This Volunteers Week, we are delighted to recognise the contribution that our alumni volunteers make to the Westminster community through the Westminster Alumni Volunteering Awards.
The Going the Extra Mile Award recognises alumni who have provided dedicated support across multiple initiatives or activities.
And the winner is…
The Winner of the Going the Extra Mile Award goes to… Haroon Omar Mahdi (Interactive Media Practice MA, 2018).
Haroon Mahdi is a very experienced mentor and lecturer, with over 20 years of experience delivering personal and professional development strategies to educational institutions. Haroon has been a part of the Career Mentoring programme at Westminster since 2018 and has been part of the Group Mentoring scheme since its inception. Haroon has always gone above and beyond to support his mentees and helping them achieve their academic and professional goals.
Future Ready Mentoring at Westminster provides long-term, short-term and group mentoring opportunities to our students and recent graduates. In taking part, mentees benefit from their mentor’s expertise and insight, allowing them to grow personally and professionally, giving them the confidence they need to prepare themselves for an exciting career in the future.
This year, Haroon has provided one-to-one long-term support through the Career Mentoring Programme. Despite the minimum commitment being five mentoring sessions across the six-month cycle, Haroon and his mentee have had ten mentoring sessions with an additional five scheduled to take place. His mentee has not only had the opportunity to excel in their professional development, but also to grow enormously in self-confidence.
His mentee said: “Haroon is an exceptional mentor whose contributions have had a profound impact on my personal and professional development. His dedication to mentoring me has been superb and brilliant, and I am grateful for the friendship for life he has offered me. From our first communication, Haroon has demonstrated an innate ability to recognise and cultivate talent, and his unwavering belief in my potential has allowed me to realise capabilities I had not previously recognised. The Mentoring team has provided crucial support, and Haroon’s exceptional mentorship has further enhanced the program, making it a truly unforgettable experience. It is my sincere hope that Haroon receives recognition for his outstanding work, as I can think of no one more deserving of such an honour.”
Haroon is continuing to mentor this student, as well as taking on another mentee for the second cycle of the year. In addition to his Career Mentoring, Haroon has also supported three Group Mentoring sessions for computer science students. In each session, he has shown his willingness to support and offer his knowledge, expertise, and experience by taking the time to create excellent support materials and slides which he has then shared with the students to help them prepare for their group project and presentation. He has even offered to stay in touch with the students beyond the three sessions.
Haroon has truly gone the extra mile in all of his voluntary work with Westminster, and he is a very deserving recipient of this award.
Congratulations to our Volunteering Award winners! Find out more about the Alumni Volunteering Awards, and the other winners here.
Latest posts by Freya Wooding (see all)
- Celebrating collaboration with our philanthropic partners - 10 January2024
- Alumni Volunteering Awards 2023 - 31 May2023
- Alumni Volunteering Awards 2023: Alumni Speaker of the Year Award winners - 31 May2023
Congratulations on winning the award! Your hard work and dedication have paid off, and this recognition is well-deserved.