Tag: NHLI

St. Mary’s Christmas Party 2018

by Inne Nauwelaers, PhD student at the National Heart and Lung Institute

On Wednesday, 12th of December 2018, students at St. Mary’s School of Medicine building got together for the second building-wide party. Thanks to the financial aid of the Graduate School, we were able to organise a Christmas party, bringing people together from every department at this campus: the School of Public Health, Virology, Respiratory medicine, Infectious Diseases and Paediatrics.

The reason we took the initiative and wanted to bring everyone together, is due to the fact that there is no communal space for people to gather and therefore interaction between departments is often limited.

This Christmas party brought students from different departments together and made it so much easier to start talking to each other. We decorated the room, putting up a ‘fire place’ and turned on some Christmas music. The relaxed atmosphere, along with the wine, beer, mince pies and snacks helped everyone to have fun and made interacting and talking to new people so much easier. New friendships and connections were formed as a result.

From 4pm onwards people showed up and had their first drink. Within half an hour, the entire room was full and people were eating and drinking, chatting to colleagues and talking to strangers. They enjoyed quiches, mini pork pies, sausages rolls, crisps and of course mince pies with a sip of bubbly, wine, beer or soft drinks. By 7pm, people were still chatting, but we had to start cleaning up. Rubbish was binned, glasses collected and washed, and the room was cleared of left overs. Several people were happy to help and spoke highly of this successful second Christmas party at St. Mary’s. Afterwards, several people moved to the pubs around to keep the evening going with their new friends. Merry Christmas!

NHLI Careers Panel

The National Heart and Lung Institute Postgraduate committee organised a PhD careers panel on the 7th June with great success. The event, which was held at the union bar in South Kensington, was extremely well attended. Students travelled from all the Imperial campuses, which is often a challenge to achieve. Our five panellists were all working in non-academic areas such as industry, medical writing and scientific consulting. Students asked questions about interviews, their day to day life at work and why they chose their career paths.

After the panel session, students had the opportunity to chat one on one with the panellists and ask more specific questions. The atmosphere during the Q&A and networking was made even better with drinks and buffet which were provided thanks to the Research Community fund.

The feedback received by the students and those involved was overwhelmingly positive. Students commented on how it was a great chance to learn about career possibilities outside of the university setting.

We as a committee believe that events like these are an essential part of the PhD experience and for career development in the department. We are therefore grateful to the graduate school for providing funding without which nights like these wouldn’t be possible.

NHLI Quiz Night

by Katerina Lawlor, Sara Samari, Helena Lund-Palau and Kate Strong, PhD students in the National Heart and Lung Institute.

The National Heart and Lung Institute Postgraduate committee successfully put on a student quiz night on Friday 9th February. The event took place at the Hammersmith Campus, which was a welcome change from South Kensington for the many students based there. The evening was well attended and everyone enjoyed the drinks and pizza which were provided thanks to the Research Community Fund. Rounds included ‘Name the Professor’, as well as Imperial College and London trivia. The competition was fierce, but in the end Team #Covfefe were victorious and went home with the winner’s prize.

Overall, we received very positive feedback from all those who came along with many commenting that they appreciated the opportunity to meet students from other sections. We believe that events like these help us achieve our goal as a committee to improve the experience of PhD students in the department. We are therefore always grateful to the Graduate School for providing funding to make these nights possible and helping us to attract more students with the promise of free food and drink!