Oliver Todd (OE 2005 – 2010) is already making a name for himself as a journalist: he has been shortlisted personally for two national student journalism awards and is involved in an award-winning student newspaper. Currently a student at York University, he says he owes a debt of thanks to the School for this success.
Over the past 12 months Oliver has been shortlisted for The Guardian’s award for best Student Journalist and for the National Union of Students’ (NUS) Student Journalist award, putting him in the top six in the country in those categories.
He received a Special Commendation from the NUS for his work and led his student newspaper, York Vision, to the runners-up spot in the Best Student Media category at the NUS Awards. He was also involved with the same publication the previous year when it was awarded Best Student Publication at the Guardian Student Media Awards.
Oliver joined QE in 2005 and, by his own admission, needed some support to keep focused during the Sixth Form years. “The fact that you managed to keep on giving me a bit of a kick-on through Sixth-Form was probably the reason I eventually made it to university,” he wrote in a letter to the Head of Sixth Form, David Ryan. “It’s all going very well and I doubt I’d have even been here with those ‘kicks’, so looking back it’s much appreciated.”
In the future he is aiming to get involved in news and/or sports journalism. To that end, he has undertaken a wide range of work experience with national media organisations, including The Guardian, the Daily Mail, Sky News and Sky Sports. Ultimately he would like to work in the industry, but accepts this will probably require more training as it is such a competitive field.