Wednesday 22-08-2012 - 15:14

KINGSTON students have landed KUSU Silver accreditation in the national ‘Be a Champion’ programme through their 2012 Games celebrations.

KUSU has now been named a Silver Standard Students' Union in a nationwide scheme that celebrates Olympic-related student activities.

The ‘Be A Champion’ initiative, delivered by NUS, supports students from across the UK to create their own Games celebrations and get involved in London 2012 but it was Kingston students’ enthusiasm to get involved in 2012 volunteering and sports projects throughout the past year that got them noticed.

“Kingston students rose to the opportunity to do Olympic related activity and their enthusiasm has encouraged further student participation," said Vice President (Activities), Lauren McCormack.

“In particular, we’ve had a lot of interest in activities such as the sports clubs volunteer fun sessions run by Rugby, Cheerleading and American Football for local school and community groups."

In March this year Kingston also saw its first ‘Global Festival’- a whole week of events hosted to celebrate culture, diversity and internationalisation at Kingston. Inspired by the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games, the week gave over 2000 students that attended the chance to get involved in a variety of activities.

“It’s really exciting to see students making a difference and Kingston University has been doing some really exciting work to celebrate the Games,” Said Vicki Barrs, Vice President Union Development, NUS.

Students have also shown future commitment to the ‘Be A Champion’ project with diving club, Sub Aqua, already planning a project to go ahead in Freshers’ Week.  Following it's success Global Festival will run again this year too.

Lauren McCormack said: ‘We are very proud to have been recognised for our hard work and commitment to the ‘Be A Champion’ scheme. With the success of so many events we hope to do more this coming year to carry forward the Olympic legacy!’