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04 January 2016
Before throwing myself into 2016 I paused to take a look back at some of the highlights of being a member of Coventry and Warwickshire First Young Professionals in 2015.
The re-launch of the mentoring scheme
March 2015 saw the re-launch of the C&W First mentoring scheme. The scheme was first launched by Michelle Vincent when she was Chair of the Young Professionals a few years ago. The new re-invigorated scheme saw 10 mentors paired up with 10 mentees. Mentee Sophie Breeze of Dafferns said “I’ve enjoyed meeting my mentor; the informal setting made it easy to chat and get to know each other. I’ve also met her at more formal networking events and having already developed the relationship has really helped on these occasions.
Martyn Howard, Carl Malcolm and Andrew Smith at the mentoring scheme launch dinner
Charity of the year
For the first time in 2015 Young Professionals adopted a charity of the year, Myton Hospice. Undertaking the fundraising activities together as a committee has helped us build relationships within the committee team, and we’ve had lots of fun whilst helping a great cause. Events have included the Wolf Run, Moonlight Walk, and a monthly raffle. Our final total raised in 2015 will be revealed shortly!
A very muddy group of young professionals post-run
Our Myton Hospice Moonlight Walk team
Carl Malcolm winning Young Professional of the Year
We were all thrilled to see Carl win this award after all his hard work during his year as Chair of the Young Professionals group. One of the highlights of his Chairmanship was the reinvigoration of the mentoring programme, and he’s also raised money for various charities. Carl said “This is absolutely fantastic, it’s a huge privilege and I’m really grateful”.
Carl Malcolm wins Young Professional of the Year 2015
Social events and meeting new faces
We’ve had some great social events year including a table football tournament, a quiz and a rounder’s battle against the Young Lawyers. There are always new faces at the events and I’m pleased to say that after attending Young Professionals events for the past four years some of the people I’ve met have become real friends as well as mentors and colleagues.
The SFB team battle it out at table football
Anyone for rounders?
Some of my other Young Professionals highlights this year included seeing our former committee member and Chair Gus Bhandal open his own pub, committee member Jodi Pearson had the first YP committee baby, committee member Kelly Schofield secured a training contract, and Sal Khan and Sophie Breeze passed all their exams to become fully qualified accountants. On top of that we continued to see numerous young professional weddings and engagements. In fact there are so many new achievements each time I see the Young Professionals I can’t list them all!
Here’s to another successful year in 2016 (and I’m secretly hoping this is the year we beat the Young Lawyers at rounder’s!)
The thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are those of Chrissie Elliot-Duxson (or guest contributors) and do not necessarily reflect those of Coventry and Warwickshire First. All content on this blog is for informational purposes only. The owner of the blog is not responsible for content found by following any link on this site.