LSE student named Future Business Leader of the Year

Vyacheslav Polonski picked up his award at the national TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year 2012 Awards event in April.

Nobel Prize winners, ambassadors and more

Over the next three weeks, LSE will welcome a number of high profile speakers as part of the LSE events programme, including Nobel Prize winner Professor Paul Krugman (pictured above).

Sherelle Davids

Sherelle, a sociology student and LSESU anti-racism officer, is passionate about politics, particularly issues such as racism and equality. She would also like to bring Malcolm X back to life, to hear his analysis of current UK race relations.

Vyacheslav Polonski (pictured), a BSc Management student and LSE Stelios scholar, has won the Future Business Leader of the Year Award at the national TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year 2012 Awards event, which took place on Friday 13 April.

The award was sponsored by Mars and, through a series of online tests, application forms, interviews and assessment exercises, Vyacheslav emerged as the national winner, beating over 300 other entrants. His prize is a summer placement with Mars and a trip to Brazil to visit Mars' Cocoa Research Centre. He received the award from Amanda Davies, HR director of Mars Chocolate, and the Rt Hon Michael Portillo in recognition of his leadership qualities and track record of personal and professional achievements.

Vyacheslav said: ‘I am absolutely honoured and excited. This award is a great privilege. It will encourage me to broaden my horizons, to make a lasting, positive impact. I am ecstatic that I am going to Brazil and that I will be carrying out my placement with Mars. I would like to thank both Mars and TARGETjobs for this prestigious award and hope I will live up to the expectations that it will bring.’

In the third of a short series, we meet students who have used some of the specialised learning facilities that can be found around the School.

Undergraduate law student Liza Smirnova (pictured) explains why she finds the LSE’s Moot Court such a useful learning resource.

Being a law student, the Moot Court featured in my course from the very beginning. I started by participating in class moots but I was soon taken by the activity and went on to represent the School in external mooting competitions. On two occasions, the finals were held in LSE’s Moot Court and I know that, as hosts, we were extremely proud to have this facility. It provides the perfect environment for the ultimate legal activity.

The Moot Court allows students to experience what it is like to be advocates, stand up in front of a panel of judges and argue a case. There is no question that mooting could take place in any classroom, however having a designated Moot Court adds an enormous amount to one’s overall experience. And the brilliant thing about it is that anyone can make use of it.

I’m graduating this summer, but I have no doubt that the Moot Court will continue to be hugely appreciated by LSE students.

Four LSE students attended the British Conference of Undergraduate Research at the University of Warwick last month and presented the winning papers from 2011’s LSE GROUPS project, run by the Teaching and Learning Centre.

‘We were asked many interesting questions about our presentation [on the impact of the Olympic-related housing programme on the sustainability of the local community in east London] and it was great to learn about recent discoveries and be able to contribute to others' research,’ said Malika Bouazzaoui. Her co-presenter Jiazhe Zhu added: ‘There were presentations from many different disciplines. I was especially impressed by a PhD student who talked about his own experience of undergraduate research.’ The team also included Aditi Gupta, Alisa Popova, Naxin Wangy, and Sam Williams.

The other group's paper, written by Michelle Kalus, Monica Kaminska, Alyssa Nam, Andrew Nicolau, Stavros Stavrikkos, and Tam Trinh, centred on the role of information, education and incentive in the successful implementation of environmental policies across London universities. Conference attendee Tam said: ‘The audience expressed great interest in the topic as well as the way it was presented.’ Fellow presenter Stavros added: ‘It was a great experience and it really widened our knowledge about undergraduate research in the UK.’

And the winner is....

The LSESU has announced the winner of this year's Bernard Levin Award for Student Journalism.

The prize was set up to recognise and promote student journalism at LSE and has been running since 2007. The quality of work was very high and it was extremly difficult to pick a winner, but it was decided that the following people came out on top:

Winner:
Tom Heyden for his piece ‘Befriending a Future Dictator’

Highly commended entries:
Wanda O’Brien for ‘On Loving and Living the Questions’
Sally Davies for ‘A Journey’
Edward Larkin for ‘On the Complete Incongruity Between My Conception of the London Experience and the Actual London Experience’

Since the last edition of Student News, more students have got in touch to tell us how they are getting involved in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games:

• Nimisha Dua, Employment Relations and Organisational Behaviour Group, volunteered from January to March as a selection event volunteer based at ExCel, London, conducting interviews, supporting the check-in desk and providing information to applicants at the selection event.
• Katherine Relle, Department of Media and Communications, is volunteering as a cast member/performer in the opening ceremonies.
• Marcela Valera, Department of Social Policy, is volunteering as a deputy logistics manager in the Basketball Arena, Velodrome and BMX Circuit.

