We interviewed Jessica, the organiser of the very successful Dumfries Nursing Graduation Ball, to find out what it’s like organising such a big event and how it can impact your university life.
Can you give a little overview of what it you did to organise your ball?
As part of the final year, we knew that we had our graduation ball coming up and we wanted to make it special and nice to remember. We've done some fundraising events throughout the year to make sure that goal was achievable. So firstly, I put a message in our uni group chat to see who wanted to be part of it and then we made another group from that. People had lots of different ideas. We agreed that in previous years we've used our Union bar, Greens, so I spoke with them and they offered to do a race night which also coincided with the raffle we were doing. We spoke to a lot of community areas and shops to see if we could get donations and we managed to gather quite a lot of prizes for the raffle which I think was the biggest thing we earned money from. We did a bake sale as well because there were quite a few keen bakers in our class!
How did the grad ball go?
It was a really good night actually. The lecturers said it was one of the best ones they've been to. But yeah, I think because we had taken the time to make sure everything was well planned, and we had the support from the Students’ Union with additional funding and help, we managed to include a lot of things within the ticket price. We managed to add a lot more to the event from what I think previous years had, just because we had that extra funding and our fundraising. We tried to keep it affordable for everybody and We had good numbers as well as people brought plus ones.
What do you think other people thought about the event?
I think everyone had a good night. Everybody stayed till the end, so I always think that's a good sign. It was nice because we held it at Easterbrook Hall where we graduated, then were back there for our ball. It was nice. I think everybody was pleased and nobody had any complaints about the ball or the venue. We mentioned on the night that we couldn't have done it without everybody helping with their fundraising and all their efforts. I know it is challenging and within nursing you do get a bit of a divide with a lot of older and younger students who are a bit different, but in trying to please everybody, I think overall it went well.
How did you make the final decision of where the ball took place and all the other details?
Originally we booked a place that wasn’t really what we were looking for so we came to the Students’ Union and with your support we were able to sort out what we were doing and how to go about arranging everything. I think it would have been very difficult if we didn't have that support. For making decisions for everything else we did it through polls in group chats and messages. Once I saw everybody was in agreement, I used that information, put it in a spreadsheet and worked out what we could afford. I asked everyone for their ideas and what they would like but I did probably make the final decisions based on everyone’s interests. I think without having that one person to make the decisions you would never come to conclusions and get things booked. That wouldn’t happen if you tried to wait on every single person’s answers. And I didn’t have any complaints, which is a good sign.
How did you manage to do all of the different fundraising activities alongside your uni work and placements?
It was quite challenging. It was hard to coordinate everybody to bring in all their prizes for the raffle and things like that. But overall, I think we worked quite well and the uni were very supportive of us doing stuff to organise the events. They allowed us time out of class to set up for a bake sale and we sold raffle tickets alongside that.
What do you think you've gained from being the person organising the event?
I really enjoy organising things and taking the lead on projects so I would say I’ve probably gained some more leadership skills out of this. I think it’s definitely brought everyone involved closer together. We did a lot of decorating and things like that as well. We made all the chairs DIY because that was like an extra £300 if we were to buy new ones. Looking at things in a bit more detail was very helpful and was needed to understand what we needed to do to make everything work.
What sort of impact do you think it’s had on your university experience as a whole now that you've finished and graduated?
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed my experience, and I think the grad ball round it off nicely. It’s quite sad that we’re not all together anymore but I think you need to have that big kind of send-off for when you’re finished uni.
Do you have any advice that you would give to other students who'd be looking to organise another ball?
Initiate it as early as you can and find out who wants to be involved when trying to form that committee. You could put out a questionnaire to your year group to get feedback on what they would be looking for in a ball or end of year activity. There were about 12 or 13 of us on the committee but it can be quite hard to keep it to a small group. Try and listen to everybody's ideas. You’ve got to be quite strong minded and sensible to not get swept away in all of the different ideas that are thrown at you. You need to judge what’s realistic for you to achieve and for what other people would actually enjoy. Organisation is the biggest thing for creating an event like this. Somebody does need to take the lead but having the committee is important because I felt like I wasn't alone trying to get everything done by myself. I think you've got to be proactive about hosting the event but as long as you start doing things early you should be able to get thing sorted.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when doing this?
Probably people being indecisive and not knowing what they would like to do. Along with that, having to take the lead and having a large responsibility to make sure it all worked out. I think the money situation was made easier by you guys because you held it for us and the onus wasn’t entirely on me, but I needed to make sure that it all worked as well. People did put a lot of trust in me, so yeah, that's probably one of the biggest challenges.
What was your favourite bit about all of it?
I just love Pinterest and creating ideas; I think it's quite satisfying. At the end of the day everybody enjoyed the night and it felt quite wholesome with everybody being together. Probably the most satisfying thing is seeing everything falling into place. At the start, ticket sales weren't the best, but once we gave people a little push, they all sold. There was a bit of money left over from previous years so that was a good starting point for us. That was quite a nice incentive to get us started and I was very mindful of the money we were using, because I wanted to leave some left over to help the next year group get started with organising their ball.
In your opinion, why should students who are thinking of setting up similar events take the lead in organising them?
I think it’s a really good thing for somebody to do. It gives you a lot of experience, like if you're not really used to organising things. It does bring the cohort a lot closer, but I think it's more you feel privilege that you've organised something for everyone. It feels worthwhile when you know that everything's gone well and everybody's had a good night. The end goal is good life experience.
A huge thank you to Jessica for giving us an amazing insight into what it takes to organise an amazing event such as this!
Here are some more pictures form the event!
