Awards - Achievement through Education
An important award category and one which will be awarded not necessarily to an individual but perhaps to a class of young people who have excelled together and brightened up their local community in doing so.
The Judges
James Cleverly
Vernon Coaker
Shaun Bailey
The Nominees
Ebonie Reid-Barlow
This young lady is definitely not a product of her environment. Born to drug abused parents, she was adopted after being in intensive care for the first six weeks of her life for drug withdrawal. Ebonie has gone through more than most teenagers but is still very positive and is currently studying and working towards becoming a doctor.
Surrounded by family members with health problems she became determined to join the health profession and become a doctor.
She would say that her adoptive mother is her main inspiration, a strong woman who fought to keep her after she was placed into foster care. She has achieved much educational success and has shown that no matter your background you can overcome and use your past for the better.
Tommy Williams
Tommy Williams is an 18 year old Oxford University student studying Economics and Management and is the first student in his borough to get a place on this competitive course.
After a temporary suspension whilst in secondary school, Tommy turned things around by changing his attitude and more difficultly most of his friends to set his target of getting into Oxford.
He has been a role model in his college and mentors students in both his year and the year below.
Michael Adewale
Having been brought up in a single parent family living with four siblings on a dangerous council estate in South London; Michael has exceeded people’s expectations of him. As a student, Michael struggled with his studies and lived in an uninspiring environment that encouraged a life of failure, drugs and crime. However, armed with the motivation to remain and achieve in school he went on to become a qualified teacher in secondary education. He has also just finished writing his motivational book entitled Class Dismissed - A guide book for teens in Secondary Schools and Sixth Form.
Through his speeches and Personal Development workshops, Michael inspires the students he works with to embrace a positive attitude towards learning, fulfill their potential, and aspire to have a greater future.