Astrea Events

Invest to Progress Conference

The Invest to Progress! 2024 conference hosted by UCL Astrea offered staff inspiring talks, workshops on mentorship and resilience, and networking opportunities to support career growth and professional development. Find out more and watch the full recording.

NEW Astrea Social Series - Bracelet Making

Come along to this free bracelet making session taking place on campus on Wednesday 26 March, 13:00-14:00. The class is run by Amalia Mihailescu (Student Adviser at the Bartlett) and takes place in the ground floor room, 169 Euston Road. Registration is open now and available at this Eventbrite page. 

Open to all levels, bracelet making is a fun, mindful activity and it will help you switch off from work and take a break from your busy day. This is also a great opportunity for you to meet other Astrea members in an informal setting and expand your UCL network.

NEW Astrea Social Series - Weaving Class

NEW Astrea Book Club - Fierce Fairytales

Celebrate International Women’s Day with UCL Astrea’s Book Club! This month, we’ll be reading "Fierce Fairytales: & Other Stories to Stir Your Soul" by Nikita Gill – a collection of empowering poems and short stories that reimagine traditional fairytales and folklore with strong, independent female characters. The event will take place on Thursday 6 March, 13:00-14:00, in room 784, at the Institute of Education.

With themes of feminism, strength, and resilience, this book is both whimsical and inspiring. We'll have printouts of the book on the day so don't worry if you haven't read it all. The book club is just a way to sit and natter with other women at UCL. Registration is open now and available at this Eventbrite page.

Astrea Social Series - Salsa Class

Come along to this free salsa session taking place on campus on Thursday 30 January, 16:00-17:00. The class is run by Katie Bretherick and takes place on the ground floor of 169 Euston Road. Registration is open now and available at this Eventbrite page. 

Open to all levels, moving to upbeat Latin music is a brilliant way to destress and release those endorphins! This is also a great opportunity for you to meet other Astrea members in an informal setting and expand your UCL network.

International Women's Day 2024

UCL Astrea celebrates International Women's Day 2024 with a panel looking at Inspiring Inclusivity. Chaired by Adwoa Darko, Head of EDI Culture and Change, and featuring a panel of experts in disability, innovation, policy and education, this event looks at what it means to be inclusive and how we can work together to make a more inclusive world for all.

Astrea masterclass: Getting your voice heard

Achieving Growth and Success through Win-Win Negotiation – a motivational masterclass tailored to empower women and led by Professor Sunny Lee, UCL School of Management.

Astrea does Desert Island Discs with Aimie Chapple (December 2023)

Aimie Chapple, Vice-President (Operations) spoke to Seema Walker (UCL Astrea) about the music that has played a pivotal role in her life and career to date.

World Menopause Day event (October 2023)

To help mark World Menopause Day, UCL Astrea invited a number of experts in the field of reproductive health and female wellbeing to better understand the journey that affects 50% of the global population. The panel helped our audience better understand Menopause, how it affects the individual and how we can be better educated to support ourselves and one another.

Navigating the Menopause at Work (June 2023)

UCL Astrea and UCL Menopause Network hosted a workshop exploring individual experiences of peri-menopause and menopause at work. Contribute to discussions that will feed into a new menopause policy for UCL, helping to improve the staff experience.

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Digital Accessibility (November 2022)

Michele Farmer (Disability IT Support Analyst) and Ben Watson (Digital Accessibility) talked about we can make everything we do more digitally accessible.

Inspirational Female Line Managers (November 2022)

Some of the fantastic nominees from our Inspirational Female Line Managers campaign spoke in a round-table discussion and Q&A session.

Astrea does Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Walker (October 2022)

Kirsty Walker, Vice-President (External Engagement) spoke to Jane Bolger (Marketing & Communications Manager, UCL East) about the music that has played a pivotal role in her life and career to date.

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Confidence Snakes & Ladders with guest speaker Avril Chester (July 2022)

Featuring Avril Chester - a multi-award-winning Technology Entrepreneur, experienced CTO, author, podcast host and cancer thriver - on how to navigate the constantly changing confidence landscape and how to always believe in yourself.

Career Development at UCL: tips for success (April 2022)

We heard from Karen Barnard, Director of UCL Careers, about tips and tricks to improve your chances of success at interviews and also what to avoid in order to stand out from other candidates. Loleta Fahad, Head of Career Development in Occupational Development, showcased some of the resources you are able to access through Occupational Development to build up your skills and capabilities, and finally Angela Clark, Head of Recruitment at UCL, spoke about how to prepare yourself for career moves.

Astrea Does Desert Island Discs! (July 2021)

Our speakers discussed the books and music that have played a pivotal role in their lives and careers to date.

With Marcia Jacks, Institute Manager for the EGA Institute for Women's Health and Co-Chair of UCL's Race Equality Steering Group, and Professor Sasha Roseneil, Dean of the UCL Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences and Pro-Provost (Equity & Inclusion).

Setting Stretching Objectives (December 2020)

This session was an opportunity to slow down, focus on some meaningful goals and set stretching objectives to plan how you will achieve that goal.

We were joined by Fiona Ryland, UCL's Chief Operating Officer, who opened the event with a talk about what stretch objectives are, how she has used them to positive affect in her own career and some basic principles for setting objectives.

Getting your voice heard in online meetings (July 2020)

Spending all day in online meetings but struggling to get a word in edgeways? Wish you had the confidence to lean in and make your voice heard?

Virtual meetings present a fantastic opportunity to increase your visibility and to engage directly with people you might not otherwise meet but they can be tricky to navigate, especially for the introverts amongst us. During this session we learnt from two amazing women who have nailed this art, had a chance to try out their tips and techniques for participating in and chairing meetings, and learnt how to become an ally for others.

Impostor Syndrome - is it real? (April 2020)

Ever walked into a meeting and questioned your right to be there? Have you ever taken on a new job and then you felt you weren’t really the right person for it? For many people this is a common life experience and one which can be quite debilitating if left unchecked. This session focused on this and on a set of related behaviours that are often referred to under the title of ‘imposter syndrome’.