For keele people : past and present inside
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KEELE:PEOPLE brain bunnies KEELE:PEOPLE brain bunnies He’s no stranger to long-distance motorbike rides but this November, Dave Owen ( American Studies/English) is taking on one of his biggest challenges yet – a ,000-mile ride through the mountains, jungle and desert of South Africa to raise funds for the charity, Riders For Health. EDucatINg thE gambIa OFF thE bEatEN tRacK “It was exhausting, dangerous and fun – all at the same time!” For more information contact Dave on 01782 516220 or email dave.m.owen@astrazeneca.com or enduroafrica@dave-owen.co.uk . See also his website at www.dave-owen.co.uk i: those who would like to see pictures of the school and find out more about it can visit the website: www.albaraca.com For more information please contact John adnitt on ttindaj@hotmail.com i: Jo hn A dn it t, pi ct ur ed a tt en di ng a p ar en ts ’ e ve ni ng w it h m um s fr om t he s ch oo l J OhN Adnitt (62 English/History/ Education), his wife Margaret and daughter R achael are trustees of Albaraca School in The Gambia, which is funded almost entirely by donations and sponsorship from the UK. John’s involvement in education dates back to his Keele days, having been a teacher, principal and inspector. He says: “the involvement in the Gambia initially was a complete accident – we just wanted some warm weather after a very soggy winter here. Most tourists to the Gambia are invited to visit schools and we had visited three already on holiday in 1996, but our Gambian contact was very persuasive: his friend ran a nursery school and he would like us to go there. somewhat wearily we set off for a visit which changed our lives, and we hope those of the school’s pupils. “What we found was a small lock-up garage, just off the main road from serrekunda to sukuta. In it 30 small children were huddled with no tables, a single picture dictionary, no windows or toilets, and only a painted patch of wall as a blackboard. On subsequent visits over the next year we discovered several ‘problems’ – that much used word in the Gambia! the first was that the so-called headmaster was never at the school and had a full-time job in Banjul, and the teaching was in the hands of two young, very inexperienced and unqualified teachers. the other main problem was that the owner of the garage wanted to use it again and the school was about to be relocated into a disused metal container on nearby waste ground. “Our daughter rachael, horrified by the prospect of 30 children roasting in a metal box, organised a fun run for colleagues at work, raising more than £3,000. In July she returned to the Gambia to arrange for land to be purchased and the first classroom to be built. the school was licensed under its new name, albaraca, which means “thank you” in Wollof, the main local language. the new school opened in January 1998, the pupils and two teachers transferring to a pleasant site, about a quarter of a mile away with orange trees and a large mango tree. “eight years on we can report a lot of real progress. We now have more than 130 children aged three to seven, six teachers – including the two original teachers, now fully qualified – and a head teacher, and three classrooms and a medical room on an expanded site. the school uniform has elephants to represent ‘the power of education’. the school’s stock cupboard is bulging with books and equipment, donated by individuals and schools in norfolk. there are excellent toilets and a water pipe to the school. “each child has a sponsor. Other sponsors help with the training costs and salaries for the teachers and caretaker. Major building projects have been funded by special events and some very generous donations. the most recent project has been the successful installation of a solar panel to provide electricity for lighting. “Where will it all end? Who knows! Our instinct is to retain the present scale and sustain it at a high standard. Whatever happens it will be enjoyable and challenging. Visiting the school, and seeing the pupils enthusiastically learning to read and count will always be a moving experience. Our own outlook on life has changed radically as a result of meeting people who are so cheerful with very few possessions and very limited means and prospects.” Dave – a former music editor of KUSU’s Concourse publication and a founder member of the Rough Diamonds Music Society – says: “In February 2004 I rode 1,200 miles in 10 days, with 100 strangers, around southern India on an old 1950s style 350cc royal enfield. We did this to raise a minimum of £3,000 each for charity. the bikes did not go faster than 50mph flat out and we rode through tea plantations, wildlife parks, virtual deserts and busy cities. It was exhausting, dangerous and fun – all at the same time! at the end of the ride the bikes were given to the WWF whose rangers use them to chase poachers in the wild areas. I also rode 3,000 miles in eight days from stoke to just outside Zagreb, Croatia, for a motorcycle rally in august last year. “In november I am going to ride a 200cc Honda off-road bike through mountains, jungle and desert in south africa to raise funds for the charity riders For Health. I have to raise a minimum of £4,000 by July. the money helps buy the bike I will be riding, which at the end of the two weeks will be given to the charity, together with a sum of money. the cash