Last month, BBS Careers held the first ever Birmingham Business School Student Impact Awards.
Students were asked to nominate themselves for Undergraduate of the Year, Postgraduate of the Year, and Internship of the Year, highlighting how their achievements and work met the values of ambition, innovation, responsible business, ED&I, and collaboration. The judging panel were blown away by the quality of the nominations and the work of our students in the Business School, making the shortlisting process extremely competitive.
Jeannyfar Gelpcke, Senior Executive Advisor to the CEO at E. ON Germany, kicked off the event with a keynote speech and introduced the theme of celebration – everyone in attendance was a winner and had so much to be proud of. Key people in the Business School’s alumni network were in attendance and presented each of the eight award categories.
With fierce competition, Arrey Phillips took home the ‘Undergraduate of the Year’ award; her nomination focussed on her Anti-Racism workshop and business idea called POC Advisor, highlighting the significant impact she is making in the ED&I space. Arrey wrote in her nomination: “By fostering collaboration and a unique dialogue around this issue it allowed individuals from different backgrounds to learn about one another, and many participants shared that they had become more conscious of racial biases and privileges within the travel industry.”
‘Post-graduate of the Year’ was awarded to Ishaan Mahajan, who highlighted his many achievements whilst completing his MSc Management degree. Ishaan focused his nomination on his social impact and responsible business practices whilst co-founding his company ‘CresVita Advisory.’ Ishaan shared with the judging panel: “We completed one project for an NGO called ‘Indian Road Safety Campaign’ (IRSC) and suggested innovative ideas for their marketing campaigns, and we have one ongoing project for an NGO called ‘Pledge a Smile’ to design a CSR acquisition strategy. We hired 15 students from the Birmingham Business School on a voluntary basis with the aim of fostering collaboration and innovation among the students while at the same time promoting a culture of ethical and responsible business practices.”
Helena Lovett won the ‘Internship of the Year’ award in recognition of her achievements whilst on her placement year with Gymshark. Helena highlighted her work in the responsible business space, detailing “in the sourcing team working for Gymshark we worked closely with the sustainability team to limit Gymshark’s impact, especially when it comes to our vendors.” In addition, Helena and her team raised over £10,000 for the Turkey and Syria Earthquake foundation and gained incredible feedback from across the business.
Additionally, the judging panel presented five awards to recognise those who demonstrated the five key University of Birmingham and Birmingham Business School values through their work and nominations. Reyaz Ali won the award for ‘Innovation’, Hsu Thiri Sint for ‘Collaboration,’ Joanne Amoah for ‘Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion’, Nish Senthil Kumar for ‘Social Impact and Responsibility’, and Joshua Lindo for ‘Ambition’. Each student’s award was presented by key alumni and employers who were invited to celebrate their continuing support of our students in the Business School.
Due to its success, the BBS Student Impact Awards will be hosted annually, with the next ceremony set to take place next year to celebrate student achievements for the 2023/2024 academic year. BBS Careers want to thank everyone who applied and attended the event, it was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our students’ incredible impact on campus, in the local community, and across the globe.