Niamh Bage, a second year student at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College has been awarded ‘Female Student of the Year Award’ at the Tees Businesswomen Awards 2024. The ceremony took place at Hardwick Hall Hotel on Thursday 26th September and had in attendance successful and inspirational women working across a range of industries in the Tees Valley area. The Student of the Year category was the most popular in terms of nominations received and Niamh, alongside fellow outstanding QE student Ellie Macarthur, was shortlisted for the prestigious accolade.
Jodie Freeman, Course Leader for Media Studies, nominated Niamh and said that “Niamh is the perfect example of what people can achieve with hard work and tenacity. She is a Young Carer for her sister who has global developmental delay caused by epilepsy, which brings with it its rewards and its challenges. Niamh has also thrown herself into extracurricular activities such as volunteering at the St. Mary’s food bank, being a member of QE Volunteer and QE Journalism, as well as being an integral member of the Drama Club enrichment programme. She will also be going on expedition to Vietnam with her peers at QE this month to help a small community rebuild a road after the recent typhoon. Despite having a very full plate, Niamh has a spotless record for attendance and punctuality and prioritises her studies across her A level subjects. In her first year, she consistently achieved the very top grades in all three of her subjects. For such a young person, I don’t know how she does it, but she does it all with a characteristic positivity and sense of humour which I think is admirable. She thoroughly deserves this award and her family and the college are so proud of her.”
QE’s Principal, Laurence Job, attended the event alongside other members of senior management and the staff members who nominated the students said: “My QE colleagues and I were absolutely delighted to celebrate Niamh’s and Ellie’s success at the Tees Businesswomen Awards. It is wonderful that their achievements have been recognised, and we are incredibly proud of them. They have amazing futures ahead of them and everyone at QE wishes them success and happiness.”
Reflecting on winning the award, Niamh said “I am very grateful and honoured to have won the Student Of The Year award. From finding out I was shortlisted to the awards night itself has been a wonderful experience! I wanted to thank my teacher Jodie for nominating me, the college for the continued support they have shown me throughout my time there so far and also my family, for always being there for me. The other nominees were absolutely amazing and utterly deserving, it was a privilege to be sharing a category with them all. It was inspirational being in a room with so many influential women in business, and an incredible surprise to win!”
Niamh has big plans for the future and is applying to study Psychology at university, with a view to becoming a Clinical Psychologist.
