Joy Clyne
Meet Joy Clyne who won the 2020 Flare award for social impact. Joy is a self-employed writer working towards getting a collection of poems published.
| Current job role | Writer |
|---|---|
| Year of graduation | 2018 |
| Course of study | BA (Hons) Human Resource Management |
University life and experience
Nigerian born Joy grew up in Scotland as a teenager and wanted to experience something new. She read about the Hertfordshire Business School courses online and watched videos on student life and was hooked. The benefit of being so close to London was a draw and Joy also liked the fact the University is located at the heart of Hatfield, for a home from home feeling.
Joy embraced university life. She joined the drama society and was a student rep, a step out of her comfort zone which gave her a leadership position for the first time. The presentation skills Joy gained in her course have helped her find her confidence and voice. She says, 'I dreaded having to do presentations at the start of my course, I would be so nervous, but as time went on I gradually began to let my voice out and that’s really helped with telling people about my poetry and art work.'
Winning Flare award and future aspirations
In 2020 Joy entered her poetry book Under the Umbrella into the Flare competition, the University’s highly competitive annual business competition that gives budding Herts students and alumni entrepreneurial support and training to bring their business ideas to life. She first thought that her book wasn’t a business idea but was encouraged to apply by the University’s Enterprise Team who are part of Careers and Employment Service.
Joy won the award for social impact, an award designed to support a business that is ethical and socially impactful, with the aim to improve the world we live in. Under the Umbrella is a collection of empowering poems written to help her deal with being sexually abused as a child. Joy has used poetry as a creative outlet to help herself heal, gain identity and a voice. She wants her poems to help others by encouraging victims of abuse to speak out and for abuse to be talked about in society. Joy will direct her £2,000 prize money towards completing her book and self-publishing, from manuscript assessment to cover design.
As for the future, Joy says 'I would love to be an author of many books, writing human stories that people can relate to. Having some of my books made into theatre shows and short films with me writing the scripts would be amazing.'