Hundreds receive their degrees as graduation ceremonies continue at Wrexham Glyndŵr University

The second day of 2018 graduation ceremonies at Wrexham Glyndŵr University has seen hundreds of students receive their degrees.

During today’s proceedings, fellowships were awarded to Alwen Williams for services to business, Menna Fitzpatrick MBE for services to disability awareness and sport, and Christopher Morris for services to engineering.

They received the accolades as students from Health, Social Science, Applied Science, Built Environment and Engineering gained their qualifications in the third and fourth ceremonies of the week.

Alwen grew up on the family farm in North Wales, is a former pupil of Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy, Llanwrst and is now Director BT Cymru Wales which employs nearly 3,000 people. She works closely with every part of the organisation and is committed to ensuring that BT fully supports the future success and prosperity of Wales.

Having grown up in a farming community she also takes an active interest in how digital technology can support and develop the agricultural industry.

A fluent Welsh speaker, Alwen joined BT in 1996 as a member of the Welsh Language Bureau in Colwyn Bay. After founding her early career with BT in customer service and training, She went on to develop her professional career in communications, marketing and change management.

Alwen’s previous roles in BT have included working on the Broadband Britain marketing campaign which saw 1 million broadband customers across the UK connected in 2013. Just before returning to Wales, Alwen led the engagement, communication and business adoption strategy and plan for BT’s HR Transformation Programme, impacting c.100,000 employees in the UK and across 71 countries globally.

After cutting her teeth in her early twenties as corporate communications executive to the Director BT Cymru Wales, Alwen was excited to be appointed to this role herself in September 2015; and has brought her experience gained from twenty years working across different roles at BT back to Wales.

Alwen is a co-opted member of both the Business Wales Board and the Deeside Enterprise Zone Advisory Board. She sits on the Princes Trust Wales Council and is an elected member of the CBI Council for Wales.

While working for BT Alwen graduated with a first class honours degree in Leadership and Management from the Open University and is currently working towards accreditation as an executive coach with Ashridge Business School.

Speaking about the accolade, Alwen said: “You are all at a very exciting phase in your lives and you have so many choices and decisions to make about the next step in your journey.”

Christopher Morris

Menna Fitzpatrick MBE, a 20-year-old Welsh Paralympic skier in Team GB, was awarded her fellowship services to disability awareness and sport.

She has less than 5 per cent vision and is guided down the mountain by her guide, Jennifer Kehoe.  She was the first British winner in history to win the International Paralympic Committee World Cup in Aspen (USA) for the Visually Impaired in 2015/16.

In March 2017, Menna won two Gold Medals at the Slalom and Giant Slalom events in France and competed in Chile, Norway and Germany before taking part in her first Paralympics in South Korea in 2018.

There she made Paralympian history by becoming the most decorated British medallist at the winter Paralympian games securing 4 medals out of a total of 7: 1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze.

Although Menna has only recently started competing she has become a world champion and a Paralympian history maker in a short space of time. She was awarded an MBE following her success at these games.

Menna trains around the world for most of the year but when she is home she visits schools and brownie units to give talks for free on disability awareness and to encourage them to do whatever makes them happy and not feel restricted.

She also visits other visually impaired children and takes her medals and trophies so they can feel them and feel inspired. She is truly an inspiration to all those she meets.

In 2017 she was awarded the Inspiring Young Woman Award title and has been nominated for Sky Sports personality of the year.

Speaking today, Menna said: “The hard work starts from here, but if you find something that you are passionate about and that you love, it will never feel as hard as you think it is. Just go out there and have some fun!”

Christopher Morris was honoured at today’s ceremony for his services to engineering.

His career began in 1984 as an electrical and electronic engineering graduate when he joined Marconi Underwaters Digital Signal Processing department working on active and passive sonar systems.

He was seconded to and then worked for the Admiralty Research Establishment to develop and deploy bistatic active sonar systems for the investigation and modelling of the thermal layers and channels in the world’s oceans.

Innovation being his driver, Chris worked on many systems from fail-safe elevator controls, fire control system for the Challenger tank to specialist pump controls at Avonmouth sewerage works, where he was introduced to Anaerobic Digestion.

He returned to Wrexham as Director and then Managing Director, for his family’s successful injection moulding and printing company.

Fast forward to 2007, Fre-energy Ltd was established, with Chris having been pivotal in the design, development and commercialisation of novel patented Anaerobic Digestion waste management technology. In 2012, the technology received the prestigious Industry Association Award and has been installed throughout the UK.

Chris’ depth of experience, technical skills and management capabilities are widely respected.

He is involved in several industrial and academic collaborative projects looking at valorisation, pollution abatement and the circular economy. His enthusiasm to inspire learning is palpable and he tirelessly provides support for next generation engineers.

“Follow your passion,” said Chris.

“Do something that you enjoy and gives you pleasure. The important thing is self-confidence. If you’ve got a degree, you’ve got ability – be confident.”

Wrexham Glyndwr University Vice-Chancellor, Maria Hinfelaar, told the hall: “I’ve worked in education in various parts of Europe including the UK for my entire career, and I have always found it incredibly rewarding to see my graduates do well. That is why I think education is among the best sectors to work in.

“I wish you every success in your future career and look forward to hearing your stories some time – there is nothing more rewarding than discovering what impact a university education can have on people.

“Who knows, I may even be able to tell your story in a graduation ceremony speech one day.”

*Featured image: Alwen Williams and Menna Fitzpatrick MBE