Celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2023: Gowri Shankar (MSc 2012)

Posted on by Grace

For Volunteers’ Week 2023, we’re celebrating our incredible Bristol Volunteers who give their experience, advice and time to support our students and alumni community.

Gowri Shankar Sivabala (MSc 2012) is the founder of SpaceNXT Labs, an innovation start-up specialising in industrial design and technology, and is a mentor for entrepreneurial start-ups around the world. Based in Sri Lanka, he studied an MSc in Integrated Aerospace Systems Design at Bristol and now supports current students through the online platform Bristol Connects. We hear from Gowri Shankar about his experience as a volunteer. (more…)

Celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2023: Savannah Coombe (MSc 2023)

Posted on by Grace

For Volunteers’ Week 2023 we’re celebrating our amazing volunteers who have given their time, insights, and expertise to support our students and alumni community.

International student Savannah Coombe (MSc 2023) is Deputy Editor of Bristol-based non-profit communication agency Resource Media, which champions resource efficiency and sustainability, and she also holds the position of Chairperson of the Badock Hall Association.

Savannah shares with us her experiences as a student in Badock Hall, working on the UoB student newspaper Epigram, her career as a journalist, and what being a volunteer means to her. (more…)

Celebrating Volunteers’ Week 2023: Sarauniya Shehu (LLB 2016)

Posted on by Grace

For Volunteers’ Week 2023, we’re celebrating our incredible Bristol Volunteers who give their experience, advice and time to support our students and alumni community.

Sarauniya Shehu (LLB 2016) studied Law and is now Public Affairs Manager at the National Housing Federation. As a volunteer for the Bristol Mentors programme, she reflects on the value of mentoring and why she finds it so rewarding. (more…)

‘Storytelling is one of the most universal things about the human condition’: Gillian Burke on the aims of documentary filmmaking

Posted on by Bailey Anastasiades
A portrait of Gillian Burke taken in a field of wild grasses.
Photo credit: Victoria Harrison

Gillian Burke (BSc 1995), is a biologist, presenter, public speaker, voiceover artist and writer. Gillian was born in Kenya and studied biology at Bristol before launching an incredible career as a wildlife documentarian that has taken her all over the world. She has been a co-presenter of the BBC nature series Springwatch and its spin-offs since 2017.  She also presented BBC’s Blue Planet UK with co-host Steve Brown and was recently named Vice President at The Wildlife Trusts.   (more…)

Celebrating our Scholars

Posted on by Kathryn Pintus
Five of our amazing Scholars are smiling at the camera, standing behind a blue photo frame, which has the University of Bristol logo on and the hashtag 'We Are Bristol Uni'
Scholars connecting at the event

Last month, the University of Bristol welcomed over 130 alumni, friends, Scholars and staff to the 2023 Scholarships Celebration event. This event is an opportunity to celebrate our incredible Scholars and their achievements, and for them to connect with fellow scholarship students and donors.   (more…)

Meet our London Marathon runners raising money for Healthy Minds

Posted on by Bailey Anastasiades

This Sunday, an incredible group of five Bristol alumni and staff members are taking on the 2023 London Marathon in support of the University’s Healthy Minds programme.

This programme helps students who are experiencing mental health difficulties by providing a bespoke physical activity plan and access to sports facilities. Students are paired with a mentor – a member of the University fitness team with advanced mental health training – who coaches them throughout their time on the programme.

Each runner is aiming to raise at least £2,000 for Healthy Minds, and you can support them via their JustGiving pages linked below.

Introducing this year’s runners…

(more…)

Legacy Pledger Kathryn Moore on the circular nature of giving

Posted on by Clare

 

Kathryn Moore (BA 2005) has fond memories of sitting in the quad at Wills Hall in the summer sunshine, with her fellow students of English at the end of term. While everyone else was busy with exams, Kathryn and her classmates could enjoy some freedom as the university year ended because at that time, English students were continually assessed throughout the year, rather than having an intense period of exams at the end. Like many of our alumni, Kathryn is still in close contact with the friends she met while studying, and is a regular visitor back to the city.

‘Studying at Bristol was such a happy time in my life. I picked a subject I really enjoyed and met like-minded people wherever I went – on my course, in halls and in the various societies.’ (more…)

‘It’s a fantastic continuation of my student journey’: Suwei Jiang on her role as a member of the Alumni Association Committee

Posted on by Grace

Suwei Jiang (MBA 1997) moved to the UK from China in 1996, a year before joining the University of Bristol to study for her MBA in International Business. After graduating, she joined PwC as an Associate, and she is now a partner leading the China Business Group in London. She is also an advisory board member for the Confucius Institute for Business at LSE, an ambassador for the Women in Finance network in China, a mentor for the 30% club and a member of the University of Bristol’s Alumni Association Committee.

Suwei shares some of her university memories, her reasons for joining the Committee and why she finds it so rewarding giving back to her alumni community. (more…)

‘I couldn’t wish for a more interesting job’: Ben Emmerson CBE KC, 2023 Alumni Award winner for Global Citizenship

Posted on by Grace

This year’s Alumni Award winner for Global Citizenship is Ben Emmerson CBE KC (LLB 1985, Hon LLD 2015), one of the world’s preeminent international human rights lawyers.  (more…)