Rebecca is working in industry for 3 months as part of her studies so couldn't be filmed for her nominator video. She shared her thoughts below:

Name, department and current area of study

Rebecca Southwell, School of Life Sciences, PhD Environmental Science

You nominated one of the shortlisted nominees in the Staff Awards last year. Why did you decide to make a nomination?

I nominated one of the academic staff which ran one of the labs I helped demonstrate in. Having gone through my undergraduate degree at Warwick and now being part of the team that help teach undergraduates here, I can really tell which teaching staff put in that little bit extra, and I think as an undergraduate you don’t always appreciate that.

How did you feel when you saw your nomination get shortlisted?

Really pleased as I hoped that the member of staff I nominated would feel that they were appreciated for all the work they put in, however I think they definitely deserved to be on the long list as well!

What would you say to someone thinking about making a nomination this year?

Do it! If there’s a member of teaching staff who makes your teaching experience that little bit easier and more enjoyable they deserve to be acknowledged, as high quality teaching staff can sometimes be hard to come by.

Why do you think it’s important that students get involved?

At the end of the day the students are the ones who benefit from the excellent teaching offered at Warwick. As a postgraduate lab demonstrator I can sometimes see that the academic lead is excellent with the students, but I don’t think that the students themselves always realise it and take it for granted. The students should be thinking more about what makes their learning experiences worthwhile and if there’s someone who puts in that extra effort they should try and recognise this. If a member of staff you appreciate hasn’t won an award or been nominated before, it doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to have been, it just means someone hasn’t actually bothered to go and nominate them.

The Staff Awards and the CCSG Awards are merging this year. Do you think this will be beneficial?

Yes as it’s more inclusive and University wide.