,The Bristol PLUS Award gives you the chance to get rewarded for your extra-curricular activities and learn to articulate your skills to employers. Last year, we also launched the Outstanding PLUS Awards (OPA), to recognise PLUS achievers who went above and beyond in one of 8 categories.

In this post, we’re taking a closer look at the Everyday Hero and Innovation categories.

Everyday Hero

This category is all about showing evidence of you being reliable and consistent in your work and inspiring others with your energy and enthusiasm.

Photo of Elizabeth playing netball, jumping to shoot the ball — Elizabeth McGechie, Year 3 Applied Anatomy BSc, Netball Coach

The qualities of an outstanding Everyday Hero can come across in any PLUS Award activity. Here’s what some of last year’s nominees did:

Crispian Morris was last year’s winner in this category. He worked alongside his studies in the student mobile and laptop clinic to support customers and colleagues in the switch to online working during the pandemic. Crispian organised work socials and created a community for him and his workmates.

Elizabeth McGechie received an honourable mention from the judges for coaching the UoB netball squads. Elizabeth’s dedication to her team shone through as she took the team from strength to strength.

Adam Saun worked alongside his PhD as a bartender, consistently delivering great customer service and earning employee of the month. He wanted to share the passion for wine he developed in his role, so organised a wine tasting event for his fellow PGR students.

Innovation

This category is all about coming up with new ideas or finding new ways of working.

You can be an outstanding innovator in any PLUS activity type, you just need to show the judges how your idea helps solve a real-world problem. Here’s what some of last year’s nominees did:

A photo of Anna, smiling — Anna Booth, Year 3 English BA

Mark Bushby, last year’s winner, set out to solve the problem of getting teams together to play sports. He created the armago app to link people together for games.

Anna Booth received an honourable mention for her role working in a bookshop alongside her studies. During the pandemic, she came up with innovative new ways of working, such as selling books on Instagram and even a bike delivery service!

Alexander Drakinos set out to address the problem of social exclusion and poverty during the pandemic by organising an online art auction, which raised over €8000 for children’s charities in Greece.

Thinking of nominating yourself for the Outstanding PLUS Awards?

Be open minded; try not to restrict yourself to a single category based on its title.

Consider other categories and how you might adapt articulating your PLUS Award activity to fit the criteria. Our OPA categories are designed to be broad, and you may even find that your activity fits into more than one category!

Check out our related posts on the blog to find out about the other OPA categories, and get full details of how to apply in the Outstanding PLUS Awards Guide.

Remember, to be eligible, you will need to have completed your PLUS Award in the same academic year. So sign up for the PLUS Award when registrations open in Welcome Week!