The Newcastle University Alumni Achievement Awards (Rising Star and Alumni Impact) are presented to former students as an acknowledgment from the University of their achievements and successes. The award recognises alumni who have made an impact on industry, society and their community. Winners are presented with a Vice-Chancellor and President’s Medal and a framed certificate.

This award is for those students who have used their skills and enthusiasm for arts, media and culture as an expression of their passion or to communicate ideas or ideals.

It could be through organising events, exhibitions, journalism or working with groups within the University or the local community. Whether the medium was film, writing, radio, music, photography, fine art, print journalism, digital or street performance, this award is for students who have used their talents in a positive way. 

This award is for students who have worked with community groups or voluntary organisations to help them achieve their goals. This could include volunteering, fundraising, campaigning, educating or training.

It recognises students who actively contribute to their wider community, and through this make a difference. They could have helped a community of people through inspiring or developing their skills to achieve aspirations, make healthy life changes or learn new skills.

This award is for those who have encouraged integration of people in the University or wider community who otherwise might have felt or been isolated for reasons such as race, culture, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability or social class.

Nominations demonstrated the positive ways in which they have gone out of their way to be inclusive.

This award is for those who have actively promoted or encouraged lifelong healthy living and wellness through campaigns or activities to raise the awareness of the benefits, for example, stopping smoking, eating healthily, and widening access to health provisions.

This award is for those who have actively promoted or encouraged healthy living and physical activity through sport. 

Nominations demonstrated innovative ways of encouraging healthy living through participation at any level of sport.

This award recognises those who have dedicated time, energy and commitment to enhancing the student experience, be that through a well-run and inclusive student society or independent action.

This could include raising funds, organising amazing events, helping others develop new skills, or increasing inclusivity within the student community.

This award recognises those who have developed skills while working on behalf of the wider student community on issues that matter to students. The award is in recognition of excellence in academic and peer representation where students are often providing a voice and driving change for their peers.

This is a major part of student life, including roles such as Course Rep, Hall Rep, Community Rep, Part time Officers (PTOs) and Campaign Volunteers. 

This award is for students who have made a positive difference to sustainability or the environment. Whether through volunteering, campaigning, running competitions or creating new inventions, they are passionate about the issues currently facing us on a local, national and global scale and their activities will have involved inspiring others to become more environmentally aware, or encouraged behaviour change.

Examples could include developing sustainable projects, creating green spaces, reducing energy consumption, encouraging recycling or supporting green travel.

This award celebrates the impact that placement students, interns and on-campus student have had on an organisation. Nominations illustrate students who have gone above and beyond, or who have brought innovative ideas to the organisation to inform positive change.  

Autumn Keil 

Autumn has overseen The Courier’s Instagram account this year. Through creating engaging, informative and visually stunning social media posts, Autumn has been able to increase the follower numbers by over 500. Autumn created content that adheres to The Courier’s brand and values, whilst adding her own creative spin. Autumn was also the student lead on the Student Media coverage of the elections, a role outside of her usual job remit, requiring her to liaise with volunteers and candidates, as well as creating quick-fire posts to go up the day after the debates with summaries of the content.

James Turner 

James has completely revamped Newcastle Student Radio this year, making it easier to understand and more accessible to those who want to be involved. After the station was severely impacted by Covid-19, James has worked tirelessly to ensure that they are providing opportunities for all students. Through the creation of a podcast studio this year, James has expanded the means of which NSR is creating content, keeping the station modern. 

Katie Siddall 

Getting involved across all three branches of NUSU student media, Katie has shown their dedication to student-led journalism this year. They started the year as Head of Sport for The Courier and Head of News for Newcastle Student Radio, introducing an ‘A-Z of Sport’ showcase of campus clubs and active societies. This has been a huge success, and with reems of engagement it has allowed The Courier to appeal to brand new groups of students. Katie has been the host of 3 podcasts covering a wide variety of current affairs topics that are at the heart of real student issues, including disabilities, the student housing crisis, and local LGBTQ+ spaces. They have reached out to members of these communities to get involved with these projects, giving a voice and on-air representation to marginalised students. Katie has also made a significant contribution to NUTV, through presenting the Elections Results Show and moderating a very tricky elections debate. They also volunteered their time to interview all candidates for the part-time Liberation Officer positions and edit the interviews (a brand new skill). 