goes to train a local medical person to ride and maintain the bike. they will then use the bike to transport medicines to areas that cannot be reached any other way. One village in which this has been tried has reduced malaria by over 20 per cent already! as I work for a company which makes anti-malaria drugs this is particularly close to my heart. We aim to buy at least 100 bikes for health workers in Zimbabwe. “In order to raise the money, I am putting on a number of gigs featuring local and international bands and I am also holding auctions at which I will sell equipment, clothing, books, bike parts – you name it, if I’m given it I will sell it! “However, the main fundraising will come from the generosity of friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances. I am quite happy to advertise on my bike, helmet or jacket (provided the ad is for ethical business) and all contributions are gratefully accepted.” Out OF The school beforehand – located in a garage forever:keele | issue : one : May 2006 2 issue : one : May 2006
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KEELE:PEOPLE adventure KEELE:PEOPLE adventure J OaNNa gOLDthORPE ( Psychology/HRM) had a shock when she found she was pregnant just before starting her final year. Baby Ella accompanied her to lectures and was babysat by students in the halls at Keele while her mum sat her finals. Now nine years old, Ella would eventually like to follow in Jo’s footsteps and study at Keele. Jo says: “It was the summer vacation before my final year when I found out I was pregnant. a massive surprise, to say the least! When the news had sunk in, I decided to make the most of it, finish my degree and wait for the birth. Ignorance made me very optimistic! ella’s dad, tim, and I moved out of the rented student house in stoke, got a flat and I carried on with my studies at Keele. I remember people taking photos of me in the Golfers when I was heavily pregnant! “ella was born on 25 March 1997 (at the start of the easter holidays, conveniently!). Great friends made studying easier, they got me stuff from the library and helped with fieldwork for my dissertation. Being pregnant actually made studying easier; as I wasn’t drinking and partying there weren’t any hangovers, or much else to do! I don’t know whether I’d have got my 2:1 if it weren’t for ella! “Friends were very excited and supportive of having a baby around – it was a massive novelty. ella was looked after by friends both on and off campus while I did my finals. I took her into lectures sometimes, strapped to my front in the baby sling, and she nearly always slept through them! she was always quiet in the library too! she also attended my graduation in July 1997. I’m not sure what lecturers thought about a baby turning up at their classes, they mostly said it was fine for her to attend lectures, but any crying and we were out! “after I left Keele it was very hard, as I missed my friends and the student life and didn’t find it easy being at home all day with a baby. We moved nearer to family so I had help, and could work, and eventually started an Msc in research methods. ella’s brother Joseph was born in July 1999, and they are very close, good friends (most of the time!). tim and I separated a few years ago and ella, Joseph and I live in Cuddington, Cheshire. I’m currently working as a researcher for Birkbeck College in London, covering the north West region for the national evaluation of sure start. “ella is a very happy girl. she knows all about her time as the ‘Keele Baby’. she’s seen the photos and when friends who met at Keele got married at Keele Hall last year, she was reunited with many ex-students who hadn’t seen her since she was a few months old. We walked around the grounds, and ella said she would like to come to Keele when she leaves school, and study Zoology. as far as I know, that subject isn’t available, but maybe it will be on the prospectus in time for 2016!” how did you meet? R: “We met on my very first day back in my final year – Claire had the misfortune (or fortune I would say!) to be put in what the resident tutor described as ‘the noisiest study block that she had ever come across’ (n block, Hawthorns, 1999-2000). We were in adjacent rooms and very soon became an item. to celebrate our fourth anniversary, I treated Claire to a weekend away at the north stafford Hotel in stoke and proposed to her before going to peaches in newcastle for a meal (which was the first place we went out on an official date).” C: “I had only met one or two people in the block and they didn’t seem very interested in talking but there was a loud party nearly all night on the first night and I assumed they were Freshers too. It wasn’t until I talked to richard that I found out that they were all third years. We soon got to know each other and there was quite a lot of whispering and matchmaking from our friends, which paid off quite quickly!” what was your wedding day like? R: “Our wedding day was the best day of my life. I must admit to waking up with a slight hangover and a touch of the nerves, but a good old- fashioned fry up and a peal on handbells soon got me focused! after that, it was a cup of coffee and a quick peak at how england were getting on in the ashes before getting myself ready for the ceremony. I was quite nervous before Claire arrived, but when she arrived at the altar and her bouquet was shaking, I realised I wasn’t the only one!”
