Tag: PLUS Award

The University’s employability award

Lizzie: My Bristol PLUS Award experience

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Wondering how to reach your 70 hours of experience for your Bristol PLUS Award? There is a huge range of activities you could get involved in to develop your skills and build those hours! 

A photo of Lizzie playing netball, poised to throw the ballWe caught up with Lizzie McGechie (Applied Anatomy BSc) who achieved her Bristol PLUS Award in December 2021. Lizzie also took part in the Outstanding PLUS Awards, receiving an Honourable Mention last year for her nomination in the Everyday Hero category. 

For her PLUS experience, Lizzie used her role as a netball coach for UoB squads. Sports leadership roles can be a great way to achieve your 70 hours PLUS experience, and there are many roles that can count, including coaching, refereeing, kit management, or organising intramural teams. 

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Getting to know the Outstanding PLUS Awards: Everyday Hero & Innovation

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,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:

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Getting to know the Outstanding PLUS Awards: Change Maker & Better World 

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The Bristol PLUS Award rewards students for taking part in extra-curricular activities during their studies. In 2021/22 academic year, we launched the Outstanding PLUS Awards (OPA), which allows PLUS Award achievers to nominate themselves for going above and beyond during their PLUS activity.  

In a past blog post, we looked at the Diverse Partnerships and Civic Superstar categories. Today we are introducing you to the Change Maker and Better World categories, and the diverse range of activities that could count towards both categories.  

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Violet: Student Leader, drag artist, and PLUS achiever!

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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. 

A photo of Violet performing in a drag show
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

A crow of people in drag on a stage cheering
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. 

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Getting to know the Outstanding PLUS Awards: Diverse Partnerships & Civic Superstar

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Bristol PLUS Award students undertake a huge range of activities, and develop an abundance of skills and experiences. The Outstanding PLUS Awards launched in 2021-22 to further celebrate students for making outstanding personal contributions, whatever their chosen activity. 

In this blog, we’re looking at two of the Award categories, and some examples of nominees from our very first Outstanding PLUS Awards cohort.  

If you’re interested in finding out more about what our Outstanding PLUS Awards students got up to, check out the other related posts on our blog and you can find more information on our webpage.

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Meet Oscar, the PLUS achiever who helped fundraise £60,000 for charity!

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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!  

A picture of Oscar during the Charity Dance Production. He is standing on stage with a money shooting out of a prop gun.
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…)

James: Bartender, Podcaster, Bristol PLUS Award Achiever!

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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. 

A photo of James
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.’ 

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The Outstanding PLUS Awards: Honourable Mentions

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The Outstanding PLUS Awards launched this year, celebrating Bristol PLUS Award achievers in 8 different categories for going above and beyond and making outstanding contributions to their PLUS Award activity. 

We received an outstanding 109 nominations across the 8 categories, and our judges were impressed by the breadth of activity and skills of the nominees. Whilst there can only be one winner per category, the judging panel awarded a number of Honourable Mentions to nominees who also submitted outstanding nominations! So, allow us to introduce you to this year’s Honourable Mentions… 

Better World  

Brief: Tackle global challenges in a local or global context, making a better world in a big or small way 

A photo of Anthony
Anthony Salandy, Year 3 Sociology BSc

Anthony Salandy 

Anthony co-founded Fahmidan journal as well as Fahmidan Publishing & Co which publishes work by writers of colour and women exclusively, to address underrepresentation in literary publishing.  (more…)