Students and staff were in for a treat last week when a selection of farmyard animals arrived on campus.

The petting zoo event was organised by the LSESU, as part of their ‘De-stress Fest’, in an attempt to help students de-stress during the exam period. The event was also enjoyed by staff, members of the public and children from the LSE nursery.

The animals, which included a donkey, a pony, goats, pigs, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs and some chickens, travelled all the way from Leicestershire for their visit to LSE. While holding a rabbit, one student remarked: ‘I feel 100 per cent more relaxed than I did 10 minutes ago. This was such a good idea!’

Real Soft Power - Modelling the Great Shift East

On Wednesday 25 April, the LSE Alumni Association Singapore hosted a fashion party entitled 'Real Soft Power - Modelling the Great Shift East'.

The event brought together leaders from the creative, fashion, media and modelling industries, with special guests including LSE professor Danny Quah and supermodel Philippa Lett.

Professor Quah said: 'Great energy and interest from the audience as planet-scale macro and ground-level reality converged - economic models are for everyone, I thought to myself at one point.'

New Students’ Centre construction phase meeting

Capital Development and Geoffrey Osborne invite LSE staff and students to a New Students’ Centre construction phase meeting on Thursday 10 May from 1-2pm or 5-6pm in room KSW 1.01, 20 Kingsway.

The meeting will include:

• A look at what has been completed
• Problems and solutions:
  - Dust control
  - Noise control
  - Traffic control
• Update on considerate construction initiatives
• Communication
• Ongoing project time scales

Training for students

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• English Through Digital Storytelling

• Mindfulness and Stress Management Workshop

• Developing as an Academic Writer

For a full listing of what is available and further details, including booking information, see www.lse.ac.uk/training.
 

This summer the Estates Division will be replacing all of the chairs in the library. A selection of designs have been shortlisted but we are keen for LSE students to have the final say in which chairs are chosen for their library.

On Thursday 17 and Friday 18 May between 11am and 4pm a variety of chairs will be available to view and try out on the lower ground floor of the Library.

Everyone who provides feedback on the chairs will stand a chance of winning one of three Amazon vouchers worth £50, £20 and £10.

iThenticate training for research students

iThenticate training for research students will be held on Wednesday 16 May from 11am-12pm and 12.30-1.30pm, and Tuesday 12 June from 11am-12pm and 3-4pm.

The School is piloting the use of text-matching software (iThenticate) to compulsorily test all theses submitted for examination between January and September 2013. Any research student can also use the software on drafts (full or chapters) of their work and may want to use the software for developmental purposes.

The purpose of the training event is to briefly show you how to upload your thesis (or part of your thesis) to iThenticate, but more importantly how to read and understand the report produced by it as the basis for improving your referencing and citations.

For more information and to book your place, click here.
 

Want to find out more about environmental issues at LSE? Want to gain the skills and knowledge associated with environmental auditing?

Green Impact LSE is looking for staff and students to volunteer to visit departments around the School and conduct audits on the Green Impact team workbooks. Each volunteer auditor will be fully trained on the criteria and what they need to audit through a half-day training session. In pairs, auditors will then complete one or more audit. An audit should take between one and two hours to complete depending on the size of the department.

Training and auditing will take place on Friday 1 June from 10am-4.30pm in room CON 1.04. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

The award of an Honorary Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards that the School can bestow. The Court may elect as an Honorary Fellow of LSE any member of the School whose achievements are of conspicuous merit, or any person including members of the School who has rendered outstanding service to the School.

Honorary Fellows need to have a direct link with the School, but must not be a current student, member of staff or a member of the Council.

LSE Catering can provide you with healthy and nutritious food choices.

The Fourth Floor Restaurant is open from 9am Monday to Friday for cooked breakfasts, cereals, fresh fruit salad, yoghurts and more - call in before your exam and feed your brain for that extra performance.

Lunch is available between 11.30am-2.30pm. With a range of hot and cold options, including international dishes, made to order stir fry, pasta, noodles, a great salad bar and more.

Evening meals are available from 4pm and again offer a great selection of hot home cooked dishes and salads. Sandwiches, snacks, fruit and drinks are available throughout the day.

