Civil Engineering student wins undergraduate of the year award

A University of Leeds, Civil Engineering student Krzysztof Sieledczk was ‘surprised and delighted’ to be named the Civil Engineering and the Built Environment Undergraduate of the Year 2010. The award was run in association with construction company Laing O’Rourke, which put Krzysztof and nine other nominees through their paces with a tough series of assessments. As winner Krzysztof has earnt a ten-week placement based in Sydney Australia and the opportunity to stay an extra two weeks.

Chris Phillips, publishing director at Group GTI, the organisers of the first ever TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year Awards, congratulated Krzysztof and all the nominees on their achievements. “In such a tough graduate recruitment market, students need to do all they can to stand out from the crowd and these few have shown that they have what it takes to succeed in the civil engineering industry. I wish them all the luck for the future.”

The Award presentation took place in Canary Wharf, London last week. Unfortunately, due the recent flight disruption Krzysztof was unable to attend the event as he is currently on his year abroad studying at Penn State University. However, the School of Civil Engineering, Director of Learning and Teaching, Professor Denise Bower was there to accept the award on his behalf. Professor Bower says "It is a fantastic achievement for one of our students to win this award against a very strong field."

In response to his success Krzysztof said “I’m really surprised and happy that I won. But is not only my success – it’s a success of my parents, my sister, my friends and teachers who shaped my character throughout the years. Without them I wouldn’t be at the point where I am now. I hope that the award will help me to achieve my goals and will bring me recognition within the industry – when you are an international student it’s not that easy to shine in the market. “

“I would also like to thank the School for their support, especially Louise Fletcher’s and Ed Stentiford’s help, I would never have been able to make it for the interview in London. I can easily say that they got the ball rolling.”

Two other students from the School were entered into the competition, Kulraj Heer and Helen Miles, but did not make it through to the final 10.

TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year exists to raise the profile of employability skills on campus, to engage academic departments in identifying their best undergraduates and to find students who have a winning mixture of personal and academic skills. GTI Media ran a pilot award for engineering students in 2009, sponsored by RWE npower, which went so well that theyhave expanded the awards to eight in 2010 with more scheduled next year. Each of the awards is aimed at a specific academic discipline or student grouping. Sponsors choose the discipline or student group that meets their needs and they draw up a list of favoured universities and departments.