On 28 May 2019, we celebrated the inspiring women finishing the Marvellous Mums and Marvellous Me programmes (https://research.reading.ac.uk/education/marvellous-mums/), as they all received their certificates of completion from the Vice Chancellor, Professor Robert Van de Noort.
The programmes were created by Professor Carol Fuller and Dr Maria Kambouri-Danos, with funding from the University of Reading, and in partnership with Whitley Community Development Association, Sure Start, and the Reading job centre and with support from Alok Sharma.
Providing sessions, including goal setting and practical support, such as interview techniques to women from the local community, the overall goal of the course is to promote greater self-confidence for those on both programmes.
Professor Carol Fuller opened the certificate presentations with a few words:
“I am delighted we have funding from the University of Reading to run this programme and that we work with some amazing local organisations.”
She continued:
“We are so happy to be empowering women to define their own paths in life. For me the work we do here is one of the biggest joys of my job and I’m lucky to have met you. I’m inspired by your stories and your drive on a daily basis, and feel so invested in your development. We are a community that support each other long beyond the end of the course and I’m always here for you all! We also hope that any children here today will see what you’ve accomplished and be inspired as much as we have been.”
Professor Robert Van de Noort, Vice Chancellor of the University also said:
“University is for everyone and should be accessible by everyone. We are determined to make the University of Reading a University for Reading as well.”
Dr Maria Kambouri-Danos proceeded to call each member up to collect their certificates, in some cases the children present took the certificates for themselves which resulted in many giggles.
The event ended with lunch to further celebrate with Professor Carol Fuller and Dr Maria Kambouri-Danos and talk to the Vice Chancellor.
We’d just like to say congratulations once again to these Marvellous individuals. We can’t wait to see what you do next!