PhD student nominated for social mobility award

MRC CNGG PhD student Hayley Moulding was nominated and shortlisted for Mentor of the Year at a new awards ceremony that shines a spotlight on social mobility.

This is the first year of the UK Social Mobility Awards, which recognise best practice and innovation and celebrate excellence and the achievements of businesses and organisations who are working to advance social mobility.

The awards have been organised by leading social mobility charity Making the Leap, who have supported over 50,000 young people from disadvantaged backgrounds over the last 23 years. The charity hopes to embed social mobility within business and organisational procedures to ensure that children have a chance to succeed, no matter their background.

Hayley works as part of the MRC Centre’s ECHO Study which investigates genetic conditions known as copy number variants and is also involved in studies on the role of sleep in schizophrenia.

She was nominated for her work as a mentor with Villiers Park Educational Trust.

The trust helps young people to develop a passion for learning and the life skills to help them reach their full academic potential. They are committed to ‘fair access’, which ensures students from less advantaged backgrounds are able to gain places at leading universities and are supported while they attend.

Hayley explained, “I attended a residential course with the trust when I was 17 and it was such a brilliant opportunity for me, particularly coming from a lower socioeconomic background. I was then approached to become an e-mentor two years later as an alumnus.”

The average time spent as a mentor is approximately three months but Hayley is still volunteering with the trust.

“I’ve been working with my mentee for two years and we’re still in contact. I was so pleased to find out she'd nominated me.

"It was such an honour to reach the shortlist. My partner and I really enjoyed attending the gala in London. It was an incredibly inspiring evening hearing about all the work being done across the UK to make a difference to the inequalities some young people are facing."