Sophie McMillan 

Sophie has been the sole lead of NUTV this year, acting as the production and tech lead on every broadcast. As a second-year student, she may not have been the most experienced member of the team, but took control of the station after a longstanding management team graduated, and has created a fantastic fresh start for the station. She has worked to encourage a wide pool of students to get involved with NUTV in a range of positions, vitally encouraging engagement and involvement from the wider student body. Her dedication and hard work has seen the return of Video on Demand content, as well as the phenomenal live streams produced by the station. She is friendly and approachable, and always brings a smile to the student media office. 

Gilbert & Sullivan Society,  Newcastle University Theatre Society, Creative Writing Society 

Gilbert & Sullivan, Newcastle University Theatre, and Creative Writing societies collaborated to provide a wonderful event called 'An Evening of Creativity' to raise money for Action Tutoring. Together the societies organised a varied programme of entertainment to cater to all interests. NUGSS provided musical and theatrical acts from shows, NUTS provided theatrical scenes and Cresoc provided a selection of poems, duologues, monologues and other written pieces. The societies raised a total of £176 for action tutoring which is a brilliant achievement. 

AMSA Newcastle (Asian Medical Students’ Association on the Malaysia campus of Newcastle University) 

AMSA Newcastle has put up a lot of great projects this academic year, especially in areas of community service and medical education. The club strives to bring awareness on public health matters through volunteering, while simultaneously providing opportunities for the students of NUMed to work with the public to gain healthcare experience. They run academic workshops such as Premed Workshop 2023 (where 80+ pre-university students experienced what medical school is like, including talks, panel discussions and most importantly skill sessions like CPR, auscultation and bandaging). They also organised volunteering opportunities for students like visits to orphanages and care homes, where volunteers spend time with the elderly and children, and monthly soup kitchens where students helped to distribute food in the city to roughly 30 people per visit. Additionally collaborated with the Ministry of Health to organise a one day event at a local primary school to raise awareness of dental hygiene.  Not only have they promoted community service, but they also provided the student body with better work-life balance by holding various volunteering events related to medical education. The events held by them were very successful, gaining positive feedback from the student body.  

Brush Up 

BrushUp is a student-led community outreach programme that has made an impact on thousands of children and adults all over the Newcastle-upon-Tyne area by providing interactive oral health education. The students take time out of their busy clinical days to volunteer and travel to a variety of schools, targeting children and adults with a range of learning needs. They have inspired recipients to take ownership of their own oral health through a range of interactive methods and promote prevention as the best form of care. 

It Happens Here 

It Happens Here do amazing work both on and off campus in raising awareness surrounding issues of sexual violence. This year their Reclaim Your Education campaign has seen society members going into local secondary schools and sixth form colleges to deliver educational sessions. By doing this, they not only represent the student body here at Newcastle positively to those in the local area, but make a lasting impact on young people in the community. The sessions focus on consent, sexual health, issues of discrimination and value equality and inclusivity, all of which are essential and tie directly to the values of the SU.  They also organised Reclaim The Night where hundreds attended and made sure that survivors did not feel alone. They gave moving speeches, and enabled students to engage with activism through the march and banner making session.  They undertook training from Rape Crisis, they campaigned and raised motions at Student Council to make campus a safer place. 

