May 18 2018

Deon Chorley

Forensic Psychology Masters student, Deon Chorley was recently awarded a College & University Business Officers (CUBO) Residential Assistant of the Year award, for his work as a Hall Life Duty Officer here on campus. We caught up with him to discover more about the award, how he feels he has positively influenced students living in Halls and his role as a Halls Life Duty Officer.

1.  Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What you study and what year you’re in?

So, I have been here for a while now. I started my undergraduate degree here at Royal Holloway in 2014 majoring in Psychology with Risk, Insecurity and Terrorism. Before commencing, I was incredibly lucky to be offered the Future Leaders Scholarship for Science (Class of 2017) and graduated last year with an offer to complete my MSc in Forensic Psychology here, which is what I am in the process of doing now.

2. Could you tell us a bit more about yourself and your role as Halls Life Duty Officer?

I have been involved in supporting fellow students in Halls for three years now and I can honestly say that my Hall Life team (both staff and students) do incredible work supporting other students in Halls with the wide array of different challenges that students experience, particularly in their early life at university. Not one incident or need is the same. The former Residential Support Assistant (RSA) role of previous years was very reactive and dealt with many of these cases as they arose. The new Hall Life model continues to offer the same support but in a more proactive way; trying to empower students to seek the support they need and to work ‘with’ them to affect positive change.

3. Congratulations on winning the CUBO award, can you tell us a bit more about it?

Thank you, it was quite a surprise when I learned I had been nominated, let alone go on to win the award. CUBO stands for College & University Business Officers – it is a professional association which, among other things, focuses on improving the university living experience by bringing institutions and professionals together to debate and share knowledge and experience of how best to support students in Halls. I was very fortunate to receive the CUBO Residential Assistant of the Year award, and what really caught me off-guard was some of the amazing comments made by a couple of my colleagues and even some from students that I have supported in the past.  I can only say thank you to my team for nominating me and it's great to see that our work has been making a positive impact.

4. How do you think you have positively influenced residents in Royal Holloway accommodation?

Honestly, I don’t think there is one method or one way. Anyone can make a positive impact; be the friendly face if a new person moves into your flat or joins your club or society, keep an eye out for your friends or flatmates and let someone know if you are ever worried about their wellbeing… and just listen. What I have learned is that we are not a team of superheroes who can solve all the problems students living in Halls encounter, but we can listen and then genuinely try to work towards a solution that will hopefully improve their circumstances.

5. What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?

As someone who has a background in coaching and development, I get satisfaction in parting knowledge that will equip others in what they want to do. For me, I have enjoyed sharing my experiences in this role with a great team of altruistic students who want to build on the role they have played in supporting other students this year, as they prepare to lead a new team next year.

6. What do you enjoy most about being a student at Royal Holloway?

There are simply too many things to list here! In the four years I have been at Royal Holloway, I have had the opportunity to represent the university in various capacities all over the UK and Europe. I have really enjoyed exploring different cultures through these opportunities as much as through the friendships I have made along the way with great people from all over the world. I have been a part of some awesome teams – the Basketball Club, Diplomatic Society, Hall Life, and the Global Leadership Programme. I haven’t even touched on the two degrees I have immersed myself in and the exciting research opportunities I have had… Like I say, too much to list everything.

7. You may have seen our latest recruitment campaign, ‘Find your why’. We are interested to find out what Royal Holloway has helped you to discover about yourself…

My family’s motto sums this answer up well – “Patience & Perseverance”. I felt somewhat of a failure when I was younger, as I saw my friends graduate while I chose not to continue my first degree beyond first year. So, I was ‘slightly’ older than most of my peers completing their undergraduate when I came to Royal Holloway, as it took a while to find the academic path I truly wanted to pursue. However, my time here has proven to me that it is never too late, and that those years I spent before returning to university were not wasted. Instead, I now believe they have enabled me to have a far more enriching experience here and equipped me well to persevere through those more challenging times.