This year the College's Peter Howard Memorial Award for Engineering was given to Ellen Fearnside, who studied Level 3 Btec Extended Diploma in Engineering and A level Mathematics. This Engineering award is part of our annual Education Awards and is to celebrate a student who has gone above and beyond whilst studying this subject.
Ellen, who also won a Personal Achievement award, said:
"I was surprised when I found out I had won, but I am honoured that my teachers think so highly of me. Being at the College has helped me grow in confidence; I used to be easily put down if ever I didn't do as well in an exams as hoped, but with as much free time as I was given, it meant that I could easily go and work on specific topics without being stressed that I would fall behind in other work."
Speaking on International Women in Engineering day in June, Ellen said: "During my course I was always included in everything equally and treated the same as the boys. Traditionally, engineering is a male-dominated subject, but very quickly the boys were coming to me for help (and not the other way around)." Ellen is planning on attending Loughborough university to study a bachelors degree in Product Design Engineering.
Noel Woods, Ellen's engineering teacher, cited her "infectious enthusiasm for her studies" as one of the reasons he nominated her for the award. He went on to say: "With the lockdown and amount of remote learning that has taken place, this has been a very challenging year. Ellen rose to that challenge and developed excellent analytical and practical skills, which will undoubtedly help her succeed at university. We all wish her success in the future."
Congratulations Ellen!