N.E.S.T Youth Programme (Schools Project) 

N.E.S.T is a student-led volunteer project started in 2016, which now supports around 700 refugees and asylum seekers in the Newcastle area. Throughout the years their focus on supporting young people has increased, and now they cater to over 250 children from the forced migration community in the North East. Support includes homework provisions, sports enterprise, residential trips, welfare checks and food provisions. In addition to this the N.E.S.T Schools Project was created in September 2021 as a result of a shared need between N.E.S.T and the Newcastle City Council to improve the youth support and education provided to refugee and asylum seeking children in Newcastle. Other provision includes the rowing club, circus club, homework club, trips including sailing and surfing, plus some residential trips in the Lake District. A recent 5-day trip to The Lakes took 30 young people, and a weekend residential took younger children. These residentials gave young people a chance to participate in activities such as ghyll scrambling, hiking, movie nights, and rock climbing, providing them with experiences they may not have had otherwise. Friendships built on these trips have been long-lasting, and the young people hold the memories dear. 

Speech & Language Therapy Society 

The Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Society is for students on the Speech and Language Therapy Course at Newcastle University, including undergraduates and post-graduates. The society has held events throughout this academic year to support studying through socials, educational talks, and revision support sessions. The SLT society has brought in external SLTs to speak about different areas in the SLT field and answer questions from students. Through fundraising SLT society has raised £2,263.76 in total this year for five different local charities. The society has constantly been raising awareness about the different client groups that SLTs work with and the profession itself through taking part in national campaigns such as Developmental Language Disorder Day and Swallowing Awareness Day. The society was also involved in other national campaigns  not just limited to SLT focused issues but also other areas of importance such as World Mental Health Day, University Mental Health Day and Race Equality Week.

Lauren Gilbert 

As Disability Officer, Lauren has led on a large number of projects to improve the experiences of disabled students at Newcastle. These include appearing on panel discussions, passing motions at Student Council, and running a campaign during Invisible Disabilities Week to sign the Students’ Union up to the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard scheme. 

Lauren Hydes-Kelly 

Ren has inspired her fellow students through promoting equality, diversity and inclusion within the School of Modern Languages. This includes organising an event on decolonising the curriculum, promoting the student voice in relation to EDI and presentations on gender representation. Ren’s hard work has led to greater awareness and student engagement with EDI within the School.  

Sexpression Newcastle 

Sexpression Newcastle is the local branch of the wider nation charity, Sexpression UK. They focus on empowering young people to make informed decisions surrounding sex and relationships. Not only does the Newcastle society do incredible charity work by providing Relationship and Sexual Health Education in local schools delivered by their members but they have also hosted some amazing events, such as their Big Sexy Quiz which raised money and awareness for The Outsiders Trust. They are also the only society this year to be awarded the prestigious Gold Earn Your Stars Award for making societies more accessible, showing their dedication to increasing and prioritising inclusivity.  

AMSA Newcastle (Asian Medical Students’ Association on the Malaysia campus of Newcastle University)

AMSA Newcastle has put up a lot of great projects this academic year, especially in areas of community service and medical education. The club strives to bring awareness on public health matters through volunteering, while simultaneously providing opportunities for the students of NUMed to work with the public to gain healthcare experience. They run academic workshops such as Premed Workshop 2023 (where 80+ pre-university students experienced what medical school is like, including talks, panel discussions and most importantly skill sessions like CPR, auscultation and bandaging). They also organised volunteering opportunities for students like visits to orphanages and care homes, where volunteers spend time with the elderly and children, and monthly soup kitchens where students helped to distribute food in the city to roughly 30 people per visit. Additionally collaborated with the Ministry of Health to organise a one day event at a local primary school to raise awareness of dental hygiene.  Not only have they promoted community service, but they also provided the student body with better work-life balance by holding various volunteering events related to medical education. The events held by them were very successful, gaining positive feedback from the student body. 

BrushUp  

Brush Up provide oral health education to schools and other community groups, including adults. Since September 2022 alone, they have provided oral health instruction to over 1000 school children in the North East and hundreds more adults. Oral health is an important aspect of not only a child’s overall health status and of their school readiness, it is also a marker of wider health and social care issues including poor nutrition. Currently they are making up to three visits a week on top of a very demanding clinical course, which has them treating patients in hospital daily.  

Harry Cleary 

Harry has been Newcastle University's Movember student ambassador for the last 2 years. This year he walked the length of Hadrian's Wall (over 140km) in 38 hours with no sleep and raised over £4,200. Additionally, he coordinated the University's Movember fundraising efforts, putting on dozens of events incorporating many clubs, societies and individuals, the total of which raised over £26,700. 

Jack White 

Jack has been part of running club society for over 4 years, and in that time has taken on roles such as Kit Secretary, Events Officer and President. He has made a huge contribution to the society throughout his time at Newcastle University, graduating this year. The society currently has over 100 members and provides social events, as well as at least two runs a week for members. He has supported disabled students, as well as international and exchange students who are only here for a short period of time to ensure they can fully participate. This makes him a serious contributor to one of the biggest, most inclusive and accessible societies promoting health and fitness at the university, and his efforts are instrumental in making health happen for hundreds of students. 

Maxime Levasseur 

Working with the Students’ Union and the New Croft Sexual Health Centre, Maxime secured funding to set up a free subscription and delivery STI-testing service called ‘Check Us Out’. Maxime has found an innovative, low-maintenance solution to an issue affecting students and created a project with so much potential for the future.  

Nightline 

Nightline is run entirely by students for students. Listening volunteers are continuously volunteering their time to be a friendly ear to fellow students in their time of need. Whether students are concerned about assignments, the transition to university, mental health difficulties, relationships, or anything else, nightline's volunteers are there to listen. They don’t judge, they don’t advise, they simply listen. They provide a safe space for when students have something on their minds and just want to be heard. When students feel uncomfortable talking to friends, or family or no one else is awake, nightline volunteers are there to listen. They are there over the phone or via instant message when students need it the most.  

Rebecca Horner 

Rebecca Horner has been the President of the Dance Club this academic year, and the Dance Club has flourished under her leadership. In her 4th year with the club, Rebecca always strives to ensure everyone feels included and represented. The club has had one of its most successful years to date - from breaking the club record for the most amount of trophies won during competition season, to raising £1,325 for the amazing charity The People's Kitchen, and Rebecca has played a huge part in making it all happen. Her involvement included organising a competition held in Newcastle, judging a charity dance event, researching, sourcing and securing new resources for the club such as a new tap floor and much more. She puts countless hours into the club, teaching intermediate contemporary (one of the biggest classes) alongside her leadership position. She will leave a real legacy when she graduates this year. 

Esme Court-Johnston 

Esme has been a valued member of the Women’s Basketball Club throughout her time at university. She has played for both A and B teams, became team Captain, and finally President, so has taken on large amounts of organisation and responsibility within the club. Esme is a member of the Athletic Union Executive Committee on top of her club work so is involved in making positive change for all AU clubs, and additionally helps coach intramural basketball to strengthen the pathway into the Women’s Basketball Club for students to play competitively. The club has seen incredible growth and success over the last few years, both in performance and engagement, which could only have been done with committed, passionate student leaders such as Esme.  

Ladies Hockey  

Cerys Bodey 

Cerys has done so much work to improve student wellbeing, dedicating hundreds of volunteer hours across several student-focused projects and initiatives. As the ‘public face’ and a Coordinator of Nightline, Cerys spends countless hours to keep the service running smoothly, ranging from training volunteers and ensuring their wellbeing to promoting the service to the wider student body through Go Volunteer, so those who need it can find it. She transitioned the project out of Covid-times and into a post-Covid set up, participated in nationwide Nightline events, and ran sessions for the university’s Mental Health Day. Nightline is an essential service for university students and without Cerys, it wouldn't be able to function as successfully as it does. Cerys is also a School Rep for SELLL, and Secretary of the Student Staff Committee, organising student showcases and ensuring representation at student council and beyond for her cohort. 

Georgia Edge  

Georgia is the president of BrushUp dentistry project. She has done so much this year, working non-stop to coordinate visits to local schools and other settings with her team of 130 students, as well as helping with a new initiative with Great North Children’s Hospital to produce videos regarding oral health for patients. All of her hard work (bringing dental healthcare and awareness to nearly 2000 people) has been done alongside being a final year dental student. Her dedication and commitment to BrushUp has shone through the entire time, achieving a Gold Award for clocking up over 100 hours volunteering. She has been an inspirational leader for the team and an admirable representative of the university.  

Lauren Gilbert 

Throughout their time at Newcastle, Lauren has dedicated themselves to improving the experience and welfare of disabled students at the university and in the higher education sector. Lauren has completed over 400 volunteer hours, with 250 of those in their role of Disability Officer. Lauren is also a voluntary content creator, public speaker and educator. Lauren has founded societies, generated an online following, run campaigns, been on the board of restarted the NUSU Students with Disabilities Community Facebook Group to ensure community and a sense of belonging for disabled students. They have also ensured that liberation officers (NUSU representatives for marginalised students) had social media accounts so their voices were heard and their reach could extend. 

Modern Languages Society 

Modern Languages Society is one of Newcastle’s largest societies, open to all those studying a Modern Languages degree as well as international students or anyone interested in learning about different cultures. The Society have shown a commitment to supporting their members through their Welfare Wednesdays, as well as by providing academic support through their language conversation socials (often collaborating with other societies) and cultural evenings, giving their members opportunities to practice their speaking skills. On top of that they have also hosted an incredible Winter Ball, with a Summer one to follow, run a netball and football team, provide pastoral support through their Welfare Officer, as well as organised an amazing trip to Amsterdam.  

NUMed Surgical Society (Malaysia)

This society has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past year, from a struggling group to a highly successful and proactive student-led organisation. Despite facing financial difficulties and time constraints, the society has worked tirelessly to engage its members through a variety of workshops, like Basic Suturing Workshops, operating theatre trips to a nearby hospital, shadowing surgeries, guest lectures, and networking events. Under the leadership of Pwi Jia Yee, the NUMed Surgical Society is a shining example of what can be achieved through hard work, dedication, and a commitment to enriching NUMed's medical students' campus life.  

Ana Cristina Guirola Carias De Newell 

Cristina has worked hard as Secretary of the Pharmacy Student-Staff Committee, both to improve the way the SSC engages with the wider student body, and to create new opportunities for students to develop themselves professionally. This has taken the form of creating an SSC Instagram profile and arranging a British Sign Language course for students in healthcare disciplines.   

Francesca Read Cutting 

Frankie has represented Marine Science students for three years, gathering student feedback and reporting back on discussions with staff in an approachable, organised and transparent way. Most recently, Frankie secured funding for students following field trip difficulties and secured the reinstatement of the popular Sea Survival Course.  

George Wood 

George has been praised by his course mates for his approachability and dedication to raising their concerns with staff and seeking solutions to issues. In particular, third year students have expressed their gratitude for George’s efforts in gathering detailed feedback about their concerns around examination and taking this to the Degree Programme and Director and Chair of the Board of Examiners. 

It Happens Here 

It Happens Here is a student-run society whose committee and members work proactively to raise awareness and establish change around the prevalence of sexual violence affecting Newcastle University students and those in the local area. They successfully organised Reclaim The Night event in collaboration with multiple community groups and have continued the work of the #DoBetterNCLUNI campaign alongside NUSU President Mady Baugh. Together they have campaigned for consent and bystander training, which will be implemented from September. This is going to have a huge impact on students in providing them with the skills and knowledge to prevent and support survivors of sexual violence. 

Pilar Morena d'Alo 

As PGR School Rep for Geography, Politics and Sociology, Pilar has improved the relationship between the School and its PGR students, particularly by leading on the creation of a pantry in the PGR kitchen to alleviate food insecurity in the content of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.  

Sophia Long 

Sophia has been praised by her fellow Reps for her organisation, approachability and enthusiasm as Chair of the Agriculture Earth Social Sciences Committee Student Staff Committee. In stepping up to the role when no one else was prepared to do so, Sophia’s hard work has helped to make the Committee an effective and impactful platform for addressing the needs of students and finding solutions to problems. 

