Urban Synergy, a UK-based charity focused on empowering underrepresented young people, recently hosted its annual UShine Awards Ceremony for 2024. The event brought together inspiring role models, corporate partners, teachers, and mentors, as well as the charity’s supporters, to celebrate the remarkable achievements of young people and the volunteers who empower them.
The ceremony, held at Salesforce’s beautiful Ohana Room in London, was hosted by broadcaster and MBE Eddie Nestor and Darae Palmer, and recognized outstanding individuals in various categories, including mentorship, leadership, social mobility, and diversity.
According to Urban Synergy, the UShine Awards highlight the charity’s mission of unlocking the potential of underrepresented young people and helping them achieve their goals. “Choosing the winners was incredibly hard from among all of our young people and supporters,” said a representative from Urban Synergy, “We would have loved to invite everyone to our event and truly value each person’s contribution. However, due to limited venue capacity, we are unfortunately unable to extend an invitation to all of the Urban Synergy ‘family’.”
The winners of the UShine Awards were selected by an independent judging panel consisting of social mobility and diversity champions from Thomson Reuters, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte, Barclays, PwC, Goldman Sachs, and Bloomberg.
The winners of the different categories were:
– Teacher Advocacy Award: Holly Power, Principal at Aquinas Campus Christ The King Sixth Form College, for her dedication to involving students in corporate insight days and growing the Urban Synergy program.
– Star Mentee Award: Chibi Ajero, Mentee Alumni & L6 Apprentice in Finance & Investment at Bloomberg, for his determination, motivation, and thirst for knowledge.
– Outstanding Role Model Award: Sharon Blackman, OBE, Managing Director and Global Head of Services Legal at Citi, for her commitment to spending time with students and serving as a role model.
– Mentor Award: Awah Tumban, Collateral & Liquidity Management at LSEG, for his impressive ability to balance his role at LSEG with mentoring and supporting young people.
– Work Experience Hero Award: Jacqueline Alcindor, Global Diversity & Inclusion Programme Partner at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), for her dedication to helping the charity through various initiatives, including running in the charity’s 5K Battersea Park Run.
– Paul Lawrence Award: Jadon Black, Management Consultant Apprentice at PwC, for consistently supporting other young people and helping them succeed.
Urban Synergy expressed its gratitude to all the nominees, judges, and sponsors for making the UShine Awards possible. The charity also thanked its generous sponsors, including Boku, Salesforce, Moody’s, Aegon, 25 Bedford Row, Newflex, and Brentford FC and Tottenham Hotspur for their kind donations to the auction.
The UShine Awards were created to recognize and celebrate the achievements of individuals who have contributed to social mobility and youth empowerment through Urban Synergy. For more information about the charity and the UShine Awards, please visit www.urbansynergy.com.
