Time to Shine Award winners announced

December 21, 2022

As part of this year’s Sparkle Winter Festival, we invited students and staff to nominate their colleagues, classmates, lecturers and support staff for a Time to Shine Award. The Awards were established in 2020 as a way to recognise those from within the NESCol community who have had positive impact on the lives of others. In 2022, we celebrate our third set of worthy winners.

This year’s submissions were full of inspiring stories about our staff and students – people who had given up their own time for others in so many ways – and the panel had a very difficult job on their hands.

Although there could only be three winners, each and every person who was nominated deserves a huge thank you for their acts of selflessness, kindness and compassion. But in the end, after much deliberation, three winners were chosen, and we are delighted to share their stories with you.

Claire Miller

Claire Miller, a busy hairdressing student from NESCol’s Fraserburgh Campus, was nominated by several people for a Time to Shine award and the judges were extremely impressed with Claire’s commitment to her family, college and classmates as well as the community as a whole.

As well as attending a full-time college course, Claire has two children to look after and manages to fit in two part-time jobs. She has recently arranged a large donation of toys to the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital who helped her family when her daughters were ill.  She also looks out for peers that may be struggling and recently gave away some equipment and model heads to a classmate so she could practice her skills at home.

Claire is pictured with daughter Imogen. 

Those who nominated Claire said that they find her inspirational, amazing, kind, selfless and wonderful. The judges wholeheartedly agreed and chose Claire as one of this year’s worthy winners of an award.

Aydn Sim

Aydn Sim (18) was nominated for a Time to Shine award because, within a few months of becoming a NESCol student, he motivated his class to work together to raise money for Aberdeen Foyer, a local non-profit organisation, which supported him while he was homeless.

Keen to help other service users at the Foyer, Aydn proposed the idea of fundraising for the organisation during a unit on enterprise. This led to a Big Breakfast event being held within the Learning Opportunities department and his class also donated food items. During the Sparkle Festival, Aydn and his classmates sold homemade decorations and craft items at Aberdeen City Campus to raise even more money.

The group also received a donation from RecyCol, the campus charity shop, and will have a total of £150 to donate to Aberdeen Foyer at a presentation Aydn has organised in the New Year.

Aydn’s lecturer said, “Aydn is a very hard-working student and I nominated him for this award as he has motivated others to support a very worthwhile local non-profit organisation that has helped him so much in his life.”

Jill Stuart

Jill has been based at Aberdeen City Campus since August 2020 as part of NESCol’s fantastic ISS janitorial and security team. She was nominated to receive a Time to Shine award for her friendly and enthusiastic manner with both staff and students. Her willingness to help everyone, going above and beyond what is expected was also highlighted by her nominator. It has also been noted that her kindness and approachability is valued by students meaning they feel comfortable asking her for help and assistance around the campus.

Jill said, “I am both thrilled and humbled that someone took the time to nominate me for this award. It was such a surprise when I found out that the judges had chosen me as a winner because I’m just being myself at work – I’m naturally positive and like to be helpful. I’ve worked in security roles for over twenty years and I’m really grateful to have been given the opportunity to work at NESCol.”