Member Article

Newcastle's businesses recognise talent of the future

Business leaders have celebrated young talent at Newcastle’s most improved secondary school.

Excelsior Academy’s Business & Enterprise Awards was sponsored by 11 local firms who donated and presented awards to pupils who have used their skills to contribute to a business venture in school or their community.

Ammar Mirza, Secretary General of Asian Business Connexions (ABC) hosted the awards, in front of an audience of proud students, teachers, parents and business partners.

The ceremony started with a video message of support from San Francisco where Paul Campbell, owner of North East-based amazingradio was away on business.

Mr Campbell sponsored the Ex-Factor Award given to students who help at Excelsior’s own retail outlet, Excel 5. The winners were Rene Kotlar, Milan Duda, Abbie Roberts, Jalilah Musavi, Jodie Mills and Connor Taylor.

It was a busy night for Tyne Tees Model boss, Lesley Middlemiss Lister, who received the Collaboration of the Year Award at the Evening Chronicle’s Glass Slipper Awards held at the Hilton, Gateshead and then travelled across to the west end of Newcastle to present Petr Gunar with the Healthy Living Award at Excelsior.

Lesley recently set up the first nationally-recognised accredited training course for modelling which is now offered at Excelsior.

Jo Nessa, owner of Newcastle’s Dabbawal, Indian Street Food Kitchen, presented the Hospitality & Catering Award to Rene Kotlar and Connor Taylor for their enthusiasm at The Rotary Club’s Young Chef Competition.

Jo said: “Careers are not straight lines. There are often big and sometimes unpredictable changes in the future - you have to be tenacious and know what you want.

“I was training to be a lawyer before I opened my restaurant - I’m very proud of it and the hospitality and catering industry is an exciting and rewarding sector to work in. We have lots of different cultures in Newcastle which means we have a huge choice when it comes to what we eat.”

Phil Marshall, Executive Principal, said: “Excelsior Academy has a business enterprise specialism and goes to great lengths to celebrate the achievements of pro-active students who get involved with business and community ventures.

“I had the honour of presenting the Excelsior Academy Special Award to Valerie Zbila, in recognition of her contributions as a social entrepreneur to pupils who have English as an additional language. Valerie has overcome a number of difficulties herself and she now has the empathy and foresight to help others facing similar challenges.”

Other awards included the Business Finance Award that Ariston Accountants presented to Arrfa Ali, a year 11 pupil who managed a budget of £1,200 for the Excelsior Yearbook.

Martin Farrar, Academy Wide Specialism Leader, said: “I look forward to evenings like this, they’re such positive celebrations that focus on our hard-working students - we can see they have a bright future ahead of them. We are also very grateful to all the businesses that sponsored an award and came to share their secrets of success with us tonight.”

For further information about Excelsior Academy, please contact the school on Tel: 0191 228 8400, email info@excelsiornewcastle.org.uk or visit www.excelsiornewcastle.org.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Excelsior Academy .