Congratulations to one of our TEL Student Ambassadors – Vathmie Vanditha Widyalankara, also known as Vandy. Vandy has been awarded a QMUL Student Enhanced Engagement and Development (SEED) Award for 2023/24!

 

Vandy was a first year student heading into her second year in English and European Law (LLB) when she worked as part of the TEL team during 2023 and 2024 as the Student team leader for a group of TEL Student Ambassadors. Due to this experience, Vandy was able to apply for a SEED award and was successful.

You can read case studies of the winners  on the QMA website.

I met up with Vandy to learn more about her achievement.

What is the SEED award?

The Student Enhanced Engagement and Development (SEED) Award, recognises the co-creation work done by students at Queen Mary. Many students in our University work with a range of academic staff and professional services staff to lead collaborative projects such as creating workshops, improving curriculum offerings and in my case, enhancing student experience with learning technologies. 

Vandy’s work as a TEL Student Ambassador and Team Leader

Drawing on her work experience as a TEL Student Ambassador, Vandy recalls:

As a TELT Student Ambassador and Team Leader, I collaborated with both students and TELT staff to embed student voice into the learning technology and related services offered. One of the very first projects I led was the revamp of the QMplus Student Inductions. I worked with fellow Student Ambassadors, Ella and Keenal, to condense the induction content and make the workshops more engaging and memorable for students. We also created an induction module page for students to refer to throughout the year. The module included step by step guides, videos and even our very first TELT Student Handbook.

After the welcome week inductions, we continued to work on content such as videos and guides for students, which we posted on our instagram page (@qmultelt).

 

What made you apply for the SEED award?

I decided to apply for the SEED Award because it was a great opportunity to showcase the work we have been doing. I had previously helped collect student feedback on QMplus, so the work that I did on that project connected well to the work I led as a TELT Student Ambassador. It was especially exciting to be able to support a project from the initial feedback stages to delivering the final improvements and receiving positive student reviews.

As a SEED Award recipient I have also had the opportunity to support the Queen Mary Academy with promoting the award, representing fellow recipients and enhancing the award process as a SEED Steering Committee member.

 

What does this mean to you?

I am grateful for the recognition by the Queen Mary Academy, it feels very fulfilling to hear that students have found our resources and inductions useful. I also want to recognize my fellow TELT Student Ambassadors who have been pivotal in creating and delivering these initiatives and to all the TELT staff who have taken great care to include us in the co-creation process.