The Physics Mentoring Project team (left to right): Rosie Mellors, Grace Mullally and Celina Lavis

[cross-posted from the Physics Mentoring Project]

We are extremely proud to announce that in July the Physics Mentoring Project was awarded the award of ‘Excellence in Support of Student Ambassadors’ by the Ogden Trust.

The Ogden Trust is a charitable trust that ‘exists to promote the teaching and learning of physics.’ They encourage newly graduated students to go into teaching, with an aim to ‘increase the uptake of physics post-16 by supporting physics education and engagement… particularly [for] those in under-represented groups.’

The mission of the Ogden Trust has a synergy with what we believe and stand for here at the Physics Mentoring Project, and we are incredibly grateful to be recognised by them.

The award acknowledges the winner’s support of the students who are so fundamental to the running of such outreach projects. We take pride in the way we encourage and take care of those who sign up to be mentors with us, and this is reflected in our mission statement to ‘provide informative and enriching experiences to both the students and mentors’, with one of our key aims being to increase the confidence and employability of mentors.

An award like this doesn’t come without a few ‘thank you’s and it would be impossible not to mention our mentors. We cannot express how much we value and appreciate every single one of them and working with them is a privilege. They uphold the values of the project seamlessly as they take our mission into schools and connect with young people throughout the school year. The project would be unable to run without them, and we are so grateful for the ways they support us, without even realising it.

We also want to express our gratitude to all our partner universities for their support, our funders and sponsors, as well as everyone else on the team that makes the project run as smoothly and successfully as it does.