Club Spotlight: The 93% Club Durham

As many of you know, The 93% Club’s reach spreads far across the UK, with over 50 clubs representing our #StateSchoolProud message.

To recognize the incredible work of our clubs and the people behind their efforts, we’ll be featuring some of the clubs in our showcase series.

Our next club in focus is The 93% Club Durham, which represents the student community of Durham University and is one of our longest-serving branches of the network. I sat down with Freya West (She/Her) and Halle Afflick (She/Her) the club’s president and vice president respectively, to discuss their experiences as committee members of the club, and individual experiences as huge advocates for social mobility.

I ASKED FREYA AND HALLE TO INTRODUCE THEMSELVES AND GIVE ME A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE 93% CLUB DURHAM.

Freya is a third-year student studying LLB in Law. Freya initially began her 93% Club journey as a 2021 college representative for St Mary's College (a college of residence at Durham University), before becoming the Corporate Laison Officer for the branch, and eventually becoming their president for this academic year. 

Halle is studying a bachelor’s degree in criminology, she likewise joined the club in 2021 as a subject representative, and then president for the society last year, before settling in as their vice president for this year.

After being part of the society for three academic years, the pair have built a solid game plan of where they want to target their efforts. They have a wide team of committee members, each with specialised areas of focus such as professional development, outreach, events, welfare and even particularly targeting concerns revolving around the collegial system at Durham University. 

Each area of focus seems to have an equal amount of effort being poured into it by the team over at Durham, with the committee's plans seeming to want to level up the society throughout this coming academic year.

Another significant focus of the society also seems to be their unique Q&A presentations, focusing on several different professionals, committee member Harvey Finnegan (He/Him)   hosts these and these can be found on the society’s social media pages. As well as their newly established mentorship scheme, started by committee member Annika Borrow (She/Her), which pairs state-educated freshers as mentees with older students as mentors, with the hopes that this will build a more social relationship among different members of the society.

WE THEN DISCUSSED WHAT INSPIRED FREYA AND HALLE TO GET INVOLVED WITH THE 93% CLUB IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Both got involved with the club in their first year after realising that Durham University noticeably had a vast number of privately educated students and feeling a sense of imposter syndrome as a result. As well as this, with both Freya and Halle originally coming from Liverpool (have grown up in similar areas of that city), they elaborated on the fact that their ‘very obvious scouse accent’ sometimes made them feel as if they were ‘sticking out like a sore thumb’. 

As a result of feeling mixed emotions upon arriving at the university and worrying that the university setting was living up to some stereotypes of the class divide, they sought out a space for like-minded individuals. 

The pair first were introduced to The 93% Club at the university’s freshers fair, where they were delighted to hear of society which was actively seeking to combat some of their shared concerns.

I ASKED FREYA AND HALLE TO TELL ME ABOUT SOME OF THE WORK THAT’S HAPPENED DURING THEIR TIME AT THE CLUB.

After being involved with The 93% Club Durham for three years, both Freya and Halle (as well as many other members of their committee) have poured countless hours into their efforts to support the club.

Both Freya and Halle had many different achievements that they were proud to oversee since being part of the Durham branch.

One notable example which they discussed was an employability fund, where they received a sponsorship for three different students to help invest in their employability opportunities. This meant that these select students would be able to elevate their professional prospects via the means of sponsorship investments, these students used this funding on several things including; transport to interviews, clothing for internships and funding extra courses to enhance their CVs.

This is something which the team wishes to continue in the future, endeavouring to further support career efforts for their society members.

WE WANT TO SHOWCASE CLUBS THAT HAVE GONE ABOVE AND BEYOND IN THEIR COMMITMENT TO SUPPORTING STATE-EDUCATED STUDENTS. WE ASKED FREYA AND HALLE HOW THEY THOUGHT THE 93% CLUB DURHAM HAD ACHIEVED THIS.

Both Freya and Halle were truly proud of the connections that Durham as a branch of The 93% Club was building, not only as a sociable and welcoming student group within the city of Durham but also amongst professionals from a number of industries. From supporting a joint effort to organise a north-east networking event (alongside The 93% Newcastle), to organising regular drop-ins and workshops with numerous professional organisations.

The team at Durham also have several long-standing sponsorships with organisations, which the committee carefully manages with each passing year, building a long-standing relationship between society and industry professionals.

Freya and Halle paid particular attention to the fact they have also diversified the type of professional talent that they have been working with. In the past the team found that law had been a principal focus, which benefitted a large group of students, however, this was not a career path from which everyone benefited from hearing.

The team have recently expanded their reach to a wider pool of professionals, with these professionals helping run workshops and participating in The 93% Club Durham’s Q&A sessions.

I ASKED FREYA AND HALLE WHAT THEY WERE MOST EXCITED ABOUT IN THEIR UPCOMING SCHEDULE FOR THE CLUB.

One of the major highlights from the team’s upcoming schedule was bringing back their aforementioned employability fund, something which they endeavour to spread to a wider pool of students.

Alongside this, they are keen to continue working with a more diverse number of professionals, including an upcoming partnership with a company called Unlocked Graduates which helps individuals into frontline graduate schemes relating to leading prisoner rehabilitation.

The society also endeavours to continue to have further socials and drop-in sessions throughout the remainder of the academic year, alongside other regular events such as workshops and Q&As.

On a wider scale, both Freya and Halle touched on how The 93% Club’s mission had personally resonated with them, leading them to look at how they can integrate EDI and specifically social mobility into their career prospects.

FINALLY, I ASKED FREYA AND HALLE WHY STUDENTS AT DURHAM UNIVERSITY SHOULD GET INVOLVED WITH THIS BRANCH OF THE 93% CLUB.

Freya and Halle strongly encourage #StateSchoolProud members of the Durham University community to get involved with The 93% Club Durham, they made it clear to me that they endeavour for all society members to be shaped and motivated by their state-educated background, not held back by it.

They believe that they have built a welcoming and flourishing community of students within The 93% Club Durham, and encourage anyone who may be interested to come along and experience it themselves.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Freya West, Halle Afflick and the team at The 93% Club Durham for taking the time to shine a spotlight on their branch of The 93% Club network!

I am also looking forward to the next club spotlight which will be coming your way in the coming weeks, with the end goal to spotlight the individual efforts being made by our incredible student volunteers across the United Kingdom.