St Mary’s Alumna Awarded for Social Enterprise

A graduate from St Mary’s University, Twickenham recently won an award for setting up a camp for young children to develop their skills in technology. Julie Dawson, a PGCE graduate, was awarded the Unltd Fast Growth Award for Social Enterprise for her Surf and Turf camps, which aims to encourage more young people into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers. Aimed at 8 to 13 year olds, children are able to use their skills to create video games, robots and mobile phone apps over a weekend or five day stay. Along with the STEM initiatives, children also take part in team building games and outdoor challenges. Julie was inspired to set up the camps as she witnessed first-hand how her own children were addicted to games but were unable to make their own. As a trustee of young people’s charity YouthNet, she saw a generation of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETS) but saw plenty of opportunities as a tech employer. Thus, she combined the two to encourage children to not only be consumers of technology, but to become digital makers. Founded in 2013, 150 young people have participated in the camps so far. Julie said, “I would like to thank the staff and student ambassadors at St Mary’s for all their support to get this off the ground. This shows the commitment of St Mary’s to digital skills and physical education as well as proactive support to alumni. We hope to develop from this base and work with other forward thinking campuses, sports and youth centres across the country.”