SRUC CommunityThe SRUC Alumni & Friends Magazine 2017 A passion for Issue 2 Food & Drink Alumni cooking up a storm Going for Gold Olympic Alumni hopefuls Love Your Garden, Love SRUC Spotlight on Frances Tophill and much more ALUMNI 1 SRUC Community Contents 4-5 6-7 Welcome new Royal Highland ALUMNI alumni Show 2017 2017 Summer Alumni showcased Graduation at the Royal Ceremony Highland Show 8-9 10-11 Stay Connected Mental health in Gardening If you studied or worked at SRUC, SAC (North, West rural Scotland Scotland and East of Scotland Agricultural Colleges), Barony College, Elmwood College, or Oatridge College Making the There’s been a invisible visible murder! - we welcome you to the SRUC Alumni & Friends Community. It’s free to join, so stay in touch to: • Keep up to date with SRUC news 12-13 14-15 • Make the most of alumni benefits & discounts • Promote your business Alumni in the 2017: Year of • Keep in touch with friends Spotlight History, Heritage • Find out about job opportunities and Archaeology Alumni • Get invites to SRUC events promoting How SRUC • Organise a reunion rural industries is preserving across the UK Scotland’s sites Update your details at www.sruc.ac.uk/alumni or fill in your details on the tear off strip at the back of this magazine. 16-17 18-19 A passion for A stroll down Contact food & drink memory lane Julie van den Driesche Cooking up a SRUC Alumni Alumni Relations Manager storm reunions [email protected] www.sruc.ac.uk/alumni SRUC, King’s Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JG, T: 0131 535 4488 20-21 22-23 Designed by SRUC Communications SRUC sports A lifetime of Printed on environmentally sound, recycled paper teaching with Bill from sustainable sources. Alumni Dingwall achievements Supporting SRUC Alumni SRUC students @SRUCAlumni 2 SRUC Community to the second edition Welcome of SRUC Community, the Alumni and Friends magazine. This year SRUC launched its new strategy, setting out the direction it will take to better serve Scotland’s rural communities and economy. To fulfil this potential and realise our ambition we need confidence, imagination and creativity, together with a willingness to change the way we work, operate and think as a sustainable institution. This is at the heart of our strategy and involves everyone at, and with a stake in, SRUC. I have been delighted with the level of engagement with our new strategy following its launch in April. I sincerely thank all those who took the time to attend a discussion meeting and/or send in their feedback. Around 900 colleagues, students and stakeholders, including alumni and former staff, attended the 21 meetings we held across the country, while nearly 250 additional written communications were submitted. The range of views expressed was diverse and inspiring. Our key drivers to make this all happen lies in the 5 “I”s: integration; international; industry-facing; innovation for impact; and inspiring. I think you will see many of these “I” themes running through SRUC Community. The Alumni Team is always keen New to hear from our alumni and friends, so please do get in touch jobs with them, update them with your reunions and stories, to help create website! an inspiring alumni community. Page 9 Professor Wayne Powell Principal and Chief Executive Scotland’s Rural College 3 SRUC Community Summer Graduation “I believe if you have a In July the SRUC Class of Elmwood campuses. In Barony 2017’s graduation ceremony students and families were passion and you want to took place in Bute Hall at the treated to a remarkable guest do it, don’t let anyone stop speaker, Katy Cropper. Katy made University of Glasgow. Despite you, follow your dreams the Scottish ‘summer’ weather, history in 1990 to become the graduates enjoyed the traditional first woman to win ‘One Man and and hold onto those his dog’. Having struggled through procession around the quad, dreams.” followed by champagne. school with dyslexia, Katy has gone on to be one of the most Awards and prize giving successful dog trainers in the UK Winter graduation will take place ceremonies also took place at and inspired the students with in November for SRUC’s HNC and SRUC’s Barony, Oatridge and some solid words of advice: HND graduands. 4 SRUC Community Welcome new Alumni! 5 SRUC Community Alumni showcased at the Royal Highland Show At the 2017 Royal Highland Show members of the alumni community contributed to SRUC’s “Integration” farmers’ cart display. The display showcased SRUC’s contribution to the success of the Scottish rural economy through Education, Research and Consulting. Visitors were able to sample fresh fruits with free-range cream and delicious toppings, or oatcakes topped with chutneys, jams and curds. Frances Tophill They also browsed through books written by our (Horticulture with Plantsmanship, alumni and learned out about some of SRUC’s Edinburgh, 2013), co-presenter on ITV’s Love Your influential research projects. Garden, supplied her books First- We are very grateful to the following alumni time Gardener and The Container Gardener. who helped make the Integration display a success. Anna Mitchell Prof Gerald Wiener (Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1947) attended the SRUC stakeholders’ event with his wife Margaret Dunlop, who wrote his fascinating biography “Goodbye Berlin” which was on display. Eilidh MacPherson (Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1989) donated her book “300 Farmers of Scotland” for the stand, which visitors from Tracey, Aylett, Steven and Stuart Roan (all SRUC alumni) across Scotland enjoyed from Roan’s Dairy, supplied their free-range cream looking through (and spotting and milk. The BBC’s ‘This Farming Life’ team filmed Tracey and their friends and neighbours). Aylett for the second series at SRUC’s Pavilion. 