The Outstanding PLUS Awards (OPA) are open to all Bristol PLUS Award achievers. It offers an opportunity to gain invaluable articulation skills and reflect further on your achievements, leaving you with a sense of pride.
To be eligible, you must be a 2023-24 PLUS Award achiever and nominate yourself by 12 noon Monday 25 March.
At the Careers Service, we understand that your identity is an integral part of your career journey and want to help you navigate any challenge you may face.
We actively promote diversity and inclusion and aim to provide a safe space for LGBTQIA+ students to seek guidance. We can help you find inclusive employers, with applications and support you with bringing your whole self to work.
‘As a Postgraduate Researcher, it can be easy to focus so intently on your research and forget how much university life still has to offer. The Bristol PLUS Award has encouraged me to seek out these experiences, and meet a wider range of students and staff, which I am incredibly grateful for.’
The Bristol PLUS Award is the university’s employability Award, giving you the opportunity to gain formal recognition for commitments you take on outside of your research.
Getting involved outside of your research is a great way to build connections and community. The PLUS Award recognises a broad range of activities, and for Postgraduate Researchers, lots of these are things you may well already be taking part in.
That could be teaching support, marking, or submitting a paper to a journal. Or experiences outside of the university such as part time work or volunteering. For more ideas, you can check out our list of common PGR options for the Bristol PLUS Award.
Hello prospective PLUS Award achievers! I’m Avellina, a final year Biology student and 2021/22 PLUS Award achiever.
Many students understand that the Bristol PLUS Award is an employability award that rewards you for going above and beyond your degree. We know that it boosts our CV and makes us stand out to future employers… but there are also secret, unknown benefits that you’ll only uncover upon starting the Award process!
Want to find out more about the Outstanding PLUS Awards? Let’s get all your questions answered.
What are the Outstanding PLUS Awards?
Launched last academic year, the Outstanding PLUS Awards (OPA) reward Bristol PLUS Award achievers who have gone above and beyond in their PLUS Award activity. The OPA is so sought after because there are just eight winners every year – one winner per category.
Bristol PLUS Award achiever and Outstanding PLUS Award nominee Violet Allmark achieved her 70 hours of PLUS activity through working as a freelance drag performer and taking on a student leadership role as chair of Bristol Theatre Department Society InterACT.
Violet was a freelance performer with drag cabaret ‘The House of Savalon’ during their residency at award-winning Bristol LGBTQ+ venue Queenshilling, proud sponsors of Bristol University LGBTQ+ society.
Violet performing as Etta Boy, at The House of Savalon
‘My freelance work, as part of the House of Savalon’s three month residency at Queenshilling, gave me the opportunity to develop my artistic costume-making practice, and improve my time management and organisational skills. I spent hours preparing for my acts: sourcing, making and editing my own costumes, props and audio.
In addition, the regular feedback sessions enhanced my personal reflection skills on my own performances as well as my communication skills through constructive feedback
The House of Savalon at the Queen Shilling
Kickstarting my drag career this year has led to such amazing performance opportunities, such as performing last week before Divina de Campo at the Creative Youth Network Station and even internationally in Woody’s Bar Toronto, where I was tipped during my performance by a queen recently announced to be on Season 3 of Canada Drag Race and I was even in the presence of the show’s ‘version’ of Ru Paul: Brook Lynn Hytes.’
Violet also developed new skills and experience by chairing the committee of InterAct, the theatre department’s society.
The Bristol PLUS Award rewards students for taking part in extra-curricular activity alongside their studies. Every year, we are impressed by the variety of activities students use towards their PLUS, and the impact these activities have – both towards the local community, and towards the students’ personal and professional development.
Spotlight on Oscar: director, president, PLUS Achiever… and multitasking extraordinaire!
Photo credit: Peter Wormington (Moonshine Photography)
To achieve his 70 hours, Oscar Oglina, a fifth-year medical student, was director of the Medical Student Charity Dance Production, CLIC, which broke fundraising records by raising over £60,000 for charity. (more…)
Completing the Bristol PLUS Award is a great way to reflect on the experiences you have whilst you’re a student and get confident in your career planning.
James Mwendwa, 2nd Year Geology MSci
James Mwendwa, second year Geology student, achieved his PLUS Award this year in recognition of a range of experiences gained during his first and second years, in term time and during the holidays.
‘The steps to achieve my PLUS Award opened up new opportunities and skills in employability and interview techniques.’
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, Year 1 Education (PhD)
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!(more…)
