By Pierangelly Del Rio
Photography: Delia-Adriana Tanase

The 2018 edition of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Student Awards was held on Friday, celebrating the achievements of Manchester Met students.

As a tradition, the event celebrated the success of a number of initiatives and projects based in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. As well as curriculum-based projects, students at Manchester Met have have embraced opportunities to engage in extra-curricular projects and work with partner organisations across the city throughout the academic year.

Students, their families, and staff members gathered at the Geoffrey Manton Building, where they were welcomed with food and refreshments and were invited to take a look at some of the nominee’s projects, showcased in the atrium. Creative Writing student Benjamin Cassidy opened the event with a poetry reading.

Lisa Bach, Faculty Student Enrichment Coordinator, welcomed attendees and spoke about the importance of the ceremony. She said, “As well as providing a lasting record of this year’s students’ achievements, we hope that the awards will inspire students in future years to get involved, not only investing in their own learning and developing skills that will benefit themselves but investing in local communities.”

She added: “They also aim to recognise and reward outstanding effort and showcase how our students have been able to apply skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and communication to real-life situations in order to make a difference in our local community.”

This year, staff working with these students nominated candidates who stood up to them by demonstrating the best qualities and high commitment. Additionally, students were allowed to nominate and recognise their peers. Over 100 nominations were made and nine awards were given.

Outstanding Placement of the Year: Patience Hodzi – BA (Hons) Fashion

This category reflects the outstanding work in partnership with a partner group, institution, business, charity, or organistaion either as part of their unit study or as an extra-curricular activity. Patience Hodzi, who completed a buying placement at Ocado, was described as ‘a valued member of the team’ by the company’s manager. She never gave up looking for a placement and on returning to level six presented to the new cohort with advice for not giving up when getting rejections.

Runners up: Samantha Tylor and Llinos Peters.

Outstanding Academic Achievement: Tilo Reifestein – PhD

An award which recognises a student who has completed or is currently involved in working on a significant research project, a thesis or scholarly paper, presentation at a conference, or other scholarly work. The winner, Tilo Reifestein, displayed excellent critical skills at the forefront of their discipline, which was uniquely enacted in writing and drawing in such a way as to testify to his considerable talent as a researcher.

Runners up: Siriya Suriyanon, Nour Hamade, Rachael Jackson, and Nima Khorramrooz.

Oustanding Contribution to Academic Communities: Beverly Irving – MFA Fine Art

This award is for a student who may either be a Course Rep, peer mentor, ambassador or maybe a volunteer who makes a difference in the faculty. Beverly assisted in a book-making workshop in Mardsen, and also delivered workshops on clay modelling around feminism for the students in the faculty-not only to learn about clay modelling but also to find a safe space to talk about body image and the pressures on image in the Western society.

Runners up: Bradley Fryers, Dominique Ward-Lees, Laura Huff, Gemma Meek, Jawaria Javed, Pruthvi Khilosia, Beverly Ann Irving, Ruth Ann Collopy, Heena Hussain, and Anita Kwiecien.

Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity: Emma Plover – BA (Hons) Interactive Arts

The category recognises the student who has developed new initiatives to raise awareness of issues, or actively challenge discrimination, or celebrates age; disability; gender; marriage and civil partnership; religion, sexual orientation and more. Emma Plover was awarded for her use of creative mediums such as film to capture the ordinary of everyday of who are considered different to the majority. Her work is based on the concept that “Loving a queer body is a radical act.”

Runner up: Mark Powell.

Outstanding International/Multicultural Initiative of the Year: Parus Bhalla – BA (Hons) History

The award acknowledges those who have helped celebrate the multicultural community at Manchester Met and beyond. Parus Bhalla, who participated in the Gambia study trip, was praised for his enthusiasm and dynamic engagement with the slavery-themed trip on an academic level and for his long-lasting connections with many of the Gambians he met during the experience. He also worked extra hours to ensure the communal spaces were clean, without expectation.

Runner ups: Thu Ngan Ngo, Frankie Richardson, Lois Symons, Megan Gowman, Peter Weldon, Jazlyn Tan, Theo Fenerty, Rachael Oladapo, Hanna Groom, Neave Holmes, Anna Michaux, Gemma Durham, Zaynah Hussain, and Leah Ashton.

Outstanding Contribution to Media and Communications: Northen Quota Editorial Team – Sian Hamer, Kieran Hepworth, Tom Green, and Georgia Landi

An award, which recognises talented journalists, photographers or someone who has given information that, has made a real difference for their peers at university. The team of the Northern Quota took the award for writing their own articles, commissioning articles from other students and editing content before publication. The team also live-blogged a number of key events including the recent talk given by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Runner up: Emily Oldfield.

Outstanding Student Entrepreneur of the Year: Sean Gleaves BA (Hons) English 

This category highlights innovation, commitment, vision, and passion as well as the self-motivation to set up a business while at university. Sean Gleaves was the awarded student entrepreneur, known for developing an educational smartphone app called ‘Manchester Almanac.’ Using augmented reality and the smartphone’s camera, virtual historical figures will be located next to landmarks throughout the city. 

Runners up: Georgia May Steed, and Navinder Nangia.

Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community: David West – MA TESOL and Applied Linguistics

This award celebrates the contribution to the local community by supporting disadvantaged groups or by volunteering and working on a community project. David took the award home for his involvement in numerous youth projects. He is also a Faculty ambassador working at Moss Side’s Homework club and as a course representative.

Runner ups: Valentina Gomara, and Sunainah Khan.

Outstanding Contribution to Arts, Humanities, and Culture: John-Paul Burns – MA Creative Writing

This award is for a student who is passionate about the arts and humanities and their passion inspired their peers and others to get involved. Over thirty students were shortlisted this year. Ultimately, the award went to John-Paul Burns, whose peers said they’ve never met someone so fascinated by an art form before. The poems he brings to the creative writing workshops are carefully selected and of the highest standards. John-Paul is also well known for offering helpful advice and critique on his classmates’ poems.

Runners up (shortlisted nominees): Natalie Westerman, Anita Kwiecien, Victoria Dahl, William Coldwell, and Quen Took.