The Women in Business Society after collecting their award

Business School celebrates success at SU and Teaching Awards

A student society that aims to empower women in their career goals and help them gain more confidence won a top prize at the SU Awards last month.  

There was also success at the recent Students’ Guild Teaching Awards, with two Business School academics receiving awards.

The Penryn-based Women in Business Society was named Society of the Year at the SU Awards, which recognises the accomplishments of exceptional students from the University of Exeter Cornwall and Falmouth University.

It follows a successful year for the society in which its membership grew exponentially, with new members and event attendees including students from outside the Business School, as well as some male attendance too. 

 The society started in 2018 and runs a range of social events and larger business-focused events, with highlights from the year including the confidence-building event ‘Stop Saying Sorry’, its ‘Bus to Beach’ tour, a Business School sponsored Sustainability Event featuring The Eden Project, as well as The Female Experience event featuring the director of Spaceport Cornwall, which was also shortlisted for Event of the Year.

The society’s President Catherine Naus said the award was completely unexpected given the competition from more established student societies and paid tribute to the work of her fellow committee members who battled during lockdown to keep the society afloat.

“In all honesty our jaws dropped, but it was very special as the society basically fell apart during lockdown. As a bit of a lockdown hobby we rebranded it, did all the logos and gave it a more inclusive look and worked hard to build up our presence on social media.

“So it was really rewarding when we came back on campus in September that for the first time we heard people saying ‘I’ve heard of that society’, through our Instagram and social media presence.”

The Society of the Year award goes to an “outstanding society that has gone above and beyond to provide an excellent experience to their members”.

And at the Exeter Guild Teaching Awards 2022 there was success for two Business School academics.

‌Dr Jiaoshan Li (right) was named winner of the Postgraduate Outstanding Teaching Award and Dr Christine Parkin Hughes (left) winner for Outstanding Research Support.

Date: 15 June 2022