Orkney College UHI Special Awards 2020

This year the Orkney College UHI annual special award presentations were a little different although no less special for those involved.

Usually these special awards are presented as part of the annual Graduation Ceremony, however, this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic this was cancelled and is due to be rescheduled for when it is safe to do so.

The college really wanted to celebrate the special awardees for their hard work, thus a small presentation was organised.

Students were invited into the College individually at 15minute intervals (no guests were permitted) to receive their awards in a socially distanced manner.

The Principal as well as a presenter for each department were present, a few words were spoken to the student as they collected their prize and photographs were taken to commemorate the occasion.

For those special award winners who live off-island and were not able to make the trip to Orkney their prizes were posted to them.

Edward Abbott-Halpin, Principal, Orkney College UHI said: “Congratulations to our award winners, for standing out in such a difficult and testing year, and in achieving your success; all of our students have had to adjust to reach their targets and we congratulate them all, but to be award winners you have managed to go just that little bit further.

“Enjoy your success, stay in touch with us, we are enormously proud of you and all of our students.”

Higher Education Student of the Year at Orkney College UHI, Gary Lloyd, as well as Best Performance in Undergraduate Archaeology student and Best Undergraduate Archaeology student dissertation. Gary was also awarded overall Student of the Year at University of the Highlands and Islands.

Francesca Meneghetti, HISA Depute said: “The acknowledgment of one’s commitment, hard work, and achievements, is a fundamental step to be taken. The tendency is to often appreciate other people’s accomplishments but disregard our own. For this reason, I wish to congratulate this year’s award winners for their success. However, more than that, I would like to invite them to celebrate their victories and their work. Share this with your family, friends, and classmates but, most of all, take the time to acknowledge your path, and celebrate yourself!”

This year’s Further Education Student of the Year at Orkney College UHI was Shannon Foubister. Shannon also was awarded with Full Time Business Student of the Year (FE).

Susan Mackay who was Shannon’s tutor said: “In 2018, Shannon worked extremely hard to stay motivated to complete the Stepping Stones course. She went above and beyond what was needed to ensure that the Young Enterprise project that she was involved in became a success.”

“During the Stepping Stones course, Shannon showed strong organisational and administrative skills, and went on to progress onto the NC Administration course where she completed her Communication module at SCQF6, instead of the required Level 5. This gave her the opportunity to gain access on to the HNC Business course, should she choose to do so at any point in the future.

“Shannon showed maturity beyond her years and the initiative to make herself as employable as possible by being very proactive in finding employment and playing a part in external activities and groups, which helped to develop her employability skills, as well as going above and beyond to ensure the Christmas fair event was a success.

“We were especially impressed with the way she kept going during lockdown, to finish off the work. We appreciate this was not easy for her as she also took on a full-time administration job at the same time, so this makes her achievements even more notable.  She is has shown great resilience and is a very capable young woman that deserves to be recognised for her efforts.”

Shannon Foubister said: “I am so proud and grateful to be receiving this award. It has been difficult at times and I’ve had to work really hard, but I wouldn’t change anything about my experience.

“I couldn’t have achieved this without the support of my friends and family, my partner and of course, the staff at Orkney College UHI.

“I had the most supportive and understanding tutors and I can’t wait to return. For now, I’m taking a year out to work, but I plan to return to Orkney College UHI in the near future to take on an apprenticeship or complete a further course in business and administration.

“I look forward to seeing what the future brings and I can’t thank the Orkney College UHI staff enough for helping me get to where I am now.”

Photos of the special award winners are on our website here.

Below is a list of all award winners: