Student Network Sussex Blogs

My July 2008 Blog

By Alexandra McLoughlin

On the 4th July I finally finished college. I was excited and relieved because I knew I had worked hard at “perfecting” my grades. I was also thrilled with the idea of moving on to higher education. The day was very emotional for most people in the media department and even the boys were nearly in tears!

A few days after college, I went shopping with my mum for university items which made me even more excited! I bought stuff for the kitchen such as bowls and glasses as I will be living in the ‘halls’of residence. Surprise, surprise I went to the Disney store for those gorgeous Disney utensils and a few other bits. I bought myself a notebook of ‘The Beatles’ too from another store because as media student it will come handy.

Since last month I have been busy applying for the Student Loan for my University. I was happy with the fact that could be done online, although I had to send my passport to them for verification of identity and also my parents had to fill another form also online with their income details but it is very easy. I have now received the confirmation with details of how much I will be getting to cover the Tuition Fees and Maintenance Loan. I was also entitled to a small maintenance grant which I don’t have to payback although I am not very worried about borrowing the money because I will only start paying back the Student Loan after I finish university and be earning more than £15,000 per annum. The monthly payments are very low too so I am very pleased with that.

The next exciting event for me this month was the celebration of the VQ Day (Vocational Qualification) which was held at a cocktail party at the Royal Opera House in London and was hosted by Alesha Dixson whose BTEC qualification helped lead to her success.

Me and Alesha Dixson at the VQ Day Celebration event at the Royal Opera House

It felt surreal being in such an amazing place and event. There were many people such as Politicians, Members of the Education Department, OCR, Edexcel and various representatives from various private companies. There were also many photographers and press people who took photos of me which I loved! I recall myself saying “I could get used to this!” I love having my photo taken!.

 Me at the VQ Day event  - Can you spot my name on the list of successful students?

The VQ Day was celebrated across the country but the main event took place in London and included seven stands showcasing vocational skills, from engineering to catering, as well as live vocal and dance performances.

I managed to speak to Alesha. She was wonderful! She used to be the lead singer of UK Garage band ‘Miss Teeq’ and the winner of the TV Show Strictly Come Dancing. Alesha and her make-up artist seemed to like me so spoke for quite some time and they were very impressed with my hard work so they congratulated me on winning BTEC Learner of the year award runner up and the Most Promising Journalist Award. I really enjoyed the event. I felt like a VIP. It was lovely to be noticed for my achievements.

Me together with Gary Hawkes (Chairmain of Edege), Emyr Thomas (another successful BTEC student) and Jerry Jarvis (Managing Director of Edexcel) at the VQ Day Celebration event at the Royal Opera House

After the VQ ceremony my mum and I headed off to watch a TV show being filmed called “Transmission with T-Mobile” which an awesome music show from Channel 4. I was very fortunate to get free tickets for that particular date as Alice Cooper, Bobby Gillespie and Sam Sparro were going to be on it! I’m a big fan of those guys so I couldn’t believe my luck! And thankfully I managed to meet all of them at the event. It was very interesting to see how the show was filmed and what the presenters have to go through especially as they have my dream job!

Me with singer Sam Sparro during the making of the Channel 4 music show “Transmission”.

This month I was also busy editing some video clips which I filmed at the Second e-Learning Technology Conference held at the Brighton University that took place last month.

Please check out the Sussex Learning Network Youtube Channel to watch the interesting videos on: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=studentnetworksussex&p=r

At the moment I am still very busy updating my website putting up pictures that I took at the Glastonbury Festival. The reason why is taking me so long is because before I publish the pictures I have to edit them, reducing the size and placing my copyright logo on them. I toook over 700 pictures of live artists but as soon as I have completed, I will put a link to this blog so please check out this page again soon.

I have my work experience with the NME Magazine coming out end of August so will be telling all about that next month.

My first self-made video for the Student Network Sussex was of Mr Malas, a dentist in Warrior Square, St Leonards-on-Sea, about vocational learning.  It was a bit of a rush job, I must say.  Firstly, my new second-hand car had just been for its MOT and I had to collect it that morning - otherwise, no way of getting the equipment there (I’m not used to paying for taxis!).  Secondly, as this had now cut into his lunch-break, there was precious little time left to set up the equipment and conduct the interview.  However, realising it was a now or never situation, I went for it.   We asked the dental trainee nurse at the time, Annika, to do some dental nursing-type things, and I managed to incorporate these into the finished video (surely everybody wants to see the dentist’s chair go up at the push of a button?).

The main problem came when I went to deliver Mr Malas a copy of the video for approval on CD.  Being a bit of night-bird, and having finished it at about midnight, I drove off to deliver it personally through the letter-box.  I walked proudly out onto the pavement, up the steps, about to put the package through the door when - shock horror! - I noticed a plaque by the door.  It wasn’t Mr Malas at all - it was  Doctor Malas!  I wasn’t especially worried about my faux-pas as a patient, but as a film-maker!  Surely I would lose all respect if I didn’t get that right at least, let alone what he thought of the video.  So back it was to the drawing board - new letter, new envelope, CD and letter get delivered at 1am rather than midnight.  His receptionist some weeks later told me ‘oh, he wouldn’t have minded’.  Maybe not him, but what about the General Dental Council who had to vet the video too?  Luckily they approved it whole-heartedly.  Mind you, when I next tell Annika ‘I’m off to the doctor to get my teeth done’, that will confuse her…

June Blog By Alexandra McLoughlin

The beginning of June was highly exciting for me as I received a phone call from the Glastonbury press office with some good news…”YOU HAVE PRESS ACCREDITATION AGAIN!” I was ecstatic! I was told that I had been recommended from last year due to my hard word and enthusiasm, I was flattered about this comment and even more excited. I wasn’t expecting to be given press accreditation again so when I received the phone call on my mobile during lunchtime at college, I was shocked and extremely pleased. I screamed at my ex-teacher Karen “I HAVE PRESS ACCESS FOR GLASTO AGAIN!!” She was so pleased for me. To be honest the whole thing didn’t kick in until I got home from College.

