So, the buzz and excitement of signing up for countless societies at fresher’s fair and hitting the town with lashings of UV paint has been replaced by the inevitable fresher’s flu and dreaded library trips. To help you reclaim the spirit of fresher’s week Her Campus caught up with Harry Patte-Dobbs, a Week One rep and 2nd year English student. We asked Harry about his busy first week experience and what his role really involved in looking after our new students!
Why did you decide to become a Week One rep for the new term?
Basically I had such a good time with my Week One reps as a fresher, they were people that I saw around campus and even stayed friends with when I wanted to be one, so I thought it would be a good laugh making sure the next freshers had the best week of their lives.
So your responsibility as a rep involved you spending a lot of your first week preparing for and contributing to the amazing Week One events! How did you manage to balance your time with your busy schedule?
I didn’t aha, my life for the past week and a half was easily just dedicated to Week One. The whole team put in so much effort and the exec organised everything down to the second so people were spending days at a time on campus just selling tickets and helping out.
What do you think it takes to be a successful rep?
A successful rep would 1000% have to be an outgoing person. I don’t mean just a loud lad who likes to drink and can get a pre-lash going but genuinely nice people. I don’t know if there’s anyone out of the reps that I didn’t talk to at least once – they were all so friendly. Realistically a well-organised, friendly and humorous person would probably suit being a rep best.
What would you say has been your most standout experience?
It’ll sound clichéd as it’s the obvious choice but the finale party at the Capital FM arena had to be a highlight. It ran so smoothly and everything came together, all the reps were loving each other and all the freshers were on such a high at the end of the week.
You must have met a number of excited freshers over the course of the different themed nights and especially at the finale. Did you witness any embarrassing moments during the week?
The chunder count went through the roof for embarrassing moments and some perhaps more so than others but I can’t really go into detail. A clean funny story would probably just be the 47 people that tripped up the stairs in Crisis on our toga night.
Yes I’m sure we’ve all been caught having a clumsy Crisis stair fail! Finally, do you have any advice for students who aim to become a Week One rep next year?
For those who want to be a rep next year definitely get involved in your halls early, I started by joining Rutland JCR and I think it really helped to get my face out there into things like the hall’s sports team and committees. There’s no right or wrong way to go about being considered for Week One though as you need people who can provide pastoral care as much as those who can shout at 300 people dressed in togas to get on the buses. Just be as enthusiastic and positive as you can, because hopefully come this time next year the people who become reps will be as knackered and ill as this year’s reps are but feeling like Notts royalty!
Catch up on all the Week One gossip, or find out more about becoming a Week One rep here – http://www.su.nottingham.ac.uk/whatson/freshers/