Friday 12 December 2008
South West Surrey's own Paralympian gold medallist Rachel Morris presented the awards to outstanding students at Farnham College's Celebration of Achievement ceremony. Rachel is a former Farnham College student who won gold in the hand cycling individual time trial at the Beijing Paralympics in September.
Forty two prizes and certificates were awarded in total and opening the Ceremony, College Principal Clive Cooke said: "Every occasion to celebrate the achievement of our students is one we really enjoy and treasure."
Rachel Morris made an inspiring speech in which she told the audience that before an illness which resulted in both her legs being amputated, she had dreamt of going to the Olympics as a runner. After the amputations, her way of dealing with the situation was to channel all her energy into sport. Initially she had competed in disabled sailing, reaching international level, but found she wanted a new challenge, and turned to hand cycling. Rachel described her joy when, after months of gruelling training and mental preparation, she hand cycled her way to victory in Beijing. She now hoped to represent her country in the 2012 Games.
Among the evening's biggest winners was Daniel Kirkbride who received the Maurice Jeffreys Award for outstanding achievement in Chemistry, Economics, Geography, Mathematics and Design Technology Graphics & Materials. The Ron Short Award for outstanding achievement in Science went to Eleanor Thornton, who is currently working as an auxiliary nurse at Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice before voluntary work in Malawi.
Awards and Bursaries were presented to Katie Phipps for excellence in multi-media work and Victoria Jones and Hayley Court for their work in Creative Arts. Imogen Bliss, Sophie Colley, Katie Loyd and Eleanor Watson received bursaries to support competing in sporting events, charity expeditions and towards university tuition.
The John Goddard Award was presented to five students for organising and riding in a sponsored cycle ride from John O'Groats to Land's End to raise money for the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham. Scholarship Awards were presented to William Beattie, Daisy Brown, Oliver Cummin, Harriet David-Wilkinson, Elizabeth Dawes, Katie Loyd, Mikayla Rowe, Anna Tindall, Belinda Tonkins and Josh Wreford.
Concluding the ceremony, Stephen Caswell, Chair of Guildford College Corporation, thanked students, staff and award sponsors. Commenting on the success of the merger between Farnham College and Guildford College, he said that the student numbers were up, which would lead to more investment in infrastructure. Thanking Rachel Morris for her inspirational speech, he encouraged others to go for their dream and adapt to any adversity.
