2018 Pride of Reading Awards
Friday, 09 November 2018
The Pride of Reading Awards each year recognise exceptional people in the Reading area. The 15th awards ceremony was held at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre on Friday 2 November and the University was represented by Ellie Highwood (Dean of Diversity and Inclusion) and Jason Dabydoyal (RUSU President). The University is proud to sponsor the Young Person of the Year award which is for people under eighteen in Reading who make an exceptional difference in their community and inspire others. Jen Rich (Student Communications Business Partner) and Sarah Gardner (Community Relations Manager), along with the Pride of Reading organisers selected Angel because she best met the criteria and demonstrates the attributes we would like to see in our students. As well as caring for two autistic siblings, Angel raises awareness about autism and learnt Polish so she should welcome one of her fellow school pupils.
This certainly fits in well with Matters@Reading, which provides training and advice to local families, teachers and speech and language therapists by our Centre for Literacy and Multilingualism. And our Refugee Scholarship Scheme (launched in June 2018 in partnership with Reading Refugee Support Group and Reading University Students’ Union) provides up to 14 university scholarships for refugees in the Reading area. We were delighted that the University’s Refugee Scholarship Award and Professor Carol Fuller were also nominated in the Community Champion and Local Hero categories respectively, unfortunately without success.
It was also good to see graduates Andrew Ingle and Katie Falcon-Uff collect the Business in Action (under 50 employees) award for their charity activities with as part of their start up TimeTrap Escape Room.