Picture: Anna Stankiewicz being presented the ATHE award by Alex Schimmel and Craig Marsh
Lincoln International Business School, part of the University of Lincoln, is celebrating today after the announcement that International Tourism Management Student Anna Stankiewicz has won the prestigious Association for Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE) prize for Best Undergraduate Student.
ATHE has invited Anna to attend the awards ceremony at Cardiff Metropolitan University during their Annual Conference on the 8th of December to collect her award.
This award reflects the hours of dedication that Anna has put into her studies over the past 3 years and represents a significant high point for her time at the University of Lincoln and will provide a significant boost to her future career.
Module Lead Martin Elliot-White, who co-nominated Anna with Farhan Ahmed said “Anna is an exceptional student, who has chosen to continue her studies to Masters Level. Although I write as Academic Lead in Tourism at the University of Lincoln, I also supervised her dissertation. This was an original and creative piece of work, which focused on street art and the urban tourist experience. Her review of the literature was simply the best I have read in 30 years of teaching undergraduates in higher education. The work is comprehensive and the discussion of street art demonstrates significant intellectual maturity. The dissertation contained convincing arguments of discovery, powers of synthesis and advocates directions for further research. Anna’s methodology was innovative. Although deploying a mixed methods design, inherent in a case study of Bristol, she utilised visual methods and presented part of her findings as an engaging and reflective “walking diary” which traced her several days of field work and experience of the city. Her work not only considered academic debates but also the dilemmas street art presents for urban destination management.”
Anna, who studied BA (Hons) International Tourism Management graduating with a First, also collected the Lincoln Cathedral Award for the Best Student in International Tourism Management at her graduation said “Achieving a First Class Honours degree is rewarding in its own right, however it is wonderful to be recognised for your achievements externally. In my case, I have been awarded not only the Lincoln Cathedral prize for Best Student in International Tourism Management, but also the ATHe prize for Best Undergraduate Student of Tourism. The latter is especially humbling as it is an external prize on a national scale, which came as a very unexpected surprise. I will be starting a Masters Degree this year, and receiving these prizes has further reassured me to continue with further education and apply myself fully to any task I might face in either my career or studies.”
International Tourism Management Programme Leader Farhan Ahmed said “This is a great achievement for Anna, who has had a fantastic final year with us – averaging well into the first-class honours throughout. Moreover, it is also testament to all within the Tourism and Events team and the support and guidance that she received”.
Craig Marsh, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Director of Lincoln International Business School, said “Anna can be rightly very proud of her achievement, and we’re all delighted for her. She was a great student while she was at the Business School, which bodes well for a successful career. We all wish her many congratulations – and an enjoyable night at the awards ceremony in Cardiff!”