King’s relatedNewsletter of the Family Programme Issue 10 | Spring 2011

This year will see the launch of King’s College London’s first live online radio station. As well

as broadcasting live material KCL Radio offers an on-demand media station that will be available 24/7, keeping students up to date with news, events and activities across the College.

As Station Manager, Fran Allfrey (pictured) was delighted when the KCL Radio & Podcasting Society received an Annual Fund grant of £19,500, allowing it to build its own station on campus. ‘I never thought that we’d be able to afford to build

an industry standard station,’ says Fran. ‘Now that we have our own space we are going to focus on giving all King’s students a place to showcase their achievements.’

KCL Radio began as a podcast-only society, founded by third-year English student Fran in June 2009. The society, made up of over 40 members, received the title of Best New Society of the Year at the King’s College London Students’ Union Awards in 2010. Fran comments, ‘It’s great to see that student media is supported, allowing students to get the vital experience they need to get into a very competitive industry.’

KCL Radio goes live

King’s student crowned world champion

King’s student Katherine Grainger MBE (pictured, left) won a record fifth world title at the World

Rowing Championships in New Zealand in November 2010. She and her partner Anna Watkins dominated the double sculls final – coming in six seconds ahead of silver medallists Australia.

PhD Law student Katherine, who was an Olympic silver medallist in 2000, 2004 and 2008, is Great Britain’s most successful Olympic female rower and was awarded an MBE in 2006 for services to rowing. Her World Championship win is a huge boost to her 2012 Olympic campaign in which she is looking for no less than gold medallist status.

I am delighted to welcome you to this edition of King’s related, the newsletter for families of King's College London students.

I hope that it will give you a good overview of the College and the many opportunities – academic, cultural and social – that we offer.

In 2010, King’s excellence was recognised by a number of accolades, not least being named as The Sunday Times University of the Year 2010/11. The 2010 Sunday Times University Guide shows that King’s graduates enjoy one of the best employment rates and starting salaries in the UK. In today’s competitive job market, everyone needs to have an edge and the College has an enviable reputation for ensuring that our graduates are sought by some of the world’s most prestigious employers.

I hope that you enjoy finding out more about life at King’s and I look forward to sharing our successes with you in the future. Professor Sir Richard Trainor, Principal

Welcome from the Principal

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Students coach the communityBeginning in January 25 King’s students were on their way toward receiving entry-level coaching qualifications through an initiative that strengthens partnerships between the College and local schools and organisations.

Through the King’s College London Students’ Union (KCLSU) Coaching Education Programme, which was established in 2010 with financial support from the College’s Annual Fund, these first- and second-year students will receive extensive training in coaching skills over four weekends. Attaining coaching qualifications can costs hundreds of pounds, a prohibitive expense for most students.

In return, each student commits to providing 20 hours of volunteer coaching for a King’s sports club or with one of the programme’s community partners, which include local schools and organisations. The emphasis at this level of training is developing the skills to enthuse and manage participants in a safe, fun environment, not to prepare athletes for elite level competition.

The Annual Fund, which is supported through the World questions|King’s answers campaign, provided a grant of £4,600 to create the coaching programme. To find out more about supporting the Annual Fund please visit www.alumni.kcl.ac.uk/giving

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Despite weeks of snow, ice and unseasonably cold weather, renovation of the East Wing of

Somerset House continued through the winter months, with King’s looking to have the landmark building ready for students and staff to use in the autumn of this year. In November 2009, the College finally succeeded in acquiring the building, which is situated next door to the Strand Campus, after 180 years of negotiation.

Much of the renovated building will be available for a mix of public uses. While the School of Law will move into the top two floors of the East Wing, much of the historic structure will provide spaces for the College to welcome the public to England’s fourth oldest university.

The lower ground floor will house the Institute of Making, a multi-disciplinary research club and exhibition area that will

encourage guests to pick up and handle more than 1,000 different materials – some of them common and others exotic. Guests will be able to learn about the items’ cultural context, scientific history and various uses through the centuries.

Much of the East Wing will be available for a mix of public uses.

The Performance Foundation will provide a space where guests can learn about and watch performances taking place across the King’s campuses. The foundation defines ‘performance’ broadly to include activities taking place across all disciplines at the College, including law, medicine and the humanities.

The East Wing will provide the School of Law with its first-ever dedicated moot

courtroom. Although King’s students have achieved great success in moot court competitions for many years, they have never been able to practice their courtroom performance skills in a space specifically for this purpose. This prominent first floor room will also will be available for other functions.

Renovation of the East Wing is part of World questions|King’s answers, the most ambitious fundraising effort in the College’s 182-year history. While every School at King’s will benefit from this £500 million campaign, World questions|King’s answers is designed to have a global impact through its three major themes: Neuroscience & mental health, Leadership & society and Cancer. To find out more about the renovation of Somerset House East Wing please visit www.kcl.ac.uk/somersethouse. To read more about World questions|King’s answers, visit www.alumni.kcl.ac.uk/worldquestions

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Publishing success for student

A devastating accident resulted in dramatic life changes for King’s MA Science & Security student

Ryan Chamberlain. On a cycling tour in Bolivia a drunk driver careered into him, resulting in multiple injuries. A complex fracture to his ankle put him though more than 15 operations.

‘I was told that the only option available to me was to have my ankle joint fused. After consideration I requested an amputation as I would have more functionality with the use of a prosthetic. My ankle was amputated in June 2009.’

