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A day in the life...
This month, we're beginning a new feature, taking a look at a day in the life of different women working in Professional Services across UCL. This month's feature is on Natalie Humphrey, Head of Student Support and Wellbeing. Here, she tells us more about her role, her daily routine and what she likes to get up to outside of work.
My day starts… at 5.45am. The first thing I do is shower and prepare mine and my sons packed lunch. I always set my alarm for 5.30am hoping to squeeze in 10 minutes of yoga or meditation, but I always give in to 15 more minutes sleep! Once I have done battle with my 2 year old son to get him up and dressed I drop him with my mum to go to nursery and I am on my way to work by 7.15am.
I work at the Student Centre, which is in Euston, but I always get off a stop early to up my step count and clear my head ready for the day.
I’m responsible for…the management of the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Disability, Mental health and Wellbeing Service. We offer non-therapeutic support, so practical advice and guidance to students with a range of needs impacting or potentially impacting their studies and general wellbeing. I have a fantastic core team of 18 staff and we also have fractional staff who offer more in-depth one to one support.
I got the job… following a promotion from within UCL. I joined UCL in 2017 from another university and applied for my manager’s job when she left in the summer of 2018 after a period of acting up. I have worked in 2 other universities within student support and before that I worked within the community for disability and mental health charities as a key worker, life skills and job coach.
My typical day…I start work at 8am. I always grab a coffee on my way into work. I log in and check the emails that have come in overnight whilst eating my breakfast (overnight oats). At the moment I spend 30minutes every day clearing my desk top and historic emails in an effort to organise myself. It is working and I know that no matter what happens that day I have achieved something. No day in UCL Student Support and Wellbeing is the same and our priorities vary depending on the time of the year. My team are responsible for responding to and supporting some of UCL’s most vulnerable students, so a lot of what we do is time sensitive and I like to ensure that I am available to support my team to deal with our incoming work. I spend a lot of my time at meetings, talking about our service to other teams, leading on projects or being a part of working groups and projects that involve or will impact on students from a disability, mental health or wellbeing perspective. I always have time blocked in my diary to meet with students who may be complex or need management input. If I can I will finish work at some time between 4 and 5pm before rushing to pick my son up from nursery to cook him a meal that he won’t eat.
Most memorable work moment… unfortunately it was not at UCL, but my most memorable work moment was attending my first graduate exhibition at my last university and seeing the work of student’s that I had supported on display and feeling like a proud parent.
The worst part of my job…is giving students, or the staff I manage, difficult information. I don’t like being the bearer of bad news and delivering it never gets easier.
The best part of my job…Reading the positive feedback about my team and service from the students who have accessed the service.
After work… I usually get home at about 5.30-6pm. By the time I have cooked dinner and spent time with my son, there is not much me time for anything else! I usually watch a documentary or drama on TV with a cup of herbal tea and promptly fall asleep before dragging myself to bed by about 10pm. I have great ambitions of one day incorporating a yoga class into my after work routine.
My back-up plan…if I was not doing what I am currently doing, I would love to be a writer. I have so many stories, poems and essays in my head that I would love to get on paper, but I just never had the confidence or believed competence to do it. However, I know these are all barriers of my own doing and that my Plan B is something I could be doing alongside my Plan A, so watch this space!