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Student takes to the slopes for the world university games

Keele awards ski-loving law student £1,500 to represent Great Britain in the world’s biggest university games.

First-year student Sam Jones, 19, originally from Sheffield, has been awarded a grant from the Keele Key Fund to travel and take part in the 28th World Winter University Games, hosted in Almaty, Kazakhstan last week.

The freestyle skier competed in the single and dual moguls, reaching 12th ahead of World Cup and Olympic skiers.

Sam said: "I competed against some of the very best in the sport and learned a lot, especially about being calm under pressure and how to perform in front of big crowds. Competing in the games alongside some of the world’s best mogul skiers and numerous Olympians was a great experience and certainly inspired me to continue skiing with the hope of reaching the Olympics one day.

“It was a huge event - over 2,500 athletes from all around the world were there. Without the Key Fund I would never have had that experience as I pay for coaching and everything myself.”

Sam's long-term goal is to compete for Great Britain in the 2022 Olympics and to join the World Tour as a freestyle skier and moguls specialist.

The Keele Key Fund aims to support students and alumni to enhance the Keele experience, both now and in the future. The grant helped pay for Sam’s travel expenses to the international event, also known as Universiade. The games welcomed approximately 2,500 student athletes from 58 countries and is widely recognised as the second largest multisport games in the world after the Olympics.

[keeleuniversity]

Your Degree is Limitless

By Rowshi Hussain

Studying Geology and Neuroscience as a degree is certainly a conversation starter. Only at Keele will you meet someone who studies two completely unrelated subjects. Keele allows you to cater and personalise your degree to you. That is the exact reason I chose Keele. 

I'm currently a second year student, scarily half way through my degree and Keele has enabled me to personalise my degree to give me the best opportunity for my future. 

The workload is not any different from studying any other degree but it relies on time management and organisation as you become part of two schools. Two schools that become your home. My degree has and continues to equip me with the essential skills through field trips and timetabled classes. Geology has taken me to the Lake District for snowball fights with my course to experiencing breathtaking geology in Pembrokeshire for the week. To then travel back to intriguing anatomy and neuro labs staining brain tissue to identify neurones. My intellect and personal skills are constantly challenged throughout. 

Not only does my degree open my options for future prospects but it allows me to display all my skills I have developed over my three years of study. I have developed leadership, cooperation, time management and organisation skills by becoming the social and events secretary to now acting as the president of Keele Life Science Society, ball secretary of Geosoc as well as representing my academic year for 2 consecutive years as a geology StAR. I have even engaged in a sport that I never saw myself take part in: cheerleading. I've made lifelong friends along the way, which is always a bonus. 

As a geologist, neuroscientist, cheerleader and friend to many, I have become fearless. And fearlessness makes you limitless. 

Only at Keele can you make your degree you.