Alumni of the future - What's next for Coventry University’s 2018 graduates?

More than 9,500 students have graduated this year. The Alumni Association have shone the spotlight on a student from each faculty, to capture in their own words, future plans beyond Coventry University.

Tom McGaw – Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Tom graduated in Transport Design and was awarded the Ede and Ravenscroft Prize for Best FAH Student in November 2018.

My journey at Coventry University was full of great experiences, challenging at times, but was life changing with creative people all encouraging you to enjoy what you do. The lecturers are so talented and the amazing facilities enabled me to achieve my best. A lot of work and discipline has paid off with employment straight from university into my dream job!

For the last six months I have been employed at Winch Design, I’ve been working on some of the most amazing projects in the world designing private aircraft and superyachts in London.

In the next few years I see myself responsible for my own live projects and managing a project from a concept through to delivery spanning three to four years. This would develop my design and project management skills to work to very high standards in a demanding industry.

Yasmin Augustin – Faculty of Business and Law

Yasmin is a first class International Business Management graduate and winner of not only the Ede and Ravenscroft award for Best FBL Student, but also the Course Tutors Prize.

When I got to Coventry I decided there and then that nothing could or would stop me from being the most dedicated and hard-working student in the whole university, apart from my own desire.

My highlight of studying at Coventry was the opportunity for international experiences. I studied abroad in Fullerton, California where I became a study abroad mentor. This was also an amazing field trip to Hong Kong with the IBM team and the FBL faculty.

Completing the Global Leaders Programme, with a distinction was a proud moment. I embraced every opportunity to take part; to take on different responsibilities, to enjoy the fabled university experience, to become an adult.

My achievements at Coventry have enabled me to secure a career within the Heathrow Airport Future Leaders Graduate Programme. 

Upon completing the graduate programme, I plan to progress within project management, leading teams that make both strategic and operational decisions to impact and shape the expansion of Heathrow as it accommodates the new 3rd runway. I am keen study a masters part-time, I have an eye on Coventry’s 100% online MBA programme.

Fatou Bah Bah – Health and Life Sciences Faculty

Fatou won the 2018 Cecil Angel Cup and the faculty of Health and Life Sciences Prize for Excellence. She graduated with a first class in International Leadership and Management in Health and Social Care.

Over the last three years I have had all the support and resources I needed, especially with English not being my first language, and without that I would not have achieved what I have. Coventry University has made a big impact on the person that I am today. It has helped me grow in confidence, develop team work and leadership skills.

I’m most proud of the work I did in South Africa. I got the opportunity whilst studying to do an internship in Cape Town for two months. 

I worked as project leader for community and social development working in settlement communities on a school project. I led 20 volunteers a day all from different countries to improve communication between parents and teachers on children’s learning and development in the long-term.

I am passionate about supporting people, and I have just established my own charity in The Gambia, called Ebo Mala Children’s Charitable Foundation, which will officially launch in January 2019. It focuses on supporting vulnerable and needy children in The Gambia by providing them with support to get a better education and access to a better healthcare. I also intend to come back to Coventry in September 2019 to do a Masters in Global Leadership and Management.

Sam Titterton – Faculty of Engineering, Environment and Computing

Sam studied Mechanical Engineering and received the Lanchester Trust Student Prize 2018 & The Bugatti Student prize 2018 as well as his degree.

My Coventry University journey was an unconventional one. I studied a BTEC in manufacturing engineering at sixth form as opposed to doing A-Levels, and then I went straight into work as an unofficial manufacturing engineer. After five years of work I started to see friends who had benefitted from going to university, so I applied. I got a phone call from the course director, who told me straight that I didn’t have the pre-requisites and that I would struggle to get through the course. 

I said if given the chance, I would do whatever I had to do to get through. I started university and it was a complete culture shock, I had no idea what I’d let myself in for. I failed the first year, barely scraping through, but I embraced the course and gave it everything I had. I ate, slept and breathed mechanical engineering and my grades improved in the second year, I passed everything and I felt ready to tackle the third and final year.I grew as a person, my interpersonal skills, confidence, presentation skills and general knowledge increased tenfold.

I am extremely proud of all my achievements: my dissertation and especially of a project I worked on involving the development of one of Frederick Lanchester’s ideas from the early nineteenth century: the self-steering wheelbarrow.The original design was fully developed into a 21st century product that would sell in modern markets.

 I am now on an engineering graduate scheme at JCB as a manufacturing engineer. My five year plan is to get a masters in Engineering Management, obtain chartership and earn a senior role within JCB. I currently do some work as a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) ambassador, my goal is to inspire up and coming engineers and guide them on the right career path.