Student Success Stories

Happy New Year! What a year 2019 has been! To start this year off we decided to reflect on a few student success stories from 2019. You guys have achieved so much.

Here’s hoping the new year brings just as many student wins as the last!



Alyssa Smith recently joined forces with motorsports memorabilia experts at Racing Gold to up-cycle used pieces of Formula One ™ Racing Cars into individually made carbon fibre jewellery. The hand carved jewellery is made from components originally machined to be fitted to a Formula One ™ car.
As an alumna of the University, Alyssa has kindly offered a 10% discount on all her jewellery with code hertsalumni.

Alyssa Smith, Owner of Alyssa Smith Jewellery (www.alyssasmith.co.uk/carbon).
Studied BA (Hons) Applied Arts with Marketing at Herts.

A University of Hertfordshire architecture master’s student has been awarded with the prestigious RIBA student award for the Eastern region. Josip Pijević was commended for his final project which focused on users’ needs in high-rise buildings and dealt with issues of complexity and sustainability.

Josip Pijevic, working towards a Master’s in Architecture and Urbanism at Herts

The University of Hertfordshire’s School of Creative Arts showcased the very best work at its Degree Show 2019. It celebrated the work of over 400 students!

Many students won prizes:

• Harry Woodgate has won the Penguin Student Design Award and has been shortlisted for the V&A Illustration Awards

• Melissa Morrell has won the Foodelia Award for Food Photography

• Sancia Rose was shortlisted for the Penguin Student Design Awards 2019 and the AOI World Illustration Awards

The University of Hertfordshire’s Visions Film Festival returned for its tenth consecutive year, showcasing the best Film and Television Production graduate films.

Hannah Spary won the Director of the Year and Individual Achievement awards.

The student awards were judged by representatives from the film and TV industry. Guests from Elstree Studios and the Stanley Kubrick Estate, long-term sponsors of the event, were among the industry guests in the audience.

• The BFI Award for Innovative Research in Film and TV went to Georgia Conyers

• The Elstree Studios Award for Achievement in Editing went to Rachel Johnstone

• The Mark Milsome Award for Achievement in Cinematography went to Jake Bentley

• The Val Kuklowsky Award for Achievement in Sound Recording went to Adriane Wong Shiao Xian

• The AVID Award for Achievement in Sound Post-Production went to Daniel Vidmar

• The Production Guild Award for Production Management went to Isabelle Cunningham

• The Sam Snape Award for Achievement in Scriptwriting went to Hakon Jorgenson

• The Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden Award for Achievement in Production Design went to Aurora Harris

Graduating students from the University of Hertfordshire’s BA digital animation and visual effects courses showcased their work to leading animation industry representatives at the School of Creative Arts’ Animation Exposé event.

The Animation Exposé Grand Prix winner was Downfall by Bradley Cocksedge, Stephen Moroz and Matias Heker.

• The Audience Prize went to Wasta Pake by Haeun Kang

• The Jury’s Special Mention went to Multiply by Will Medcalf, Sam Mowforth and Amy Wright and Renewed by Joshua Crew, Amina Muench, James Robinson and Maria Tsianti

• The Showreel Award went to Matias Heker

• The 2D Animation Award went to Wasta Pake by Haeun Kang

• The 3D Animation Award went to Wings by Lisa Evans, Chris Fryer, James Goodey, Jansen McCord, Giorgio Pennisi and Elisa Sanguin

• The Games Art Award went to Spire by Jame Callow, Thomas Siney, Gabriel Woolnough, Laith Shewayish and Vilte Bendziute

• The VFX Award went to Fallow by Emily Shordon, Elliott Holland-Crouch, Daniel Ravanelli and Harry McCusker-Bland

• The Comic Prize went to Emily Hancock

• The Essay Prize went to Hannah Scott

• The Best Soundtrack went to Molly Isaac

We want to congratulate all of those who graduated in 2019! Over 17,000 people celebrated at the 2019 Graduation ceremonies. We’re proud to say that 96% of students were employed or in further study within 6 months of graduating! Well done to all, we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavours!

Congratulations to the winner and nominees of the VCA Student of the Year category! It is through your nominations for the annual Vice-Chancellor’s Awards that we can recognise and celebrate your efforts and outstanding achievements that really make a difference.

Nominees for Student of the Year award:

• Alexandra Buckland-Stubbs, PhD Human Geography

• Sumaiyah Jamil, BA Hons Accounting and Finance

• Aaron Ellis-Montoya, LLB Hons Law

• Cage Boons, BA Hons Philosophy with Humanities

• Mitchelle Sanghvi, Meng Computer Science

• Victoria Singleton, BSc (Hons) Nursing 

• Libby Cole, BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design 

• Fiona Montgomery, Bachelor of Education 

Winner:
• Aoife Simpson, MPhys Astrophysics, Winner of Student of the year.

Well done to our Student Paramedic team who took 2nd place at the International Cyprus EMS Aphrodite Rally 2019, beating teams from across Europe and only narrowly missing out on first place.

The rally is a professional exercise and simulation competition for Emergency Medical Service teams, organised by the Ambulance Service in Cyprus. Our team of final year student paramedics travelled to Cyprus and competed against qualified paramedics and EMS teams from across Europe
To come 2nd out of 24 teams on their first visit is fantastic news for the paramedic science team.

Our Formula student teams have been very successful in 2019!
They raced at the famous Silverstone circuit in July and won the Formula Student UK Award for most efficient car, which was presented by Jenson Button!
They also competed in the Formula Student Netherlands where they had to take part in different events. Points were awarded for each event and the one with the most points won the competition. They achieved 1st Place for efficiency!
Well done to all those involved!

Online BA (Hons) Business and Sport Management student Steve Cummings was selected in 2019 by Team Dimension Data to ride in the Tour de France!
Congratulations Steve.

Herts wins Varsity 2019 against The University of Derby! 
Varsity ended with a score of 15-7 to Herts!
Go Herts!

Well done to you all this year! Bring on 2020!