Rachel Miles, who was part of a BAFTA winning team of creatives, has been presented as the 2023 Honorary Fellow at University College Isle of Man (UCM) Graduates’ Ceremony which was held on 6th October.
During the ceremony, Rachel, who is a former media student at UCM, was awarded the Honorary Fellowship and delivered an inspiring speech to the graduates about her journey.
Gail Corrin, UCM’s Higher Education Manager, said: ‘It was a real pleasure to announce Rachel as a UCM Honorary Fellow at this year’s Graduates’ Ceremony. It’s a wonderful event where we celebrate the successes of our degree and postgraduate students as they complete their qualifications, and it was fantastic to be able to celebrate the success of a former student by bestowing this honour.
‘Rachel is among good company, as we have some exceptional fellows including Professor Ken Mills who was the fellow last year and Dr Peter Litman who was the fellow in 2021. Her experience and outstanding success working as a creative at the BBC will add another dimension to our fellowship programme and we have no doubt that her speech at the ceremony will inspire students to be ambitious and have the grit to achieve whatever their next step is’.
Claire Christian MHK opened the evening by congratulating the graduates on all of their efforts and expressing her pride for their achievements, before then introducing Rachel Miles.
Rachel added “I’m a creative. I’m a creative from a small island. But I had big dreams, and even bigger ideas. My two years at college were the making of me so I'm genuinely, genuinely grateful to be recognised in this way. Thank you UCM for honouring a creative, goofy and just plain passionate woman who cares about doing great work.”
As part of the celebration, UCM awarded the Higher Education Student of the Year to Emily Todd, an award in memory of former UCM student, Liam Arrowsmith, and supported by his family; and the UCM Research Award to Michael Synnott which has been supported by Utmost International.