{"id":3144,"date":"2026-07-13T10:11:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=3144"},"modified":"2026-06-08T10:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T09:12:15","slug":"my-journey-to-completing-the-bath-award-as-a-first-year-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2026\/07\/13\/my-journey-to-completing-the-bath-award-as-a-first-year-student\/","title":{"rendered":"My journey to completing the Bath Award as a first-year student"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi, I'm Thomas<\/a>. When I first signed up for the Bath Award at the beginning of my first year, I viewed it as another accreditation I could add to my CV and LinkedIn profile. I saw it primarily as something that would strengthen my employability and help me stand out when applying for internships, insight programmes, and future placement opportunities.<\/p>\n

Looking back now, I realise the Bath Award became much more than that.<\/p>\n

Rather than simply being a certificate, it became a framework that encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone, engage with the wider community, and reflect on my personal development throughout my first year at university. It challenged me not only to gain experiences, but to think about what those experiences were teaching me and how they were shaping me as a person.<\/p>\n

Getting involved beyond the classroom<\/h3>\n

One of the most valuable aspects of the Bath Award was how it encouraged me to become involved in communities beyond my degree. As students, it can be easy to become absorbed in lectures, coursework, deadlines, and exams. The Bath Award encouraged me to look beyond the classroom and engage with the wider Bath community.<\/p>\n

Through volunteering opportunities such as the Bathampton National Trust tree planting days<\/a> and my involvement with SolidariTee Bath<\/a>, I was able to contribute to causes that I genuinely cared about. During my time with SolidariTee, I helped re-establish and build a team of volunteers and eventually took on the role of Team Lead. This experience taught me a great deal about leadership, communication, and responsibility.<\/p>\n

These opportunities helped keep me grounded and reminded me that university is about much more than academic achievement. They exposed me to important social and environmental issues while allowing me to contribute positively to the local community.<\/p>\n

Stepping outside my comfort zone<\/h3>\n

Another aspect of the Bath Award that I particularly appreciated was the emphasis on meeting new people.<\/p>\n

As someone who naturally considers himself quite introverted, I have often found it difficult to put myself out there, start conversations, and build new friendships. At the start of university, networking events and workshops felt intimidating. However, the Bath Award encouraged me to actively engage with these opportunities rather than avoid them.<\/p>\n

Through volunteering activities, workshops, employability events, and insight programmes, I found myself interacting with students from different backgrounds, degree disciplines, and years of study. What initially felt uncomfortable gradually became enjoyable, and I ended up forming genuine friendships and valuable professional connections.<\/p>\n

One of my favourite experiences was the Escape Room Case Workshop. Working alongside students from different courses to solve challenges under time pressure demonstrated the importance of communication, trust, and teamwork. It also highlighted how diverse perspectives often lead to better solutions. The workshop remains one of my strongest memories from the programme because it showed collaboration in action rather than simply teaching it as a concept.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, one of the most unexpected highlights came after I had completed the award. When I went to collect my certificate, what I expected to be a quick visit turned into an opportunity to meet and connect with several other Bath Award recipients. I had the pleasure of getting to know three peers in particular who were all Master\u2019s students. Despite being at different stages of our university journeys, we shared many similar ambitions and reflections on personal development. What began as a conversation around a shared achievement became valuable connections and new friendships.<\/p>\n

What I learned<\/h3>\n

Throughout the award, I developed four key capabilities: professionalism, adaptability, collaboration, and resilience. Of these, professionalism and resilience have probably had the greatest impact on me.<\/p>\n

My understanding of professionalism has evolved significantly. Before university, I mainly associated professionalism with workplace etiquette and appearance. However, I now recognise it as a combination of reliability, communication, accountability, self-awareness, and a willingness to continuously improve. Through workshops, online training, and practical experiences, I became much more conscious of how I present myself and interact with others.<\/p>\n

Resilience was another capability that developed throughout the year. There were many moments where perseverance was required, whether applying for internships and insight programmes, balancing extracurricular commitments alongside coursework, preparing for future placement applications, or simply dealing with setbacks that are a normal part of university life. Not every application was successful, and not every opportunity went according to plan. However, the Bath Award encouraged me to reflect on these experiences and recognise that setbacks are often where the most valuable learning takes place. Developing resilience helped me become more comfortable with failure, more willing to seek feedback, and more determined to keep improving.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead<\/h3>\n

The Bath Award has fundamentally changed the way I think about personal development.<\/p>\n

At the start of my first year, I focused heavily on collecting experiences and achievements. By the end of the programme, I realised that growth comes not only from what you do, but from taking the time to reflect on what you have learned from those experiences. Moving forward, I plan to continue developing these skills through leadership roles, volunteering, internships, and professional development opportunities.<\/p>\n

My advice to other students<\/h3>\n

If I could give one piece of advice to students considering the Bath Award, it would be simple: get involved.<\/p>\n

The certificate is valuable, but the real benefit comes from the experiences, people, and self-reflection that accompany it. The award will challenge you to step outside your comfort zone and, in doing so, teach you something about yourself that you may not have realised needed developing. For me, the Bath Award started as something I thought would improve my CV. It ended up helping me become a more confident, resilient, and engaged member of the university community. That is something far more valuable than any certificate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi, I'm Thomas. When I first signed up for the Bath Award at the beginning of my first year, I viewed it as another accreditation I could add to my CV and LinkedIn profile. I saw it primarily as something...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1962,"featured_media":3150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[754,756],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-story","category-the-bath-award"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/82\/2026\/06\/Blog-post-images.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1962"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}