It was the turn of student leaders to celebrate in the second ceremony of DSU’s awards season on Friday night.
*UPDATE: To see a full album of pictures from the night, click here.*
It was the turn of student leaders to celebrate in the second ceremony of De Montfort Students’ Union (DSU)’s awards season on Friday night.
The SULETS DSU Student Voice Awards 2016 were held in the glamorous setting of the Mercure Grand Hotel in Leicester, welcoming over 120 students and staff from De Montfort University (DMU). Accolades presented included the Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Student Awards, the Unsung Hero Award, School Representative Coordinator of the Year and Course Representative of the Year.
Gavin Smith, winner of the Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Student Award Level 4, was shocked at his triumph. He said: “I didn't think I was going to win it, so it means a lot to me.” Gavin scored the highest accolade at the university for his work-based portfolio.
Amie Chapman, Deputy President Education at DSU, hosted the awards and said: “I think it's a fantastic celebration of all the different achievements and the wide range of students that get involved with student voice.
“We have a real variety of people who do all manner of different things, but essentially they change the lives of students around them which is absolutely fantastic.”
Amie presented the Unsung Hero award to David Pilsworth for his involvement and leadership achievements in every aspect of the union. “I'm speechless,” he said. “All the stuff I've done [for student representation] over the year is almost scary, but there's still so much more to do.” And as a second-year Mechatronics student David said it’s likely that he hopes to continue his representation work next year.
It was a double win for David, as the Faculty of Technology also picked up the Faculty of the Year Award – something that course and school reps like David played a key role in achieving.
He explained: “I'd like to thank all of the engineering reps I've worked with, plus the mechanical reps, physics reps, even the electronics reps as well. They've always helped, I couldn't have done it without their help."
The full list of winners on the night included;
Faculty of the Year – Faculty of Technology
Level 4 / Year 1 Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Students Award – Vivian Nwagboso, Michelle Roberts, Christopher Leach and Payge Temple
Level 5 / Year 2 Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Student Award – Gavin Smith, Michael Grimshaw, Jonathan Norton and Tabitha Bolam
Level 6 / Year 3 Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Student Award – Ben Summerton, Michael Mayes, Laura Jackson and Sharif Barnett
Postgraduate Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Student Award – Raheema Sayani, Adam Gravely, Foukis Dimitrios and Danae Renieri
Unsung Hero Award – David Pilsworth
School Representative Coordinator of the Year – Augustus Mbanasor
Course Representative of the Year – Rupika Gulati
The most coveted awards of the night, Course Rep of the Year and School Rep Coordinator of the Year, were awarded to Rupika Gulati and Augustus Mbanasor respectively.
Augustus, DSU’s incoming Deputy President Education, was overjoyed. He said: “It's a prestigious award that I'm really glad to win. It really does reflect not only on my work, but the students' union's work and everyone on [my] course and faculty as well. If it wasn't for them I would not be getting an award like this, so it’s a thank you to them.
“My biggest achievement is helping [stop] an international student from dropping out of university,” explained Augustus. “I was speaking to her and signposting her to the correct welfare services and I felt I really did help her in the long run. She stayed at university and now she's prospering in her degree and completing her masters at the moment.”
The SULETS DSU Student Voice Awards 2016 was just the second of five huge awards ceremonies to celebrate the work of students throughout the year. To find out more about DSU’s awards season, click here.
