Duke of Edinburgh Society

The Duke of Edinburgh Society is a small activities based society on campus aimed at gaining new experiences, making new friends, helping others and having lots of fun! 

Aims for the year:

• To run a freshers trip (TBC) for students to experience some of the most beautiful areas in the UK (In my opinion) and to have some fun. (Open to all)
• To run a couple of trips throughout the year to the Mountainous areas of the UK (Interest dependent)
• To help you to start your Duke of Edinburgh's Award and to organise opportunities (including the 2 expeditions)
• To help you to gain new experiences and to learn new skills
• To improve your CV and help you to get a job after university

We are your opportunity to complete your Gold Award.

Find us at Freshers Fair and on Facebook. Feel free to message/email any of the comittee with any questions or if you want to know more, we are always happy to help.

We will be letting you know about our meetings and what we are doing in this years facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1127657967307608/ and by email so make sure you don't miss out-Emails will be sent to all fully paid members.

We are also organising a welcome event for everyone details of which will be released in due course so keep your eyes out for that. Not one to miss!

Your Executive Committee are:

Ashley Warnes - President and Expedition Liaison Officer - awarneb@essex.ac.uk

George Schwar - Treasurer- gschwa@essex.ac.uk

Gary Wiffin -Secretary - gwiffi@essex.ac.uk

What is the Duke of Edinburgh Award?

The Duke of Edinburgh award is for anyone aged up to 24 years of age. Founded in 1956 by Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh's award is internationally recognised.

The Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award looks amazing on your CV, making you stand out from the crowd!

There are 5 sections to the award: Expedition, Skill, Service, Residential and Physical, all of which we’ll help you work your way through.

The Skill, Service and Physical sections all have to be undertaken for one to one and a half years in any thing you choose from photography to baking, volunteering with Vteam to helping in a local school and football to hockey, whatever takes your fancy.

For the Expedition section, we organise two expeditions with an outdoor provider, Rough Edge, at the beginning of the Easter and Summer holidays going to some of the most beautiful areas in the British Isles! These are heavily discounted and we are one of the cheapest providers of the DofE expeditions in the country!

And for the Residential you spend 5 days and 4 nights in a "worthwhile activity" shared with people of a similar mindset.

To find out more on the award itself, come along to our meetings or log onto dofe.org where you can find all the information about the award.

Current Award Holders:

If you have completed your Gold Award or just want to get involved with more hill walking, we have many great opportunities for you, 

• Society Trips- We are looking at getting students out walking in the hills with limited cost either during Term holidays or weekend trips. IF there is somewhere you would like to go specifically, then please email Ashley Warnes, President, who will look at arranging a trip if possible.
• Helping out on DofE expeditions- (Award holders only) Also counts as residential section
• Further Expeditions-Our expedition provider, Rough Edge Adventure Logistics, will be running some amazing expeditions in Scotland and the Alps! These will be walking in some of the most beautiful and wild places in the world so if you enjoyed the expedition section of the award, contact us for more details.

No matter what stage of the award you are on or if you are just interested in getting out in the hills, join us and get involved.