Meet the Making a Difference Awards winners!
Published on 19 May 16
Last Wednesday the University held this year’s Making a Difference awards at Whitworth Hall, with winners and highly commended entrants receiving their awards from Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell for all the amazing work they’ve done to make a difference in the community.
The Awards covered 9 different categories, including: Inspiring Communities, Outstanding Contribution to Equality and Diversity; Outstanding Public Engagement Initiative and Outstanding Teaching Innovation in Social Responsibility, with all of the winners showing the significant difference they are making to the social and environmental wellbeing of our communities and wider society. The ceremony was then closed with Chancellor Lemn Sissay giving a reading of his poem Inspired and be Inspired – and after hearing all these student stories we’re pretty sure you’ll be inspired too!
The awards receiving over 150 entries this year, making the judges’ jobs very difficult. In addition to the 15 winners, 26 projects also received the accolade of Highly Commended. Special Awards were also given to mark the sustained contribution over the past 10 years of the Manchester Access Programme, Manchester Leadership Programme and the Equity and Merit programme for developing countries.
Professor James Thompson, Associate Vice-President for Social Responsibility said: “The Awards are a wonderful opportunity to recognise and celebrate some of the inspiring activities in which our staff and students are involved. They provided the perfect opportunity to share some of the best social responsibility stories, raise the profile of dozens of University and community initiatives and in doing so contribute further to their impact.”
Head on over to the social responsibility website to take a look at all the winners, and if you want to be inspired and learn more about the amazing work done by students, check out the YouTube channel to watch the short films about each of the winners.