The Lumsden Club is an all female club at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The club is a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

that aims to support women and children's charities and the arts, both locally and abroad. The club is named in honour of Dame Louisa Lumsden, founding female warden at University Hall, the university's first

hall of residence A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

for women.

Membership

The club consists of approximately 40 members, with a maximum of 10 students from each year group. Though members of the club were traditionally from Britain's

elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

social class A social class is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the Upper class, upper, Middle class, middle and Working class, lower classes. Membership in a social class can for ...

, the club now has expanded to include other nationalities from all socio-economic backgrounds. The club was founded by Libby Hart and Emmeline Kuhn in 2001. The club's

alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

include a number of well known personalities, including

The Duchess of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge, one of several current royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom , is a hereditary title of specific rank of nobility in the British royal family. The title (named after the city of Cambridge in England) is heritable by agnatic, m ...

. Membership of the club is publicly reported; however the club's meetings and activities are confidential. Potential members of the club are recruited during their first year of university. Prospective candidates are subject to two rounds of interviews to ascertain their suitability for membership. Interviewees are informed of the outcome of their application by way of a letter, traditionally placed under the candidate's door.

Emblem

The Lumsden Club's

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

is a white 'L' surrounded by a red circle.

Events

The club hosts a number of charity

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

events throughout the

academic year An academic year or school year is a period of time which schools, colleges and universities use to measure a quantity of study. School holiday School holidays (also referred to as vacations, breaks, and recess) are the periods during which sch ...

. The most high profile of these events is the annual 'Secret Garden Party' charity ball and the 'Lumsden Leadership Summit' taking place in February.

References

External links

*http://www.lumsdenclub.co.uk/ *https://thelumsdenleadershipsummit.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Lumsden Club Clubs and societies of the University of St Andrews Student organisations in the United Kingdom