Northumbria Sport Tennis Ambassador Jess Southwell has won the University’s Volunteer of the Year Award for 2019.
The award reflects Jess’s relentless dedication and commitment to volunteering not only at the University but also through her community work through the LTA. The Yorkshire born student is in her 2nd year at the University and has continued to offer her time for countless hours including coaching, inclusive sessions, social events and pop up sessions. This is particularly impressive when completing her undergraduate degree at the same time!
The pop up sessions were a particular highlight when Jess got involved in the new and exciting Pop-Up Northumbria Sport programme, which was introduced this year. This included fully accessible opportunities for everyone across the University who were simply looking for a bit of fun.
Jess along with fellow Tennis Ambassador Amy Stevenson were enthused by the concept and were inspired to get tennis involved! Their aim was to widen the breadth of appeal for people not already involved in tennis and to encourage anyone to pick up a racket and give it a go. The students purposely ran the sessions in spaces around campus rather than on a tennis court, and adapted their delivery to showcase tennis as an easy, accessible and fun activity to do! The weekly sessions were a huge success with around 12-14 players attending each pop up session. For those who were interested in finding out more, Jess and Amy shared the social tennis opportunities on campus.
In addition to the campus Pop-Up events, Jess and Amy ran a Wellbeing staff session within the community tennis programme. There were 10 players who were new or coming back to tennis. This session was relaxed and highlighted how getting involved in physical activity could help with managing stress by taking time out of work!
After the above successes Jess and Amy approached Jo Cunliffe (Workforce Development Partner – LTA) to ask if they could do something similar across the Newcastle Tennis Community Programmes. This saw Jess and Amy develop a project plan to deliver a number of Pop-Up sessions at Gosforth Central Park and Exhibition Park linked to the relaunch of the Tennis For Free taking place on Saturdays and Sunday’s. They recruited Student Volunteers to help support the sessions, which saw families enjoy the free, accessible and fun opportunities!
Jess was thrilled by her Volunteering Award, which also included receiving Full Colours from the University for her commitment to sport
“When I started at Northumbria University 18 months ago I would not have believed in winning this Award. I feel so proud of everything we continue to achieve and cannot thank the University and the LTA enough! I am learning every day and to be helping so many people play tennis is really rewarding.”
Jo Cunliffe (Workforce Development Partner) was thrilled for Jess,
“What a fantastic achievement for Jess and we are so honoured to have played a part in her journey. Jess has shown true dedication, commitment and a relentless desire to get involved and tennis is very lucky to have her! Jess simply never gives up and this Award is just rewards for her hard work and simple aim at helping others. We wish Jess continued success!”