Short after I received the phone call from Glastonbury, I travelled down to Brighton to film clips and take photos of the Brighton e-Learning conference. It was brilliant! I learnt so much about the new technology that’s being introduced into learning. It was really interesting and I met some exciting people. I had a really good time. 

You can watch the video clip on the follwing websites:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=UFRQ6Xbjqs8

http://elearningtechnology.wordpress.com 

After the eLearning Conference I went back to a very busy college schedule and work hard to try to complete all my final assignments as it was coming near to the end of my course and it has been a very stressful time. I didn’t really enjoy all the stress. Although we were told that we would not be getting anymore work from college but it just kept piling up. It was so frustrating! I tried hard to boost my grades to get into university and at least I was glad that had the
Glastonbury festival to look forward to… 

Next up was the movie premiere of Narnia Prince Caspian. Tickets were sold for this charity event so I bought a ticket for myself and so did my friend Monica. We headed up to the O2 arena in London with my mum and our friend for the premiere. We were so excited! We couldn’t believe we’d be walking down the red carpet with all the stars. It was a sold-out event so my mum didn’t buy a ticket for herself but she was lucky that she got given one when we arrived there which we couldn’t believe!  We really enjoyed ourselves and I took many pictures for my website

A few days later I attended the Scamp Awards Ceremony held at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley which was a sponsored by the Central Sussex College. I won an award! ‘Most Promising Journalist award’ I couldn’t believe it! I was nominated by my Journalism Teacher and he was teary eyed when he presented the award to me on the night. I won a trophy! It still hasn’t sunk in for me. 

A week before the festival was due, my mum and dad drove me down to Glastonbury and we stayed overnight in a pub nearby. I wasn’t too nervous this year unlike last, the reason for this was that I had stayed in touch with some friends from the press and Journalists that I met there last year. I kept in touch with them and we became good friends. They all had accredication again so I knew I’d see them again and was so excited!

The day after, mum and dad dropped me off at the Glastonbury site. I knew it would be a long hike to get to the backstage compound however I was really happy so I wasn’t that bothered in the end.  

Please come back to this site next month where you will be able to read my July’s blog and  I will be telling you all about my experiences at Glastonbury so hope to see you soon.

May Blog
By Alexandra McLoughlin

April was such a busy month for me with so many events that I was hoping for some quite time in during May so I could concentrate on my studies, however it was another busy month with many events planned but I was left with no choice but to cancel some of these events and decided to spend most of the time at college doing many assignments and  completing various pieces of work.

Although It was rather stressful month for me, I did manage to find the time to photograph bands at the Great Escape Festival in Brighton which I was lucky to have given press accreditation.

The Great Escape Festival was fantastic! Despite the first day saw my camera stop working which meant I couldn’t take photos, however on of the great things about doing a Media Course is the fact that sometimes we can borrow equipments from my college so I was able to borrow an excellent professional camera so I could use for the rest of the festival. That shows how supportive my Teachers are about us Students, they even made sure that I had plenty spare rechargeable batteries for the camera!

During the registration process for the festival I bumped into a record label PR who I’d met in November. I wasn’t expecting to see him again so it was a very surprised and in a bit of shock but we spoke and I was very happy about that.

At the end of the evening I reviewed the first performance of a band called One Niight only and they were wonderful. I really enjoyed their set.. I also managed to catch quite a few other amazing acts on that day. You can view the review on my Telegraph and MTV Blogs at:

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/alexandra_mcloughlin/blog/2008/05/24/one_night_only__gig_review_

http://www.mtv.co.uk/user/alexmcloughlin/blog/423058

Day two of the Great Escape Festival was also great as I met some other photographers, who were very friendly. We spoke about festivals and gave each other advices and tips relating to Journalism. I photographed some street gigs with my friend Alex who was also working at the Festival. He introduced me to another PR person and band Manager. I always feel privileged to meet these people as not only they are interesting and we have so much in common it is also a way of building up contacts which may come in handy in my future career in Media so whenever Alex introduced me to a band manager or PR I felt pleased.

Day three was filled with excitement. It was the last day of the festival so I was a little sad about that. I took so many photographs. I knew that when I got back to college I would have lots of work to catch up on which I wasn’t looking forward to. The whole festival was fabulous.

I didn’t really do anything after the Great Escape due to the high amount of work I had to complete at college. I attempted to improve my grades and finish the work. I did a lot of writing though in my spare time which my Journalism teacher John said he’d mark for me as part of my grades. I was also glad that he took in consideration all the blogs that I have written in the past including the ones for The Telegraph, MTV and the Student Network.

Here is a picture of me with the members of a band called “Hatcham Social” who were DJ-ing at one og the venues of  The Great Escape Festival in Brighton.

p.s. Oops! Last month (April) was so busy for me with so many events to attend and I had so much on my mind that I even forgot to mention that I went up to London to the movie premiere of Flashbacks of a Fool so I could take pictures of the Stars as they arrive on the “red carpet” and besides many celebrities, I also had the pleasure of meeting the James Bond Actor the gorgeous Daniel Craig who is the main star of the movie Flashbacks of a Fool.

Here is a picture of me with him: