Above and Beyond Awards 2024: Student Winners

Beth Evans, SU President

26th June, 2024

Photography: Ray Goodwin

Last week, we held the awards ceremony for the annual AUPSU Above and Beyond Awards and it was such a great time that we wanted to keep the celebrations going! Here are all the student winners from this year's event:

Student Ambassador of the Year - Liam Olczyk

Liam was a fun, passionate and hard-working member of the Student Ambassador team, and a great advocate for the University and the Union. His maturity and can-do attitude means he recently left the team for a Graphic Design role, and he'll be greatly missed.

Shortlist: Seren Martin, Liam Olczyk, Annabelle Tombs, Michele Azzopardi and Caroline Barr

Student Representative of the Year - Helen Butland

H is a consistent and dedicated Student Representative, on top of being the Mature Representative and the Lead of two very active societies. H always encourages her peers to engage with Student Staff Feedback Meetings and makes sure everyone's concerns are heard.

Shortlist: Catherine Witcher, Helen Butland, Kathryn Berwick, Ella Dudley and Theo Hemlock

Student Union Executive Committee Member of the Year - Helen Butland

H has been consistently engaged with the mature students and the wider student body, working with staff members to organise specific sessions for the Mature Society.

Shortlist: Tobias Davies, Helen Butland

Student-Led Club/Society of the Year - Fashion and Life Drawing Society - Maggie Powell and Ruby Bradshaw

 Led by Maggie Powell and Ruby Bradshaw, the Fashion and Life Drawing Society hosts weekly sessions for all students to improve their life drawing skills for nude and clothes models.

Shortlist: Mature Society, Photographic Society, LGBTQ+ Society and Fashion and Life Drawing Society

Student-Led Project of the Year - Tell You Later - Alexander Miller

For his 'Tell you Later' Campaign where he is raising awareness for the deaf community and providing educational support for hearing people to learn British Sign Language.

Shortlist: Hope Fox, Alexander Miller and Elizabeth Williams

Inclusion Excellence - Tell You Later - Alexander Miller

Alex's campaign brings awareness of the struggles that deaf people experience daily, whilst teaching staff, students and the wider community basic BSL skills to improve communication between hearing people and deaf people. 

Shortlist: Tell You Later, Plymouth Photo Festival and AI and Creative Practice Student-Led Symposium

Community Excellence Award - Stuart Morrisey

Stuart is a very caring individual, he has undertaken many charity fundraising events over the years and raised a great deal of money as a consequence. In the period since 2004 Stuart has fundraised over £100,000 for over 30 charities, earning the nickname of the ‘Mad Rider’ from friends. He helps other students, particularly in the welding workshop and he is particularly passionate about working with metals. He has donated materials to the course. Quite often he brings in cakes and treats for students and staff. He also donated ‘The Blue and Grey’, a memorial sculpture and bench dedicated to the 29th Infantry Division, which was given a permanent home in Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park in Cornwall. His poster for 601 unit discusses the important issue of PTSD in veterans and can now be found in the local hospital waiting room.

Shortlist: Dr Paul Clark, Hannah Harvey and Liam Olczyk, Claire Jone, Chloe Quinn and Stuart Morrisey

Sustainability Excellence Award -Michael Stockdale, Dorron Britz, Annabel Salomonsz, Elisha Smith, Lucy-Anne Mason, Maximilian Wilson, Tamzin Gee and Ziggy Osborn

This group hosted plastic pollution global challenges workshops, creating plastic fish out of plastic waste to highlight the impact on the seas.

Shortlist: Finley McDonald, Caleb Mates and Michael Stockdale, Dorron Britz, Annabel Salomonsz, Elisha Smith, Lucy-Anne Mason, Maximilian Wilson, Tamzin Gee and Ziggy Osborn

Kindness Award - Hannah Gray

Hannah is such a kind and caring student who makes sure that everyone feels included and goes out of her way to support and be there for both students and staff. She is a joy to be around and lights up any room she walks into with her positivity and friendly personality. Her patience and naturally kind persona will be missed when she graduates.

Shortlist: Antony Hill, Hannah Gray, Eva Wooley and Marie Crandell

Special Recognition Award - Jessika McCarron

Jessika responded to a call out for a student web designer who would be interested in creating an identity design for Making Futures 2024 conference. Jessika responded immediately before anyone else. Not only did Jessika create beautiful designs within a few days, the designs she produced were incredibly creative and really reflected the brief and went beyond it. I was so impressed with Jessika's professionalism, kindness and excellent design sense, that I invited her to design the whole Making Futures website--which she set up , coded and designed entirely in a weekend! The design work is outstanding and has been praised by everyone who has visited since we launched the site a few months ago. Jessika's work ethic, infectious enthusiasm and design skills are above and beyond many professional designers I have worked with over the years. It is hard to believe she is only a student. I cannot think of anyone more deserving of special recognition this year.

Shortlist: Jessika McCarron, Miranda Hallet-Pullen, Freya Luscombe, Dorron Britz and Hope Fox, and Bailey Doe