Over 600 students have already filled in the Students’ Union annual survey. What you think matters. It’s the only way they can do more of what you like, and less of the things you don’t.

All students should fill the survey in, and by doing so would become eligible to win one of the wonderful prizes on offer, including an iPad 3, a Kindle and a £10 Amazon voucher for every 100th respondent.

May's LSE Perspectives gallery is now online. You can view the gallery online here.

The gallery features 12 striking images submitted by LSE staff and students. Each image reflects a unique perspective on a particular scene.

If you have taken any artistic images on your travels, from your home town or even just here in London why not submit them for LSE perspectives so that they can be shared with the LSE community.

Urban Vignettes - capture your city

A group of LSE postgraduate students has launched Urban Vignettes, a collaborative visual-based blog funded by Urban@LSE, which captures the different ways people experience, negotiate and engage with city life as the world undergoes the largest period of urban growth in history.

The team is inviting contributors, both regular or occasional, to respond to its 'Capture Your City' campaign. Send a sample image that captures something special about your city, and 300-500 words explaining why your city deserves the spotlight for our inaugural season, to submit@urbanvignettes.com.

UK smart drug study think tank

An MSc student in BIOS at LSE needs your help to understand more about why students are using cognitive enhancing drugs to improve academic performance.

Cognitive enhancing drugs are substances (such as ADHD, anti-narcolepsy, and nootropic medication) that have been shown to increase cognitive functioning which could lead to improved academic performance. Do you think this is 'fair' or does it constitute a new form of cheating?

LSE student ticket offer

LSE students can get a special reduced ticket rate for 'Words in the Park - Books, Ideas, Creativity and Debate' taking place at Opera Holland Park from Friday 18 to Sunday 20 May.

The event will feature some of the UK’s finest living novelists, broadcasters, historians, philosophers, actors and politicians, including Jeremy Paxman, Jung Chang, Alain de Botton, Andrew Marr, A A Gill and Jimmy Carr, John McCarthy and Sandi Toksvig, Owen Jones and more.

LSE students can get tickets for just £5 (normal price £12) by calling 0300 999 1000 and quoting ‘student ticket offer’.

Over the next three weeks, LSE will welcome a number of high profile speakers as part of the LSE events programme.

On Tuesday 22 May, US trade representative Ron Kirk (pictured) will give a lecture on ‘Advancing Global Trade and Employment Together: shared opportunities and responsibilities for the United States and the European Union’.

On Wednesday 23 May, Professor Michael Sandel will be delivering a lecture in the impressive surroundings of St Paul’s Cathedral on ‘What Money Can't Buy - the moral limit of markets’.

On Tuesday 29 May, Nobel Prize winner Professor Paul Krugman will deliver a lecture on his new book, End This Depression Now!.

And then on Friday 1 June, an 'in conversation' event with another Nobel Prize winning economist, Professor Daniel Kahneman (pictured), is scheduled.

Two documentary film premieres will be screened at LSE on Thursday 24 and Monday 28 May, followed by panel discussions.

Back to Earth (Retour sur Terre)
On: Monday 28 May from 7-9pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Oil is our daily energy staple. Or is it a drug our society has been flying high on for over a century? And isn't it time we started getting ready to detox?

The Future of the Left: the case of the United States
On: Monday 14 May at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Eli Zaretsky, professor of history at the New School for Social Research and author of Why America Needs a Left.

Mobile for Development Meets Human-Centred Design
On: Tuesday 15 May at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
AND
Mobile for Development - Global Justice
On: Wednesday 16 May at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Joshua Cohen, Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and professor of political science, philosophy and law at Stanford.

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Future of the Union: Northern Ireland
Speaker: Martin McGuinness MP MLA
Recorded: Monday 30 April, approx 39 minutes
Click here to listen

Breakout Nations: in search of the next economic miracle
Speaker: Ruchir Sharma
Recorded: Monday 30 April, approx 83 minutes
Click here to listen

Nicole wants to hear from you!

Do you have some news, an achievement, or an aspect of LSE life that you would like to share? If so, then I would love to hear from you, contact me at n.gallivan@lse.ac.uk or on ext 7582.

The next edition of Student News is on Wednesday 23 May. Articles for this should be emailed to me by Monday 21 May. Student News is emailed on Wednesdays, on a weekly basis during Michaelmas and Lent term and fortnightly during Summer term.