Srishti Jain 

Srishti has been phenomenal at her job this year and has proven to be a transparent and extremely accessible point of contact for the students at NUMed. Throughout the year, she has eased dialogue between the staff and students and made it easier for students to voice their opinions to a level no other rep had managed before. She has made an impact to the lives of students by addressing concerns regarding support for mental health and safe transport from accommodation to placements as well as to campus. 

Yazhang Han 

Recognised by his fellow students for the passionate, inclusive and efficient approach he has taken to representing postgraduate students. In particular, he has shown a commitment to improving module feedback processes, building community, and tackling loneliness among international students.  

Alexandra Neill 

Alex has done fantastic work to raise awareness of the issue of food waste within the School of Natural Environmental Sciences (SNES) on campus. She initiated and organised SpudFest, an event showcasing the research of SNES colleagues on campus that also served to raise awareness of the issue of food waste. The event saw the distribution of over three tonnes of surplus potatoes from NU Farms in the process. She has also co-ordinated the distribution of the remainder of the NU Farms surplus potatoes to Newcastle and Wansbeck food banks. 

Elle Young 

Elle has demonstrated a clear passion for inspiring young people to become Climate Changemakers as part of her role in KATS (Kids Action Thru Science) here at Newcastle University. She has been an integral part of the project from the outset and has helped it to develop each year through her dedication and hard work. She is driven, enthusiastic and has made a huge impact on the project, both locally and globally, which will leave a lasting impact beyond her own involvement.  

Stu Brew  

Sustainability is one of the core values for Stu Brew, Europe’s first student-led microbrewery established in 2013. As a commercial brewery, Stu Brew has produced almost 250 batches of beer to date, sold both locally and nationally. 

Suppliers are chosen for their proximity to the brewery; spent grain and hops from every batch are put back into the grain bags that would otherwise go to landfill. The team coordinates with a local farmer to pick up the spent grain and hops on their next trip to other breweries, and these brewing byproducts are then utilised for animal feed and composting. Stu Brew has invested in manual handling equipment and training to make local deliveries on foot where possible. Other deliveries are made using an electric vehicle and over a single weekly delivery, run to minimise the environmental impact as much as possible. The society runs a monthly Brewery Bash during term time that involves other societies and local food vendors, and measures are taken to reduce environmental impact such as biodegradable cups, gloves, recycled bin bags and environmentally friendly cleaning fluid. Any unsold beer is given to local pubs and any spoilt beer is distilled on site to make spirits that can be sold in future events. 

Stu Brew only uses biodegradable pallet wrap, and their processes have been refined to cut out travel time for each beer batch. There are many more examples of choices made to ensure the most sustainable route, and other larger enterprises could really learn from StuBrew!

Alexander Moore 

Alex’s contribution has exceeded the initial objectives of the placement. His work has stretched to all corners of the Natural History Society of Northumbria encompassing areas of communications, engagement, youth work, citizen science and project planning. He has provided vital insight as a young person towards strategic planning and audience development sessions – these have yielded some fantastic ideas for development. This is NHSN’s first full-time student placement and because of Alex, they plan to offer similar opportunities on a reoccurring basis going forward, enabling future students a valuable placement option. 

Anthony Austin 

Anthony works as an apprentice in the Analytics Team at Ubisoft while studying for his Masters in the School of Computing. Anthony has not only contributed massively to the work his team undertakes, but has also demonstrated great personal growth while undertaking this apprenticeship. Anthony has made an excellent impression on his colleagues at Ubisoft, showing great leadership, and has made significant contributions to projects that will benefit the team way beyond his apprenticeship.  

Ellie Iveson 

Ellie excelled as a placement student at Egger; she volunteered at the successful careers open day and the company’s Christmas event and then rose to the bigger challenge of managing all required tasks when the online marketing manager resigned midway through. Her impressive ability to remain calm and collected whilst implementing a new CMS system for the whole company was recognised by her managers, along with her stamina and resilience when needing to deliver within limited timescales.  Ellie then trained the new manager, building a formidable partnership which has been highly valued by the organisation. The consistent high quality of Ellie’s work has been recognised by all colleagues and inspired them to nominate her for this award. 

