Meet the distinguished panel of judges who selected the winners of this year’s Outstanding PLUS Awards.
The OPA celebrates Bristol PLUS Award students who have made a significant change or impact in their PLUS Award activity. There are eight award categories, with just 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.
‘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
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.
Hi, I’m Emily! I am a third-year law student and I recently completed a project placement with PyTerra, after following a two-week Intrapreneurial course with IKEEP. I heard about the IKEEP training programme in the Careers Service newsletter, and it seemed like a great way to get interesting work experience. I got offered a 4-week work placement at PyTerra, which is a local ‘FinTech’ (Financial Technology) start-up and app where investors, developers, grant givers and corporates can collaborate to make low carbon housing projects feasible. Essentially, PyTerra’s mission is to generate finance for aggregated low-carbon projects. (more…)
It was my great honour to undertake a two-month internship at Bristol Braille Technology (BBT) under the SME Internship Scheme. My position at BBT was Braille and Employment Researcher Intern. My main duty was to conduct research on how braille promotes employment and improves the lives of the visually impaired. My work was mostly done remotely.
Working for BBT, I learned workplace etiquette and gained lots of new skills, including working to a high standard. As a non-native English speaker, my English has improved tremendously during this internship. My colleagues and supervisors are all native English speakers, and, frankly, it was a little difficult for me to keep up with them when I first started my internship. I quickly got over this problem with a lot of English practice.
At the same time, the research skills I learned at university came in handy and my time management skills have also been enhanced. This valuable experience has laid a solid foundation for my future career.
All in all, as a visually impaired person, I have benefited a lot from this internship, it really boosts my CV and I have become more confident. At work, I didn’t feel any discrimination and I wasn’t treated differently from anyone else. I sincerely hope that more of my peers will benefit from this scheme in the future.(more…)
There are 10 Awards on offer and each one is partnered with a prominent graduate recruiter who provides a fantastic prize for the winner including paid internships, trips abroad and other exclusive opportunities.
To have made it to the final stage for the award is an incredible achievement, each award this year had 100s of applications and finalists made it through the initial application, psychometric tests, interviews and assessment centres.
We are very proud to introduce *Drum roll please* our 4 fantastic University of Bristol finalists:
Worried your CV is looking a bit bare? Or wondering how to explain a period when you weren’t working or studying? We’ve collected some of our top tips on tackling gaps on your CV, so you can feel confident whatever you’re applying for.
For the most recent City Challenge, University of Bristol students helped local organisation Heart of BS13 to come up with ideas to promote the opening of a new cut flower farm, focusing on sustainable growth, soil health, and biodiversity.
The IKEEP programme is designed for current students (on undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research degrees from all disciplines) to expand their skillset through intrapreneurial training and engage with organisations as business advisors on knowledge exchange projects.(more…)
Nominations are open now for the upcoming SU elections, giving you the opportunity to represent your peers and drive change within the University.
So, what does it take to make a great campaign? We caught up with some current and past Reps, to find out what skills come in handy on the campaign trail and beyond!