Celebrating success: Senior Awards 2015

One of the world’s leading human geographers set out four keys to success at QE’s Senior Awards ceremony.

Professor Sir Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick, was Guest of Honour for the evening, during which around 140 prizes were awarded to pupils from Year 10 to Year 13.

In his speech, he expatiated on four important qualities. Perseverance is necessary, since not everything will fall into one’s lap immediately. Intellectual curiosity should be nurtured; as a boy, Professor Thrift would study maps and by the time he was 16 he had travelled widely on his own. A passion for what you do is essential; for those who have it, much else will simply fall into place. Finally, boys should seek to give something back to society – a theme anticipated by Headmaster Neil Enright in his introduction, when he highlighted the importance attached by QE to voluntary work.

Born in Bath and educated at Aberystwyth and Bristol, Professor Thrift has followed a career that has involved senior roles at Bristol and Oxford universities before his appointment to his current position at Warwick in 2006. He has won several prestigious academic awards, including the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal for contributions to geographic research and Distinguished Scholarship Honors from the Association of American Geographers in 2007.

Professor Thrift told the award-winners in the audience that he had lived in locations including Australia, the USA, Belgium, Sweden, Austria and Singapore – and he expected that many of them would have careers that would likewise lead them all over the world.

His interest in coming to QE had been piqued by a number of factors. There was not only the School’s truly first-class academic reputation and the fact that the Headmaster was, like him, a geographer; he had also been drawn by the number of Elizabethans going to Warwick – 65 in the past four years, which is more than have gone to any other university except Cambridge.

The evening was punctuated by a number of musical interludes from pupils: pianists Yuta Tsuchiya and Jason Wong performed Frank Bridge’s Canzonetta and Franz Liszt’s La Campanella, while Kavi Pau sang Sure on this Shining Night by Samuel Barber.

Professor Thrift then talked about the pre-eminence of his university. Of the 330 institutions of higher education in the UK, Warwick is both among the 24 member universities making up the Russell Group and in the top ten for graduates’ employability. It has students from more than 150 countries and is a world-class research institution; its students have conducted research in most corners of the globe. Professor Thrift also mentioned that Warwick has the highest number of student societies – 250!

After the ceremony, everyone present repaired to the Shearly Hall, where the prize-winners and their families enjoyed chatting with teachers and with Professor Thrift. Volunteers from the Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s were on hand to assist with the buffet.