Outstanding Marina is Star of the Show

December 2006

Giving it all: Marina proudly shows her Student of the Year trophy at our Construction Awards 2006.

No sooner had Marina Hughes left the stage having received the City & Guilds Medal for Excellence at this year’s Construction School Awards than she was called back to receive the coveted Lambeth College Construction Student of the Year title for 2006.

Each year students from the School of Construction at our Vauxhall Centre are rewarded for their dedication and high achievements on their courses.  Many of the awards are sponsored by professional institutions and employers or by examination awarding bodies such as City and Guilds.  Their Medal for Excellence programme exists to recognise and reward exceptional people whose work makes them really stand out.

Marina completed her Creative Arts City and Guilds Higher Professional Diploma Level 4 last July with distinctions in all ten modules.  Her tutor Alfred Barnard said: “Marina was the perfect student.  She proved herself in all areas to be a student of outstanding talent and ability and that is why we nominated her for the Medal for Excellence this year.  We weren’t at all surprised to find she had won it.”

Len Conway, the Head of School for Construction, said: “We had some brilliant students this year and so just to be included in the shortlist was a huge achievement. Marina’s course is of a very high level and to succeed on it you must give it everything you have and more.  She was prepared to do this and that is why she is the winner.”

Since completing the course Marina has established her own business, Fred Bear, which specialises in designing and decorating children’s bedrooms and play areas.  She said:  “I still can’t believe I was chosen for both awards.  I’m so overwhelmed by it all.  I have loved learning new things at Lambeth College and the tutors make it easy for people to do so well.  The confidence I needed to open up a business by myself was provided by this course.”