Falmouth student wins Volunteer of the Year award

University College Falmouth student, Emily Larrington, was presented with the RELAYS (Regional Educational Legacy for Arts and Youth Sport), Volunteer of the Year Award, at the Universities South West Annual Conference last week, for her outstanding voluntary work in the local community.

The award recognised the extensive work that Emily had undertaken for the community through RELAYS sponsored projects, which are largely inspired, planned and run by higher and further education student and community volunteers.

Emily, who is studying BA(Hons) English with Media Studies at University College Falmouth, has spent over 100 hours volunteering for RELAYS, despite being in the final year of her studies and various other commitments.

During her five weeks working for RELAYS through the summer, Emily managed the planning and delivery of the Inspired by the Sea event; a full three-day programme of music, art and film as part of the BUCS Surfing Championships held in Newquay last month. Her work was invaluable and the event was a great success. During her placement, Emily also planned a ten-week live music event management programme for 16-18 year olds and recruited participants by promoting the opportunity to a wide range of youth projects, festivals and local colleges.

"I had the unique chance to spend my summer working with Tamsin Godfrey in Falmouth as a Festival and Event's intern with RELAYS," said Emily. "I spent my time project managing Inspired by the Sea, which gave me the opportunity to learn about how to organise an event, which I hope will now help me organise my own events. The whole experience was brilliant fun, and to win the volunteer award has really encouraged me to continue to learn more through working on projects such as RELAYS."

Tamsin Godfrey, the RELAYS Cultural Co ordinator at University College Falmouth who nominated Emily, said "Emily spent much of her summer volunteering with RELAYS. During her placement, she took on the project management of a RELAYS event, Inspired by the Sea, and was instrumental in devising an event management programme for 16-18 year olds, amongst many other activities. Emily brought a huge amount of enthusiasm, initiative and creative flair to the RELAYS programme and I am delighted that she has been recognised for her achievements and commitment with the Volunteer of the Year award."

"We are really pleased to be able to acknowledge the energy and dedication which Emily has given to RELAYS," commented Leanne Dingle, RELAYS Project Director. "The effort which is put in by volunteers is a vital part of the project and through the volunteer awards we can express our gratitude and give something back. It really goes to show the positive contribution that university students are willing to make to the communities in which they live, a fact that often gets overlooked by other more negative images of students.'

RELAYS (Regional Educational Legacy in Art and Youth Sport) is an exciting programme of festivals and events in the south west. Led by Universities South West, regional universities and cultural organizations, RELAYS aims to blend youth sport and culture in a vibrant mixture of activities across the region in the build up to the 2012 Games. It is funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity that has been set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic Games and HEFCE (The Higher Education Funding Council for England).

For further information about BA(Hons)English with Media Studies at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/englishmedia, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214359.

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For further information about the RELAYS project, please visit www.universitiessouthwest.ac.uk/relays or contact: Rachel Jenkins on 01392 454104.

Notes to Editors:

• The regional RELAYS (Regional Educational Legacy in Arts and Youth Sport) is a £3.1million project which will deliver an ambitious, flexible programme of linked cultural and sporting events. The project is grounded in education and aims to inspire a generation of young people and diverse communities throughout South West England. RELAYS is run by Universities South West in conjunction with its partners Lyme Regis Development Trust, The Works and Watershed. The project is funded by Legacy Trust UK and HEFCE. Website: www.universitiessouthwest.ac.uk/relays
  
• Universities South West is the regional higher education association for South West England. It provides a forum for the 13 Universities and Higher Education Colleges in the region to work together. It aims to extend higher education's contribution to sustainable regional development and to influence and shape the social and economic agenda in the South West region by appropriate joint action. Website: http://www.universitiessouthwest.ac.uk/
  
• Legacy Trust UK's mission is to support a wide range of innovative cultural and sporting activities for all, which celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and leave a lasting legacy in communities throughout the United Kingdom. Legacy Trust UK has been established as a charitable trust to use funding endowed by the Big Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Website: http://www.legacytrustuk.org/
  
• HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) distributes public money for teaching, research and related activities. In 2008-09 HEFCE will distribute over £9 billion to universities and colleges in England. Website: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/
  
• University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.
  
  This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012/2013 that will be unique to the South West.
  
  The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

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