was nice but it was so windy that my veil blew off! the only thing that didn’t quite go to plan was the champagne in the wedding car. When richard undid the wire, the cork burst out, hitting him in the mouth so that by the time we arrived at the reception venue his lip was quite swollen. Luckily he got some ice to put on it and it went down eventually!” how did you get involved in bell ringing? R: “My parents both ring the bells and I was taught how to ‘handle’ a bell when I was 11 years old in Leicestershire. I was an active member of both the Keele University society of Change ringers and the north staffordshire association. I was privileged to ring in a peal at st John’s in Keele for the 50th anniversary of the University, which consisted of a graduate from each decade of the University’s existence.” C: “It’s just richard who is interested in bell ringing – although I do seem to understand a lot about it now which is quite worrying!” what are your fondest memories of Keele? R: “I have so many fond memories of Keele, given that it is the place where I met my wife and made so many friends during my time there. Overall though I would say my fondest memory of Keele was the atmosphere; the picturesque setting, the fantastic Wednesday and Friday nights out at the Union and the feeling of all being part of the same community.”
such a brilliant place to be and I met so many fantastic people there. I really enjoyed Wednesday and Friday nights at the union and I can honestly say that I always had a good time there although many of my memories are fairly hazy thanks to doubles for a pound and drinking games before we went out!” w hEN Claire Murphy (2002 English/Educational Studies) first came to Keele, little did she know that she would meet her future husband on her second day as a Fresher. She married Richard Angrave (2000 Geography/Finance) last year and on the morning of the wedding, the bells of Mottram- in-Longdendale, Gr. Manchester, rang out to the tune of Keele University Delight Major, a method composed by Richard, a former member of the Keele University Society of Change Ringers. The band of ringers included University staff Phil and Rowena Gay, who also attended the ceremony and reception.
