Rising Stars in Education & Academia 2016

 Introducing our Rising Stars winners in the Education and Academia category for 2016

Carrie Dunn

University of East London

I run the BA (Hons) Sports Journalism at the University of East London, and have worked in the past 12 months to improve the gender balance for our intake. In September 2015 we welcomed our new first years – 20 per cent are female (compared to 10 per cent the year before and none at all the year before that). I have loved my ten years so far as a sports journalist and very much want to encourage young women to consider it as a potential career.

I am also a freelance sports journalist who in 2015 covered the Women’s World Cup for the Times and for Eurosport.com. During the tournament I guested on broadcast outlets including CNN, BBC Radio Five Live, LBC and BBC Radio London.

Brenda Neburagho

St Mathew Academy

The world around us is always changing and my experience is that education is the key to sharing opportunities and overcoming life’s challenges. This is why I joined the teaching profession at 21, straight after university.  I began teaching in Further Education, which meant that I was usually the youngest person in the classroom. 16 years later, my enthusiasm has matured into a responsibility as a leader to inspire and empower others through education.

My role is extremely varied. Whether that is in the classroom, teaching young people or training senior leaders at the Institute of Education. As well as being a full-time Deputy Head teacher, I am also a Leadership and Management coach. Continual learning for myself is very important. In 2005, I received a Masters in Health Education and Health promotion and am learning Web design and amateur astronomy.

Faye Kilgour

Graydin

Faye Kilgour is a CTI trained coach who specialises in coaching aimed at improving communication and relationships in education and business. Faye is currently a Board Member of the professional women’s network ‘Ladies in London’ and a lead volunteer at a London based charity for homelessness. Before becoming a coach, Faye worked in corporate as a Senior PA and now mentors a number of her former junior colleagues. Faye travels up and down the UK, both training and coaching in schools, on her mission to transform education. Faye loves being of service to others and has built a career around that very passion.

Hasmita Chavda

Ignite!

I have worked in informal learning since the age of 16. I discovered my passion lay in increasing opportunities for young people to enable them to flourish.

Over the last six years I have been working with Ignite!, working to increase young people’s and their families engagement and access to S.T.E.M education. Leading on developing 3-2-1-Ignition* one of UK’s the first Science Pop Up Shops. Following which I developed Community Curiosity Labs – spaces where young people science learning is driven by questions in some of the hardest to reach areas of Nottingham.

Alongside my work with Ignite! I have worked on a range of other initiatives including running workshops in Dubai and Beirut with charity Spark and Mettle and the British Counci to help build soft skills in over 300 young people.

I am a trustee at young people’s creative learning agency T.M.C and on the advisory board of Dragon Breath Theatre.

Amy Farrelly

Rugby School

For the past eleven years I have been working and teaching Fine Art Photography in the UK. Originally from Dallas, Texas, I came to the UK to start a new life in education and art and design. In the States, I have previously taught History, Journalism, and Photojournalism as well as working in the publishing industry for Harper Collins and Macmillan. Teaching and running a boarding house of fifty- one girls in one of the finest academic institutions in England has provided me the insight needed to deliver outstanding pastoral care as well as inspirational teaching. I believe a young person’s successful academic and creative arts achievements require a solid foundation of nurtured support and care. My personal educational philosophy is to never stop learning and it is my intention to empower young people to use the visual and creative arts as a tool for lifelong learning and personal expression.