{"id":2216,"date":"2023-05-31T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=2216"},"modified":"2023-05-31T15:55:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T14:55:12","slug":"alumni-volunteering-awards-2023-alumni-speaker-of-the-year-award-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/alumni-volunteering-awards-2023-alumni-speaker-of-the-year-award-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Volunteering Awards 2023: Alumni Speaker of the Year Award winners"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Alumni Speaker of the Year Award recognises alumni who have delivered an outstanding presentation, lecture, workshop or panel discussion to students, colleagues or other alumni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the winners are\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Winners of the Alumni Speaker of the Year Award are\u2026 Peggy Elechi (Business Management BA, 2021) and Karl Donaldson (Psychology BSc, 2019).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Peggy Elechi<\/strong> graduated from Westminster in 2021 and has since pursued a career in recruitment, currently working as a recruitment consultant leading an interim HR and transformation team. Peggy was the star panel speaker at the \u2018What Comes Next? Business Management\u2019 event, where she was able to use her recent experience of entering the job market to advise current students on where to start after graduating, how to negotiate your salary, and offer reassurance about starting something new and entering the world of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The event was held in November 2022 and had a record number of attendees \u2013 96 students \u2013 for the \u2018What Comes Next\u2019 series. Peggy was very engaging, passionate and, most importantly, honest and transparent about her experiences as a recent graduate. Peggy was able to offer straightforward and honest advice about entering the job market and offered unique transparency about issues surrounding salaries and the labour market. As well as engaging with the students during the panel and Q&A, Peggy went above and beyond by staying after the event had concluded to speak to the attendees and answer more questions. Of the feedback submitted after the event, an impressive 100% of students agreed or strongly agreed that the panel was informative and useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Talking about the event, Peggy said: \u201cIt was really refreshing to be transparent and honest with the students, especially regarding salary, as no matter how much we try to avoid the topic, it is very important. I could also see that the students were very receptive to the information and engaged in the discussion. I was also very impressed with the questions they asked – they did not shy away from being inquisitive, which is very inspiring to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Speaking about the award, Peggy said: \u201cI care about my university, so for this award I am truly honoured. Thank you for caring too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Karl Donaldson<\/strong> has worked for over three decades to make a difference in the lives of young people, through his work as a youth practitioner. Karl was part of the \u2018What It Takes: To Overcome Imposter Syndrome\u2019 panel in November 2022, where he discussed his experience as a mature student at Westminster and gave excellent advice to attendees on how to start to overcome personal doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Karl has worked to empower young individuals and foster their growth, working with children and young adults from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds to assist their development as they embark on their life journeys. Despite his dedication and passion for advocating for young people, Karl has struggled with self-confidence and belief in his abilities throughout his career and during his degree. He was able to share these challenges with the attendees of the \u2018What It Takes\u2019 event with charisma and honesty, and to offer advice on how he has worked to change his views about imposter syndrome by embracing his unique qualities and developing a greater sense of belief in his capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Speaking about the panel, one attendee said: \u201cThe speakers did a wonderful job of having a discussion on imposter syndrome and how to overcome the notion of feeling like an outsider.\u201d Karl was able to answer questions after the panel discussion with insight, offering valuable advice and useful resources. Karl received some of the most positive post-event feedback results of this year\u2019s ‘What It Takes’ series. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Speaking about the award, Karl said: \u201cI\u2019m humbled and appreciate receiving this award.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to our Volunteering Award winners! Find out more about the Alumni Volunteering Awards and the other winners here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 Alumni Speaker of the Year Award recognises alumni who have delivered an outstanding presentation,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":793,"featured_media":2214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,85,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-alumni-volunteering-awards","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2241,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions\/2241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}