakers at the event:
UoM Stories 2019 inspirational talks
Dr Hamied Haroon:
Professor Vikas Shah:
Leena Gade:
Professor Nicky Cullum:
Dr Jack Rivers-Auty:
Dr Emma Ferguson-Coleman:
Professor Nancy Rothwell:
Photos from the event
Student Networking
The UoM Team
Dr Emma Ferguson-Coleman
Dr Hamied Haroon
Dr Jack Rivers-Auty
Prof. Vikas Shah
Dr. Emma Ferguson-Coleman
Dr. Hamied Haroon
Leena Gade.
Students Netowkring
Lemn Sissay.
Prof Nicky Cullum
Prof Vikas Shah
Prof. Nicky Cullum
Lemn Sissay
Leena Gade
Dr. Jack Rivers-Auty
Feedback
100% of those who responded to the survey said they would recommend UoMStories to a friend. What they liked the best:
Speakers
“All the speakers, without exception, were great. Their life stories were inspirational.”
“I really liked the variety of talks, and the representation of successful disabled people. I appreciated that the speakers brought humour and their own personality into the talks and got free rein of what to talk about.”
“All the speakers were really good, it’s hard to pick a favourite”
“The variety of speakers was excellent. I really liked to hear from people in different circumstances.”
“The guest speakers! They were very diverse and really inspiring to me. I was struggling a lot over the last few months, and after listening to their stories it really opened my mind.”
“The selected speakers were great because they represented different specialisations and different roles within the university.”
Networking and student stories
“It was a great networking opportunity. I really enjoyed it.”
“I loved the speakers, the general positivity of the event, and the networking time afterwards. I also liked that you asked people to submit their stories and thus involving them to the event.”
Other
“People usually underestimate how important stories are in guiding our own behaviour and efforts. I think this was a great chance to reflect on what are the stories we tell about ourselves and what is the impact those stories have on everyone else around.”
An article on the event was also published: https://studentnews.manchester.ac.uk/2019/02/14/resilience-reflections-on-uom-stories/
Our long-term vision is to keep collecting UoM PhD life stories to create a storytelling culture at the University of Manchester to improve well-being, inter-faculty collaboration, and inspire PhD researchers past, present, and in the future.
Kathryn McGurk, Nikhil Jacob, Lorna Sinclair, Jayesha Chudasama
uomstories@manchester.ac.uk
Congratulations to Armida Gjindali who won the £200 prize at the event for sharing her story on our social media platforms. Pre-launch, we collected 30 personal stories from UoM PhD students, they are available to view here on the blog and our social media pages:
Your inspirational stories
Check out these stories from UoM doctoral students!
The Story of Bozhi Cheng
The Story of Bozhi Cheng I am motivated at Manchester by the chance to make a better future. I came to Manchester to pursue my PhD from China. Before I came to the University of Manchester, I did not realize how great the university and the city is. It was...
The Story of Xiaozhou Mao
The Story of Xiaozhou Mao The interest to explore new areas and the help from my supervisor encourages me all the way. Any new progress, however small, makes me feel happy and more confident. I am from China. I was in the 2+2 programme of NCEPU and spent...
The Story of Nikhil Jacob
The Story of Nikhil Jacob People who are ambitious and are active in pursuing their dreams, inspire me. Their passion is infectious and their influence eternal. An example is my grandfather who never retired but continued to work towards setting up a...
The Story of Meera Dulabh
The Story of Meera Dulabh I get inspired by innovative ideas and the overcoming of challenges. Great leadership and influential work are the results of strength, diligence and hard work. Looking back at the story of J.K Rowling in her Harvard Commencement...
The Story of Anggit Sunarwidhi
The Story of Anggit Sunarwidhi My parents inspire me. My father always encouraged me to always aim high in life. My mother is a career woman who takes care of her kids. She is one of the strongest women that I know and I hope to be like her one day. I’m...
The Story of Anuj Vaishnav
The Story of Anuj Vaishanav Inspiration: Warren Buffett. Not because he is one of the world's richest man but because he does it out of his love for business and investment without caring about spending it all on material things. Given how he still buys...
The Story of Kirsty McIntyre
The Story of Kirsty McIntyre I am inspired by people with passion. I don’t mind what you’re passionate about – it can be a subject, a place, or a particular sport, but to me, passion is what drives us to do our best. Passion is also what unites us...
The Story of Katie Davis
The Story of Katie Davis People who truly know themselves and what they want from life but who are also kind and share that gift with others. Those people who just radiate an inner calmness and know what is important in life. I am a registered mental...
The Story of Jack Barrington
The Story of Jack Barrington I find myself motivated by people with the passion and determination to work through good and bad periods toward a goal they truly believe in. Above all though, I am inspired by those with the kind of infectious enthusiasm to...
The Story of Yingjuan Liu
The Story of Yingjuan Liu The doctors who save the lives of people, inspire me. I originally wanted to be a clinical doctor, who can amend people’s bodies and rescue them from dangerous situations. However, my bad physical state could not support my dream...
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