Naturally competitive, sport was a big part of the recovery process. Ryan was spotted for his rowing potential and began training with the Great Britain Paralympics squad. He joined the King’s Boat Club and had his first taste of rowing on water, rather than on a machine. He has gone from strength to strength, taking gold at both the Varese International Regatta in Italy and the World Cup in Slovenia. Selected for the Great Britain team at the World Championships in New Zealand, they took silver having the gold snatched from them in the final push by just 0.4 of a second.

Ryan is a member of KCLSU's Kinetic Elites programme which provides athletic, academic and financial support for student-athletes.

This is an extract from an article by KCLSU. To read it in full or for more information on Kinetic Elites visit kclsu.org/paralympics

King’s student on road to Paralympics

Second-year King’s history student Chibundu Onuzo has achieved success in the world of publishing that most aspiring writers can only dream of: she has signed a two-novel deal with a major publisher. Her first book, The Spider King’s Daughter, is scheduled to arrive in bookstores in 2012.

Chibundu grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and has lived in England for the past six years. She discovered her love of writing by age 10, and within a few years she decided she wanted to become an author.

The Spider King’s Daughter, set in Nigeria, explores the friendship between a male street hawker and a young woman from a wealthy family. The novel features two first-person narratives, exploring the relationship from both central characters’ point of view.

‘The big question I’m trying to find through these two characters is if, given the social structure of Lagos, two people from those backgrounds can form any kind of meaningful connection – not necessarily romantic, but any sort of connection,’ she says.

Her second book will probe the ability of individuals to live by their belief systems in a variety of trying circumstances.

The Spider King’s Daughter, to be published by Faber & Faber, will be available in late winter or early spring of 2012.

…she has signed a two-novel deal with a major publisher.

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Contact details: Editorial enquiries: Amanda Calberry Tel +44 (0)20 7848 4703 Email amanda.calberry@kcl.ac.uk All other enquiries: Louise Gough Tel +44 (0)20 7848 2556 Email family@kcl.ac.uk King’s College London, Ground Floor Office, Strand Bridge House, 138-142 Strand, London, WC2R 1HH

King’s collaborates with the National Theatre

Students celebrate Diwali in style

In good companyAmongst our alumni community, past and present, there are many successful entrepreneurs. These include:

Walter Owen Bentley MBEWalter Bentley was a car designer and the founder of Bentley Motors. He was a science student at King’s in 1905-6 during

his apprenticeship as an engineer with the Great Northern Railway. He made a major contribution to the design of the internal combustion engine, and the cars he designed for Bentley, Lagonda, Aston Martin and Armstrong Siddeley dominated the racing scene in the 1920s and 30s and became a byword for motoring luxury.

Randolph Hodgson OBE (Queen Elizabeth College, Food Science & Chemistry, 1979) Randolph is owner of the award-winning farmhouse cheese company Neal’s Yard Dairy, which he helped to set up three decades ago. He took a job at the company as a summer ‘fill-in’ before he settled on a career: he never left. The dairy’s main premises are in Borough Market. Randolph was key to rejuvenating the market’s fortunes.

Naveen Selvadurai Naveen is co-founder of Foursquare, a geo-social networking site with more than four million users. A graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, Naveen attended King’s for five months during his junior year in 2002. His advice to someone thinking about starting an online network is: ‘Just go out and do it. Don’t wait to get permission from anyone. There will always be people who say it won’t work. You’ve just got to do it, and do it again, and do it again.’

Julie Walters (King’s, Molecular Genetics, 1999) Before her degree at King’s, Julie worked as a journalist in her native Australia and subsequently on Fleet Street

and GMTV. After graduating in Molecular Genetics, Julie combined her new-found knowledge and previous experience to set up a public relations agency focused on healthcare called Tudor Reilly (www.tudor-reilly.com), which is based in London.

Performed every November, the King’s College London Charity Diwali Show brings together King’s students from a diverse range of ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds in a spectacular fusion of Eastern and Western performance. Last year’s showcase was staged at Indigo2 at the O2 in November. Nearly 300 students were involved in the show’s creation, from the performers and choreographers to costume-makers and lighting crews and everyone in between. Dilan Fernando, Head of Finance and PR on the Charity Diwali Show Committee says: ‘King’s is a very diverse university and within it is so much talent. As a show, we unite that and bring everyone together and we do that in a way that we can raise money for charity.’ The 2010 show

raised funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, The Evelina Children’s Hospital at St Thomas’, Castlehaven Community Project and Jacob’s Hospice.

King’s students now have access to some of London’s top theatrical productions thanks to a new collaboration between the College and the National Theatre. King’s will be one of the first academic venues to participate in the hugely popular National Theatre Live initiative in which the best of British theatre is broadcasted to cinemas around the world.

Productions are streamed live to the Anatomy Theatre and Museum at the Strand Campus. The first of the programme, FELA!, was screened in January this year. Coming directly from Broadway, FELA! explores the life of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Performances of Danny Boyle’s new production of Frankenstein and Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard will be screened in March and June respectively,

with an accompanying programme of academic events.

Alan Read, Professor of Theatre in the Department of English, says, ‘With its central London Off-West End campuses, neighbouring the National Theatre, King’s is perfectly placed to attract an even wider audience of theatre lovers. This is a further example of how King’s can add imaginative and intellectual value to the continuous performance of this world capital.’

Broadcasts of National Theatre Live at the College start at 19.00. Tickets cost £12.50 for staff and alumni of King’s, £10 for King’s students and £15 for the public. Tickets include an interval drink and access to the accompanying academic events. They can be purchased online at www.kcl.ac.uk

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