Alumni Awards 2022: Recent Graduate Award Shortlist 

Daniel Nikolla was an overseas student at UWL, studying a BA (Hons) in Film Production / Cinematography and Film/Video Production. Upon graduation from the university, he was given the opportunity to work as Marketing Executive for Hardy Signs Ltd. He's now the marketing manager at Hardy Signs and  the vice-chair of the board of Generation Next, East Midlands Chambers of Commerce’s young professionals network. At Hardy Signs, he's in charge of developing the marketing and sales strategy of the company, overseeing partnerships and networking, creating lead generation campaigns among other things. Aside F/T work, he also works on small marketing projects, like website development, social media, and content creation. One of Daniel's big passions is also social causes and volunteering when time allows! In 2020, he was awarded the Young Professional of the Year in East Midlands and ‘Future Face of Sales, Marketing and Communications’ in Greater Birmingham.

Frédérique Djurdjevic completed a PhD in health psychology at UWL after working as a Barts Charity research fellow at City University's School of Health Sciences. After passing her viva with no corrections, Frederique started a job as a consultant for the WHO regional office in Europe just a week later! She is also currently drafting her final PhD paper ready for submission, has been published in a number of places including BMJ Open, BMC Psychiatry and the Journal of Mental Health. Public Health England’s guidance on support for people who find it hard to attend cervical screening due to having a mental health condition, or having experienced trauma or abuse, is based on her PhD research.

Rebecca Roa came to the UK as a student with a goal towards becoming a nurse. She pursued a master’s degree in healthcare and nursing, then began working in care homes and concentrating on elderly people afflicted with dementia. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she began taking on extra shifts to support the management in a time of great staff shortages. Instrumental in making sure the covid guidelines were implemented, and helped to establish Arbrook nursing home as one of the top centres for palliative care. She also streamlined care planning by reducing the handwritten method to electronically updating care documents. This reduced the hours spent on pen and paper tasks and allowed more time to be devoted to care of the residents. Her manager states that the home would not have been able to run through the pandemic without her.

Chloe Hammond studied to be a children’s nurse at UWL, but her struggles with Behcet’s disease resulted in her using a wheelchair. Determined not to let this prevent her from chasing her dreams, Chloe changed disciplines and began working at a care home. This required extensive training as adult nursing was a totally new skillset but she was aided by her managers and eventually scouted for another, nearby carehome in recognition of her talents. Moving from activities manager to onsite nurse, Chloe has gone from strength to strength despite the adversities she has faced. Chloe is aided in her job and her day-to-day life by her assistance dog Ocho, whom she is training herself.