6 SRUC Community Lochy Porter (Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1990) Director of Angus Soft Fruits supplied strawberries, raspberries and brambleberries that kept our visitors coming back for more. Jill Brown (Rural Business Graeme Jarron Management, (Agriculture, Aberdeen, 2008) Aberdeen, 1999). recently launched Avva Another SAC Consulting Scottish Gin which was on Food & Drink client, Graeme display. supplied bottles of his Jill was busy at her Avva award-winning Ogilvy Spirits stall in RHS17’s Scotland’s Scottish Potato Vodka. John Sinclair Larder Live. (Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1989), manager of Craigie’s Farm supplied products from The Jam Gregor Mackintosh Kitchen. John is the Chief (Agriculture, Steward of Scotland’s Aberdeen, 2018). Larder Live, so was very Gregor supplied his busy over the weekend. Mackintosh of Glendaveny extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil. Gregor previously worked with SAC Consulting Food & Drink to develop his business. (Leisure & Recreation Jim Shanks (Agriculture, Management, Edinburgh, 1998) Auchincruive, 2002), supplied his Sweetelle Bill Gray (Agriculture, manager of Castleton Farm baby plum tomatoes, the Auchincruive, 1986), Shop in Aberdeenshire. only commercially grown manager of Prestonhall Anna supplied vinegars, tomatoes in Scotland- Farms, one of the Lothian toppings and tart jellies that energy efficient and eco- Monitor Farms where SRUC were developed with the friendly (and delicious). Research is conducting assistance of SAC Consulting research on the crucial role Food & Drink. of pollinators on farms. 7 SRUC Community Making the invisible One million people live in rural Scotland. SRUC teamed with Support “The hope is that this research will in Mind Scotland (SiMS) to shine mean more people a light on rural people who are will have the op- portunity to speak experiencing mental ill health. and be heard, which will lead to Professor Sarah Skerratt, Director of SRUC’s Rural Policy Centre, explained, change throughout “We were aware that our understanding of rural mental health was rural Scotland” patchy and largely anecdotal. By partnering with the charity SiMS, that Professor Sarah has outreach in rural Scotland, our survey was designed specifically for Skerratt those experiencing mental ill health so they could tell us what life is like for them.” National Rural Mental Health Survey Scotland: SRUC alumni were invited to take part in the survey via the @SRUCAlumni Facebook and Twitter pages. Hundreds of people shared their thoughts Report of With Dr Elliot Meador and Dr Michael Spencer Professor Key Findings and feelings, expressing their views in the anonymous survey as to what Sarah Skerratt needs to change in mental health services and highlighting key policy 13 th issues. April 2017 “If I was to say what the one take-home message is, it would be this: that people want to create ways to connect before their personal crises occur, preferably in non-clinical settings and ideally in their locality. There’s a real emphasis, from the islands in the north and west, to the mainland areas in the south, on talking and connecting being essential in helping to address isolation that comes with rural living,” said Professor Skerratt. This collaboration between SRUC and SiMS has led to the setting up of the National Rural Mental Health Forum, which was launched formally “We know in March 2017. It has the support of both the Cabinet Secretary for that one in Rural Economy and Connectivity, Fergus Ewing MSP and the Minister four Scots for Mental Health, Maureen Watt MSP. The Forum is committed to suffer mental making rural Scotland a thriving, healthy place to live, by influencing Government policy and conducting ground-breaking research. More than ill health at 30 organisations belong to the Forum, many with expertise in tackling some point mental health issues and reach to all parts of rural Scotland. in their lives, and now we Jim Hume, an SRUC alumnus (Agriculture, 1984, Edinburgh), SRUC Board member, and former MSP, is the convener of the national Forum. know that tackling “The research findings from the rural mental health survey now give us mental ill the evidence to help us tackle mental ill health in rural Scotland,” said Mr health in rural Hume.