Previous Social Inclusion Staff Award Winners
The Social Inclusion Staff Award is presented to those who have made an outstanding contribution to progressing social inclusion at Warwick by celebrating diversity, supporting an inclusive culture, and/or demonstrating leadership.
There is much to celebrate, and we appreciate all of the work that staff do to make Warwick a better place to live, study, and work.
You can see information about our current years' winner here, and all of our previous winners below.
Congratulations and well done to all!
Our 2023 winner was... Rebecca Vipond!
Rebecca (see photo) was recognised for going above and beyond to ensure students from all backgrounds can study at Warwick. Specifically, a young person was accepted on to a PhD and won a Warwick scholarship, but due to their lower economic status and unforeseen economic disruption in their home country, they could no longer afford relocation costs. Rebecca advocated for the student to receive financial support from the University to cover this. The process was beset by challenges but Rebecca did not give up, even when advised that it couldn't be done. Because of her determination to find a solution the student is now at Warwick, having started their PhD last month.
Commenting on receiving the award, Rebecca said:
“Thank you so much, what an honour to be recognised! All I did was try to do what I can, and this was very much a team effort. With thanks to my colleagues in the Doctoral College, Financial Control, and the School of Engineering for working tirelessly together to get this resolved. Beyond helping this very deserving postgraduate researcher, we have now launched a small pilot to support other PGR scholarship holders who otherwise could not come to Warwick due to the cost of immigration to the UK."
Our 2022 winners were... Claire Edden and Damien Homer!
Claire and Damien were nominated for their work running the University’s first residential university taster school (the Easter School) for autistic students in the local area. This award recognises the dual benefits this initiative had on the young people who attended the residential – showing autistic young people that Warwick is a place for them, where they will be welcomed and supported – and on the students and staff who supported it – helping increase understanding of autism and break down stereotypes – as well as the commitment of both Claire and Damien in the time they gave to the residential.
Commenting on receiving the award, Claire and Damien said:
"First of all, we’d like to say thank you very much for the award, we really appreciate it. We feel really privileged to work in this area, we’re part of the Widening Participation team. And we also want to congratulate all those who were also shortlisted because they are really important projects as well. We also wanted to thank a series of colleagues without who we wouldn’t be able to be here today, first of all and most important is our boss, Paul Blagburn, who gave us the money to do the project! We also wanted to thank our colleagues in Disability Services, particularly Kathryn Fisher who was integral to the project. And also really importantly some of the student societies, particularly Autism at Warwick who were integral to the project and really helped us out. And, most importantly, this isn’t an award for Claire and I, we consider it to be an award for the whole Widening Participation team at Warwick because although we’re the faces of it there were lots of people in the background helping out as well. And also just to thank all of our colleagues that support in departments and in Professional Services."