Evelthon Chapesis 

Evelthon extensive research has transformed OpSec Security’s original objective to expand their government revenue strand into the authentication and marking of timber logs. Opsec believe he has done so much useful work for them, presenting his findings in ways that are clear and accessible that they now have multiple viable ideas to explore rather than the expected one they had set as a target.  They feel his research has been critical to the organisation’s next step into this market opportunity. 

Winner: Katie Siddall

Getting involved across all three branches of NUSU student media, Katie has shown their dedication to student-led journalism this year. They started the year as Head of Sport for The Courier and Head of News for Newcastle Student Radio, introducing an ‘A-Z of Sport’ showcase of campus clubs and active societies. This has been a huge success, and with reems of engagement it has allowed The Courier to appeal to brand new groups of students. Katie has been the host of 3 podcasts covering a wide variety of current affairs topics that are at the heart of real student issues, including disabilities, the student housing crisis, and local LGBTQ+ spaces. They have reached out to members of these communities to get involved with these projects, giving a voice and on-air representation to marginalised students. Katie has also made a significant contribution to NUTV, through presenting the Elections Results Show and moderating a very tricky elections debate. They also volunteered their time to interview all candidates for the part-time Liberation Officer positions and edit the interviews (a brand new skill). 

Runner-up: James Turner

 

Winner: AMSA Newcastle

AMSA Newcastle has put up a lot of great projects this academic year, especially in areas of community service and medical education. The club strives to bring awareness on public health matters through volunteering, while simultaneously providing opportunities for the students of NUMed to work with the public to gain healthcare experience. They run academic workshops such as Premed Workshop 2023 (where 80+ pre-university students experienced what medical school is like, including talks, panel discussions and most importantly skill sessions like CPR, auscultation and bandaging). They also organised volunteering opportunities for students like visits to orphanages and care homes, where volunteers spend time with the elderly and children, and monthly soup kitchens where students helped to distribute food in the city to roughly 30 people per visit. Additionally collaborated with the Ministry of Health to organise a one day event at a local primary school to raise awareness of dental hygiene.  Not only have they promoted community service, but they also provided the student body with better work-life balance by holding various volunteering events related to medical education. The events held by them were very successful, gaining positive feedback from the student body.  

Runner-up: Speech and Language Therapy Society         

Winner: Lauren Gilbert

As Disability Officer, Lauren has led on a large number of projects to improve the experiences of disabled students at Newcastle. These include appearing on panel discussions, passing motions at Student Council, and running a campaign during Invisible Disabilities Week to sign the Students’ Union up to the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard scheme. 

Runner-up: Sexpression Newcastle

Winner: Jack White

Jack has been part of running club society for over 4 years, and in that time has taken on roles such as Kit Secretary, Events Officer and President. He has made a huge contribution to the society throughout his time at Newcastle University, graduating this year. The society currently has over 100 members and provides social events, as well as at least two runs a week for members. He has supported disabled students, as well as international and exchange students who are only here for a short period of time to ensure they can fully participate. This makes him a serious contributor to one of the biggest, most inclusive and accessible societies promoting health and fitness at the university, and his efforts are instrumental in making health happen for hundreds of students.

Runner-up: Maxime Levasseur

Winner: Ladies Hockey Club

The Ladies Hockey Club have 7 teams playing both local weekend and weekly BUCS Wednesday student fixtures throughout the year. Success has been a regularity this year, with multiple league promotions and victories, most notably the Ladies 1st team who have been promoted to National League! The club have also held fundraisers for Movember and for the Pakistan Flood Crisis, showing their impact reaches beyond the Athletic Union.

