The Outstanding PLUS Awards give Bristol PLUS Award achievers the chance to nominate themselves for going above and beyond and making outstanding contributions to their PLUS Award activity.
In this launch year, we received 109 nominations across 8 categories and now, we’re thrilled to introduce you to this year’s winners!
These 8 students were selected by the judging panel for meeting the brief in their category, and showing a truly outstanding contribution to their role.
Better World
Brief: Tackle global challenges in a local or global context, making a better world in a big or small way
Antonia Voigt
Antonia worked on a research project tackling barriers to secondary education in the Asia Pacific region. She helped to bring together academics, international organisations and local practitioners across the Global North-South divide to foster partnerships and share knowledge!
Change Maker
Brief: Create positive change in your community or workplace, by solving a problem or improving a process
Sammy Olotu
Sammy campaigned for a basketball court to be built in his local area by collecting feedback from his community and petitioning the town council. His successful campaign created a new space for the local team to practice, and encouraged local young people to get involved in the sport.
Civic Superstar
Brief: Make a positive difference to the people you serve, by being a community hero in your neighbourhood
Tania Nzembela
Tania worked as an NHS clinical support worker throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. She signed up to work on the respiratory ward and went above and beyond to bring her positive energy to patients and colleagues.
Diverse Partnerships
Brief: Collaborate with diverse groups to design inclusive solutions to problems
Patty Miranda
Patty is the Bristol Student Union’s sustainability champion for the Law School, and spoke at COP26 about her personal experience of floods at her family home in the Philippines, caused by the effects of climate change. Working with different groups meant more opportunities for her message to reach a wider audience.
Everyday Hero
Brief: A reliable team player, inspiring others by bringing energy and enthusiasm to your work
Crispian Morris
Crispian had a part time job alongside his studies at the student laptop and mobile clinic. He brought energy and enthusiasm to his work by organising team socials and going above and beyond to support customers adapting to online working.
Innovation
Brief: Develop a new idea in response to a real-world problem
Mark Bushby
Mark wanted to make it easier for people to organise team sports, so created armago, an app for students to link up with others and join games of sport, securing investment and over 1000 downloads so far!
Resilience
Brief: Demonstrate inner strength in overcoming personal challenges in pursuit of your PLUS Award
Mayra Yadira Rivera Lopez
Mayra suffered family bereavement during the Covid 19 pandemic, and was unable to return to the UK whilst she cared for her family. Once she was able to, she continued with her PhD research, her teaching assistant role and entered the three-minute thesis competition, inspiring others into research.
Wellbeing Champion
Brief: Improve the student experience or wellbeing of others in your community or workplace
Lee Ling Chu
Under the BME (Be More Empowered) for Success programme, Lee Ling championed wellbeing support by organising an event series for East Asian students to feel a sense of belonging at UoB, addressing the rise of discrimination and Sinophobia during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Congratulations!
We couldn’t be more proud of the winners of the first ever Outstanding PLUS Awards. Our judging panel was blown away by the nominees, so well done to everyone who nominated themselves! Whilst there can only be one winner per category, the judges awarded a number of Honourable Mentions to nominees this year – check out our next blog post and meet the Honourable Mentions!
The Awards will be open again next academic year; check out the Bristol PLUS Award webpage for more information.