University students shortlisted for NEON Student of the Year awards

The University of Manchester had two nominations shortlisted for NEON awards in May 2018. The purpose of the NEON Awards is to celebrate success in widening access to higher education (HE) work and in particular to recognise the students who have progressed to HE from widening access backgrounds, and how they made this journey. The Awards were hosted and presented this year by Gordon Marsden MP, Shadow Minister of Higher Education, Further Education & Skills at the Palace of Westminster.

Memona Shahid was nominated by Katie Barnes, Access All Areas Officer in the Students Union to recognise the work she has done to make an impact on the educational journey of young people in her local area in Manchester. Memona is a Pharmacy student who in her first year of University set up a successful project in Longsight that offers space for disadvantaged students to revise for GCSE and A level exams; in its first year over 100 pupils attended sessions. These sessions are supported by current university students and have gone from strength the strength, taking on new venues and additional volunteers.

The Student Inspire Network (SIN) was shortlisted for the Widening Access Initiative (Retention and Success) Award. SIN is a new and exciting project, being delivered for students by students, taking a simple model to improve access to careers information for students from black, asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. Taking their own experiences into consideration, and motivated by the importance of fair access to higher education for all groups of society, the SIN provide positive role models for their peers. The Network provides students with the tools they need to get them thinking about their future aspirations and how to start working towards these, specifically targeting the millennial student, providing information in a format and media they are used to and they prefer, and tackling the problem of information overload that many students report.