Volunteer Awards

Volunteer roles: Entrepreneur in Residence (Ingenuity Lab), Nottingham University Business School speaker, Entrepreneurship and Business Mentor, Career Mentor, Business Alumni Insight Series speaker.

Keith's nominations: "Keith deserves to win this award for his amazing contribution to our Haydn Green Institute, the Business School and wider university community. He is always first to volunteer to support the Lab and is also going to be engaged in supporting the Witty Scholarship scheme this year. He is so generous with his time and has also provided support to the wider university community by introducing members of staff from outside the Business School to his network of contacts."

"Keith's long and continuous support to a wide range of calls for support which have included being a guest speaker, mentor, coach and also a co-designer and guest lecturer of executive education courses.

"Keith has given his insight, experience and his valuable time to support whenever asked by the university and to my knowledge has never declined a request. His support over many years is noteworthy especially when faced with requests from many other organisations.

"The development of new executive education course content is one level of impact but the fact that Keith has placed his personal brand behind the promotion of these courses and been a willing promoter (via video) of these courses is a level of impact really seen." 

Volunteer role: International Alumni Ambassador.

Surya's nomination: "Nila is one of our international alumni ambassadors for Indonesia and has been instrumental in keeping the alumni community in Jakarta connected. Since her appointment last year, she has helped the university organise two formal alumni engagement events; one in June 2022 when the Global Engagement team was visiting with a delegation of university academics, as well as a Vice-Chancellor reception in November 2022.

"Nila offered regional intelligence to the International Volunteering & Advocacy Team as to the expectations of local alumni, liaised directly with the venue to negotiate a contract and ensure the room set up fit our requirements, as well as helped us boost registration and attendance numbers by promoting the event amongst her own vast networks. She went above and beyond by arranging a photographer and videographer to attend the event, even managing to capture an exclusive interview with the Vice-Chancellor on the university’s internationalisation strategy in Indonesia. In addition, she has facilitated high-level introductions for the university within Indonesia’s Ministry of Education where she works as a civil servant, increasing our awareness of the local education landscape.

"Beyond that, she has also supported international student recruitment activities by participating at offer holder events, sharing her insights and helping the next generation of Nottingham students arrive prepared and eager to spend time at our university. Overall, Nila encompasses the university values and is a very enthusiastic and driven volunteer. She has been an excellent advocate for her alma mater, effectively helping us increase the university’s brand, reputation, recruitment numbers and alumni community spirit within Indonesia."

The group's nomination: "As a school we would like to make a group nomination for our Patient Cafe volunteers, who have regularly volunteered their time over the last three years to help develop our MPharm students' communication skills via our online Patient Cafe sessions.

"Initially established during the pandemic to provide vital patient contact (in the absence of on-site placements), many of our volunteers stepped in at short notice to ensure that students continued to have the opportunity to practise their communication skills with real-life patients.

"Positive feedback from students has led to these sessions now being embedded within the MPharm curriculum, and the commitment to student learning from our volunteer patients has really helped students across all years.

"We currently have c.900 students, which means that there are Patient Cafés running almost daily during term-time; none of which would be possible without the support of our volunteer patients and their positive, friendly, can-do attitudes.

"They are a real asset to the programme and the sessions they provide make a huge difference to the student experience by providing students with real-life opportunities to interact with patients from all walks of life, helping to develop them in to caring, compassionate pharmacists of the future."