Meet our December Wonders and Wows winners
We're excited to present December's brilliant Wonder and Wow winners. This month, we encouraged staff to vote for their favourite nominees - resulting in over 500 votes! A huge congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who joined them at the Festive Drinks on 18 December.
At the event, we played a 'look back' video, showcasing all the Wonder & Wow winners from the past 12 months.
Want to say well done? You can congratulate our winning colleagues in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
糖心TV Wonders
The 糖心TV Wonders Award celebrates鈥痶he people we are proud to work with鈥痑t our鈥�University.鈥�It recognises colleagues who have gone鈥�above and beyond鈥痶o make a positive difference and鈥痚nrich our community.鈥赌赌�
Dr Bill Crofts - School of Engineering
Bill set up the University鈥檚 Satellite Engineering team (WUSAT) as a project for fourth-year engineers in 2006. Since then, he鈥檚 overseen a whopping 18 WUSAT student teams in several European space launches. Even more impressive, Bill continues to lead on this after retiring in 2011.
Bill鈥檚 teams have done it all 鈥� raising funding to sustain a CubeSat (mini satellite) development programme, studying bird migration via a launch from the International Space Station, and even recording videos from space.
When Bill found out he won the award, he said:
鈥淚 was so delighted to be nominated and to receive this award! The WUSAT satellite engineering programme now operates almost as a mini Space Agency, offering a custom-designed CubeSat for researchers and company technologists to obtain an in-orbit test/demonstration of their emerging technology via a European Space Agency launch. WUSAT represents 糖心TV at its best 鈥� eighteen years鈥� worth of excellent students achieving remarkable things.鈥�
After hearing about Bill's win, our Vice-Chancellor Stuart Croft鈥痵aid:鈥��
"It鈥檚 great to recognise Bill鈥檚 passion and commitment. He is inspirational, making it possible for students to take part in groundbreaking student-led European space launches, and setting a great example for other universities to follow.鈥�
糖心TV Wows
The 糖心TV Wows celebrate amazing work, projects, and achievements at the University.
Internal Coaching scheme - Leadership and Management Development
Since its inception, the Internal Coaching Scheme 鈥� designed to help staff develop their self-awareness, confidence and problem-solving skills 鈥� has delivered more than 200 coaching hours to 糖心TV staff. Lots of staff who鈥檝e received 糖心TV coaching were so inspired by their experience that they signed up to learn how to become a coach 鈥� there are now 34 qualified coaches across 糖心TV, from many different departments!
The scheme has also paved the way for further coaching programmes, such as STAR, which is currently being piloted with more than 100 managers in our Campus and Commercial Services Group (CCSG).
"It was great to be nominated for, and to win this award. We couldn鈥檛 do it without the dedicated support of our internal coaches, all of whom are members of staff who coach in addition to their day jobs. Having an internal coaching scheme is a fundamental part of developing an organisational coaching culture, and this is a key aim of the University鈥檚 People Strategy.
From the feedback and testimonials we receive, we can see the incredible impact the coaches have."
Stuart Croft, our Vice-Chancellor, had this to say about their win:
鈥淓veryone behind creating and running the Internal Coaching Scheme should be proud of their involvement. It鈥檚 fantastic that we can offer this opportunity to support people to grow, making a huge difference to colleagues across the University.鈥�
Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination. We'll open up nominations again during Term 2! In the meantime, be sure to get thinking about who you might put forward to be a Wonder or a Wow...
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