Arc Recognised at Student Experience Network Awards 2023
Each year the Student Experience Network celebrates the achievements of student organisations across Australia and New Zealand at the SEN Awards.
The highest personal honour of the evening was given to Arc@UNSW Chief Executive Officer Shelley Valentine who was awarded the Tom O’Sullivan Memorial Award. This recognises her significant and long-lasting contribution to improving the lives of students across the sector. In her nomination, the SEN Board commended her leadership of Arc as one of the best student organisations in Australia, and acknowledged her efforts to enhance SEN's predecessor organisations Tertiary Access Group (TAG).
In her acceptance speech, Shelley spoke fondly of her first role as a Receptionist at Roundhouse and attributed her success to the people at Arc she surrounds herself with. She thanked her colleagues across the industry
"I am grateful for is the opportunity to be part of such a wonderful community and surrounded by absolute legends that continue to inspire, motivate and guide me through this weird yet wonderful world of student experience."
Arc also received two Awards of Distinction for programs, demonstrating our commitment to excellence in student experience. The first was ‘Best Orientation Experience’ for the Yellow Shirts-led O-Week. The week was adventure themed with the tagline 'Set Your Sights'. Delivered by 180 student volunteers and a student Orientation Coordinator the week aims to deliver social, geographic and academic programming for new students.
Jamie Chambers who was part of the Organising team accepted the award and said
It's an honour to have the largest O-Week in the southern hemisphere be recognised with this award."
Katrina Pincaro also spoke highly of the effort that goes into curating the Arc orientation experience
We don’t make O-Week happen to win awards. We do it for new students to have the best experience and to feel connected to UNSW from day one, so it means so much to be able to see that recognised and reinforce that we are doing things right, with the right intentions, and for the right audience.
The second major Award of Distinction was for 'Best Sports Program' for the Arc Sport-lead opening of Village Green precinct at Days of Play In 2022. The event programming featured extensive showcasing of the new facilities and engaged a range of sporting clubs in drop-in programming that promoted long-term participation.
Matt Corso accepted the award on behalf of the Arc Sport team and was thrilled with the recognition
To be nominated for this award was an incredible testament to all of the hard work that went into bringing this facility to life. The flow on effect into 2024 has been nothing short of incredible with over 200k engagements.
You can read all about the winners here: https://studentexperiencenetwo...