‘dead-ringer’ Love
for A real
Did you meet your spouse or partner at Keele university? tell us your story for a chance to win six bottles of Keele university wine. write to hannah crush at h.e.crush@keele.ac.uk i: Fo llo w in g in h er fo
ot st ep s Nafisa ‘Fiz’ Mamdani (200 English/Psychology) discovered the ‘Keele Effect’ on a boat in the middle of Lake Windermere… “In early september I went to the Lake district for a long weekend. It was a beautiful day, crisp but sunny and I was on a little transporter boat in the middle of Lake Windermere when someone tapped me on the shoulder. “I turned round and a rather elderly gentleman asked whether the corner of a scarf poking out of my rucksack was mine – I confirmed it was. the scarf was my Keele scarf (in the original colours!) and the gentleman had noticed it from the other side of the boat! “It turned out that the man was a Keele graduate from the 1950s. He said the University was very new when he commenced his degree and his main reason for his choice was the opportunity to do a foundation year, which he had apparently found very helpful. We had a good chat about how much we liked and missed Keele until we reached our destination. “It was only a little later that it sadly occurred to me that I hadn’t even asked his name! “I decided to share this story with you as I thought it was lovely how Keele generates a bond between people who would otherwise remain strangers, and also how the Keele experience lives on in graduates’ memories, old and new alike. You never know – he may turn up to the 1950s Keele reunion in May!” thE gOOD OLD DayS “I thought it was lovely how Keele generates a bond between people who would otherwise remain strangers.” Left to right – Tim Whiteley, Huw Griffiths, Abby Pritchard (with Ella) and Kerry Hyde Jo and Ella now forever:keele | issue : one : May 2006 4 issue : one : May 2006
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KEELE:PEOPLE wedding celebrations KEELE:PEOPLE relationships acROSS thE water
D IcK bLacKEtt (6 History/ Economics/Politics) visited Keele University in March 200 to lead a seminar for the David Bruce Centre (American Studies) and by October he was back again visiting friends and colleagues in American Studies. But why would the Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee cherish these regular visits to Keele? dick originally chose Keele for one reason other than its academic rigour: “the prospectus stated that all rooms were centrally heated, and having been brought up in Barbados I decided that a warm room was the most essential prerequisite at an english university.” dick was one of Keele’s first Caribbean-born students when he arrived in 1965 and he valued the multidisciplinary ethos. Keele offered “uniquely weird combinations of subjects laid out like a buffet. We were able to vary our educational diet as we went along.” dick was determined not to follow his grandmother’s advice and become a lawyer. she complimented him, “You would make a good lawyer because you tell such convincing lies”, but he insists that this talent has since withered from neglect! after completing his doctoral research at the University of pittsburgh, dick became the John & rebecca Moores distinguished professor of History at the University of Houston in 1996. His research into abolitionism and the anti-slavery movement prior to the american Civil War prompted an invitation to Vanderbilt in 2004. dick was a great sportsman at Keele and he stood out in the cricket, basketball and football teams. the cricket team endured annual pre-season drubbings by county sides only to enjoy success in the inter-varsity season. the basketball team was also exceptional and exploited the skills of two americans – ralph Bunch and Frank Vitello. However, the University national championship tournament exposed the fragility of their six-man squad and they fell in the finals. It didn’t help that training took place in a nissen hut – where every lob was intercepted deftly by the roof beams! dick’s sporting prowess was recognised by his election as president of the athletics Union in 1967-1968, and his visits to Keele invariably include a foraging expedition to the dusty aU archives in the sports Centre, searching for photos and cricket scorebooks from the “glory years” – “a project worthy of the attention of a budding archivist!” he laughs.
Keele and your time at Keele? Of course, we all remember that we studied here and that has affected our path through life. We all remember people who were here and who will always be precious and important to us. At Keele we found out so much about ourselves, about each other and about our place in the world... we did things we had never done before and have never done since. But, whatever our varied experiences of Keele, the one thing every one of us has in common is – this place. Keele is a community, an ethos and an education all bound up in our experience of a unique place. When we imagine Keele, we all get a different picture in our heads – so, what’s in your picture? Is what you visualise still there? Has it changed? Is what you think you remember what you actually saw? Is it bigger and better – is the traditional heart of the campus still beating? the only way to find out is to Come Home and see for yourself. north american Homecoming is planned for the summer of 2007 so Keele alumni in the Usa and Canada can build time at Keele into a business trip or a family visit – or even into a holiday. We will announce the definite dates very soon. We will organise special events for you – some with an american or a Canadian flavour but most with a very British flavour. We will have fun things, serious things, nostalgic things, special things – most on campus and some off campus. Ideas or suggestions for north american Homecoming are welcomed. tell me what you most want to do and why – and maybe even how, where and when! I look forward to seeing you all in the summer of 2007, if not before.
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