School duo shortlisted in national undergraduate celebration

Two students from the department of Politics and International Relations have been shortlisted in this year’s prestigious Undergraduate of the Year awards.

Nicolo Bertoncello and Laura Waddilove are finalists in the ‘Male Undergraduate of the Year’ Award and the ‘Future Civil Service Leader of the Year’ Award respectively.

Each category has just ten finalists who have been chosen from hundreds of applicants to the awards which are hosted each year by Target Jobs. The awards recognise business skill, knowledge and strategy and champion students who excel at leading, motivating and inspiring others.

There are 12 categories in this year’s awards and the winners will be announced at a ceremony held on 22 April 2016 in London’s Canary Wharf.

Both students participated in rigorous assessments for each category before the final shortlist was announced.

Nicolo who is in his second year studying International Relations and Politics and Laura who is a final year Politics student both took part in initial applications followed by a number of online tests which included an occupational personality questionnaire, a situational judgement test, an inductive reasoning test and a numeracy test. After passing these tests both students were required to attend assessment centres with the sponsors of their awards.

Should Nicolo be successful in his category he will win a ten week internship at sponsors L’Oréal which will include one week at their Paris HQ. Likewise, if Laura is named as the winner in her category, she will win a fully paid place on the Civil Service Fast Stream internship programme plus an opportunity to interview and shadow a permanent secretary.

Speaking of his achievement Nicolo said, “The assessment centre required large amounts of research in a period when essays were due but I love challenges, and I felt that the efforts I made led me to do well. Winning would be fantastic! It would offer me the opportunity to work for L’Oreal, a company that has been undertaking some important changes which makes it in line with my personal values.”

Laura is equally as excited about the prospect of winning adding, “Being shortlisted for the award is such an honour but I’m trying not to get ahead of myself and think about winning as there are so many fantastic candidates. I can’t help but daydream sometimes as winning would be a great end to a fantastic application process and three years at Cardiff!”

We wish both students well and will share news of their achievements should they be successful in their respective categories. Well done both!