Runner-up: Esme Court-Johnston

Esme has been a valued member of the Women’s Basketball Club throughout her time at university. She has played for both A and B teams, became team Captain, and finally President, so has taken on large amounts of organisation and responsibility within the club. Esme is a member of the Athletic Union Executive Committee on top of her club work so is involved in making positive change for all AU clubs, and additionally helps coach intramural basketball to strengthen the pathway into the Women’s Basketball Club for students to play competitively. The club has seen incredible growth and success over the last few years, both in performance and engagement, which could only have been done with committed, passionate student leaders such as Esme.  

Winner: Cerys Bodey

Cerys has done so much work to improve student wellbeing, dedicating hundreds of volunteer hours across several student-focused projects and initiatives. As the ‘public face’ and a Coordinator of Nightline, Cerys spends countless hours to keep the service running smoothly, ranging from training volunteers and ensuring their wellbeing to promoting the service to the wider student body through Go Volunteer, so those who need it can find it. She transitioned the project out of Covid-times and into a post-Covid set up, participated in nationwide Nightline events, and ran sessions for the university’s Mental Health Day. Nightline is an essential service for university students and without Cerys, it wouldn't be able to function as successfully as it does. Cerys is also a School Rep for SELLL, and Secretary of the Student Staff Committee, organising student showcases and ensuring representation at student council and beyond for her cohort.

Runner-up: Modern Languages Society

Winner: George Wood

George has been praised by his course mates for his approachability and dedication to raising their concerns with staff and seeking solutions to issues. In particular, third year students have expressed their gratitude for George’s efforts in gathering detailed feedback about their concerns around examination and taking this to the Degree Programme and Director and Chair of the Board of Examiners. 

Runner-up: Srishti Jain

Winner: Alexandra Neill

Alex has done fantastic work to raise awareness of the issue of food waste within the School of Natural Environmental Sciences (SNES) on campus. She initiated and organised SpudFest, an event showcasing the research of SNES colleagues on campus that also served to raise awareness of the issue of food waste. The event saw the distribution of over three tonnes of surplus potatoes from NU Farms in the process. She has also co-ordinated the distribution of the remainder of the NU Farms surplus potatoes to Newcastle and Wansbeck food banks. 

Runner-up: Elle Young

Winner: Alex Moore

Alex’s contribution has exceeded the initial objectives of the placement. His work has stretched to all corners of the Natural History Society of Northumbria encompassing areas of communications, engagement, youth work, citizen science and project planning. He has provided vital insight as a young person towards strategic planning and audience development sessions – these have yielded some fantastic ideas for development. This is NHSN’s first full-time student placement and because of Alex, they plan to offer similar opportunities on a reoccurring basis going forward, enabling future students a valuable placement option.

Runner-up: Ellie Iveson

Winner: Phil Beahon

Featured in the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list, 2014 Law graduate Phil Beahon and his brother Tom founded the global premium sportwear brand Castore in 2015.

The company has experienced stratospheric growth since it launched with support from the University’s business accelerator programme START UP Founderships. In addition to a growing online and high street presence - including two stores in Newcastle - Castore partners with world-class athletes, sports teams and brands including Andy Murray, Newcastle United FC, England Cricket, McLaren, Rangers FC, Oracle Red Bull Racing and Reiss (to name a few). Castore has four distribution centres globally including a new 150,000 sq. ft automated distribution centre in the North West, which features advanced technology to boost the brand’s continued growth and has generated 150 new jobs. Sold in more than 50 countries, the company employs over 700 people in the UK and Europe. With a passion for innovation to support every individual to optimise their athletic performance, Castore’s philosophy is “Better Never Stops” and both co-founders are the embodiment of that; driving rapid expansion in a fiercely competitive market. It is their uncompromising vision that has established Castore as a leading British sportswear brand and both founders as influential voices. In under 7 years they have achieved scale on a level that is nothing short of remarkable and with major investors onside and 8 championship-winning ambassadors including Andy Murray (tennis) they’re only just getting started.

Winner:

Andrew Jenkins

Winner:

Stuart Bailey