The Recent Graduate Award 2022 - Chloe Hammond  

Chloe studied to be a children’s nurse, but her struggles with Behcet’s disease resulted in her using a wheelchair. Determined not to let this prevent her from chasing her dreams, Chloe changed disciplines and began working at a care home. This required extensive training as adult nursing was a totally new skill set. Moving from activities manager to onsite nurse, Chloe has gone from strength to strength despite the adversities she has faced. Chloe is aided in her job and her day-to-day life by her assistance dog Ocho, whom she is training herself.   

Entrepreneur Award 2022 - Rachel Dimond  

Rachel is the CEO & Founder at My Yard - a Registered Charity in Harrow tackling food poverty, utilising surplus food, inequalities and empowerment, especially within the social housing sector. Rachel studied an MSsc in Digital Marketing at UWL and started her own lifestyle magazine called Lifescape. After leading a revamp of the Asian House and Home magazine for Asian Voice newspaper, Rachel became more interested in working with her local community and listening to the issues affecting them. This led to her founding My Yard, which registered as a charity in 2014.

Spirit of the Alumni Award - Lesi Ndasi  

Lesi is not only a full-time nurse, but she also runs a social media platform dedicated to encouraging the BAME community to talk about taboo health topics. She has studied two degrees at UWL, both Adult Nursing and a master’s degree in Public Health. Over the past year, Lesi has dedicated herself to volunteering at the University. She’s acted as an ambassador and advocate, spoken to students on panel events, given talks, and helped to launch the upcoming final year mentoring scheme.  

Special Recognition Award - Steven Munkley  

Steve Munkley has consistently worked at the highest levels of the culinary sector, including being the Executive Chef at the prestigious Royal Garden Hotel for over 25 years. As Vice President of the Craft Guild of Chefs, he has been instrumental in creating an exciting and supportive career structure for the next generation of chefs. Throughout his professional career, Steve has worked tirelessly to give back to the industry and UWL. 

Lifetime Achievement Award - Sunil Sheth  

Sunil Sheth first came to the UK as a refugee when he was nine years old. After graduating from UWL, he qualified as a solicitor in 1984 and quickly established his reputation as an international corporate lawyer. He is senior partner at Fladgates, the first non-white Senior Partner of a top 100 law firm in the UK. Throughout his career, Sunil has dedicated himself to a number of charitable and social causes, including helping to establish the Society of Asian Lawyers, and Chairing Sense International, which assists children and young adults who suffer from deafblindness. Sunil is also a firm supporter of UWL, often delivering lectures to students and funding an annual law scholarship.  

Our alumni awards demonstrate all the inspiring work that our UWL alumni are doing across many sectors. And just think, in the future – this could be you. Until that time hundreds of alumni are giving back their time to help current students succeed.