Uni4Me

If you could sum up the lockdown so far in one word, what would it be? Sleep? Anxiety? Exams?

​Furlough? I mean, who honestly knew that word before 21st March 2020? That'll make your Scrabble options a little easier from now on.

For students, schools, unis and employers, we'd choose the word 'adaptation'. We've all had to do it right? Whether it be our revision schedule, our internet data bill (don't even...) or our tears over the lack of Premier League football...there's been a coin flip on what we deem 'normal', and it will be a while before we get things back to what they were pre-lockdown.

The world has had to adapt and get creative, and quickly. Meaning the world of higher education and outreach to support less advantaged students to access it has also had to get creative, and quickly.

Shortly into lockdown (days, in fact), our team began to scheme ways to convert our in-school offerings into online offerings, to support young people across the UK. We even jumped straight into filming #minutemotivations each day on Instagram, to help you (and us) express our feelings and try to make sense of it all. When this is all over, people (including family, including employers) will ask us not just what we did during lockdown but what we learned. Some truly tragic events have occurred, including the loss of loved ones and friends, but we've also seen some unbelievable acts of kindness, compassion and community born out of this strange time. It's not that we can take positives; we must take positives. We've made changes to Push that we may never have made before Covid, and we've decided they are here to stay.

They have made us more flexible, and more able to meet students across a range of mediums, including Teams and Zoom with interactive sessions involving quizzes, polls, challenge-the-presenter games and open honest Q&A. We've managed to truly reach parents for the first time. And the crowning glory? We've become one of 51 founding partners in the brilliant new online resource Uni4Me:the new online hub to support you through #COVID19 & beyond, with a host of online resources and activities, provided by higher education institutions (and wider reputable bodies like us) who came together during times of crisis for the greater good...we're kinda sorta The Avengers of the outreach world.

Ok, that's really pushing it...but we can't help thinking what the Push team would look like in spandex. Discover higher education & life after school at uni4me.co.uk and make sure you throw it your teacher's way too.

There's plenty to pursue over summer. You're not in any way alone. Remember that. And we're always here for you with weekly videos on Instagram, punchy little advice videos on Youtube and our archive of fabulous blogs on choices, wellbeing and employability.

Author

MOJ TAYLOR  is an Edinburgh Fringe First winning actor, and stand up comedian. He was selected for the BBC's Stand Up If You Dare competition for new comics - being mentored in comedy by Jasper Carrott. He was the first Taylor of his family to graduate a higher education course, reading Hispanic Studies & Drama from Queen Mary University of London before undertaking an MA in Acting at Drama Centre London (UAL). He has featured in various commercial campaigns (Asics, Nivea, Mazda, Lexus, Movember) and has delivered over 3,000 workshops to teenagers across the UK via Push and ComedyClub4Kids. He is also a PADI Divemaster, and has assisted on various conservation projects on seagrass and carbon emissions in the UK and The Baltic Sea. He is passionate about getting young people to scuba dive, as a way to develop their focus, soft skills, self-confidence and resilience. He is also a proud ambassador for the charity Freedom from Abuse, running Caught for Court presentations to 1,000s of children and teenagers on the dangers of county lines gangs, knife and drug crime and the realities of prison life