Royal Academy of Engineering Advanced Leadership Award

What was I saying about this term getting ever crazier again? Well, it’s just got even better now I’ve been presented with the Royal Academy of Engineering Advanced Leadership Award I blogged about last time! I’m absolutely delighted, completely over the moon! It’s going to open so many doors for me and I’m so excited about what the next few years will hold!

Let me explain a little more about what the award actually entails, since I didn’t go into much detail last time given the already epic length of the post. Firstly, I am assigned £5000 of funding over the course of the next three years to go towards my professional development. This can cover all sorts of things, from various training courses in areas such as project management, language courses and to covering travel expenses to visit engineering firms all across the globe. There is no fixed framework – I get to pick exactly what I want to do which is one of the reasons it’s so exciting! One thing I definitely want to do is visit Japan, since it really is the motherland of all things hi-tech! Hopefully next summer I will get the chance to take an intensive language course over there, followed by a period working for some of the best research and development companies in the world! I’ve always, always wanted to go there, and so the fact that is it now tantalisingly close to becoming a reality is just so fantastic!

However, even with funding in place, there’s no way I could organise such a trip myself. I simply would not have the kind of contacts necessary to be able to do such a thing. Until now. You see, that’s where this award kicks in again as I’ll have the full backing of the Royal Academy of Engineering behind me, as well as being assigned my own personal career mentor. I’m so excited about all the possibilities this is going to create and I can’t wait to get started now! For any first year students reading this I can’t recommend highly enough that you apply for this when the nominations for next year’s award open in September as it really is a fantastic opportunity. For students in other years you could apply for one of the Standard Awards which would still be a brilliant achievement. It would be great for Southampton to be represented again next year and in the years to come!

In other news, I’m off to the Undergraduate of the Year awards ceremony on Friday, where I’m nominated for the First Year of the Year award category (see blogs from 12th and 28th February)! Wish me luck!