Polyglot Society, Psychology Society, Muslim Society and Canonaid led this week’s Senior Societies with another huge variety of speakers.
We were so pleased to welcome Professor Justin Watkins for our Polyglot Senior Society talk on Thursdays 24th March. Professor Watkins (SOAS University London) gave a talk entitled ‘Languages in SEAsia – a general overview of the linguistic diversity of SEAsia’ where he gave us an interesting insight into the different linguistic families in South East Asia, but also the difficulties of classifying each language due to the variety of criteria that could be used. Afterwards, he gave a shorter lecture entitled “Should we say Burma or Myanmar?”, the difference between the two words for the country. Professor Watkins was able to engage all the students in very new material and inspire them to explore new languages and concepts. We were also very happy to hear that Professor Watkins was the professor of Stephanie Lee at SOAS, an ONL, who founded the Kareni Student Development Programme during her gap year when she lived and worked as a teacher in a Karenni/Burmese refugee camp on the Thailand-Burma border. She sadly passed away in an accident and our school honours her memory and raises money for her charity through Fantasy Fashion, an annual event at school. We were extremely touched by Professor Watkins’ fond memories of her, and extremely thankful for not only his talk, but also this connection that we are keen to keep strong.
Psychology Society welcomed Sophie Scott for a talk entitled, The Psychology of Laughter. Sophie Scott is a neuroscientist at University College London. Her research investigates the cognitive neuroscience of voices, speech and laughter, particularly focusing on speech perception, production, vocal emotion and human communication.
Muslim Society heard from Dr Kiran Rahim for a talk entitled, ‘Muslims in Medicine’. A paediatric registrar who graduated from Barts SMD in 2011, Dr Rahim completed her foundation training in London before commencing her paediatric career. She has a keen interest in quality improvement and is a London School of Paediatrics QI Champion. Dr Rahim spoke about her journey into medicine, what it means to be Muslim in Medicine and the opportunities available to women in medicine. She also discussed how to make the best use of your time at college and university and how to prepare aspiring medics for a fulfilling career.
Finally, Canonaid heard from Anthony Bennett who gave a talk called, Miracle Man, Showing Resilience through Adversity. Anthony Bennett is a motivational speaker and ex-patient of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. He takes his audiences on a journey through his extremely near-death experience, after returning from a school trip to Disneyland Paris in 2006 that left him fighting for his life. Given just a 10% chance of survival, Anthony now brings to light the importance of working together as a team and shares techniques on how to stay positive when times get dark. He brings to focus his new perspective.
