Companion Award: Helen Orme
Presented by: Mark Power
Honourable Pro-Chancellor, I have great pleasure in presenting Helen Orme for the award of Companion of Liverpool John Moores University.
This week, we celebrate the achievements of our graduating students – some 5,000 students will walk across this stage, shake hands with the the Pro-Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor and celebrate with their friends and families at the end of the ceremony.
Over the years we have celebrated hundreds of thousands of students who began their studies at LJMU and went on to great success in their personal and professional lives because of their experience at this university.
And most of those students began their journey at higher education fairs around the country, by coming to the one of the University’s open days and by meeting the representatives of the student recruitment team at their schools or colleges.
It is highly likely that many of you sitting here today will have started your LJMU student experience with a conversation with Helen Orme – indeed, many of you in the audience will have chatted with Helen about sending your son or daughter to the University and she will have been the person who reassured you that we would take care of them and that they would one day be graduating in Liverpool Cathedral.
Helen, who we present as a Companion of the University, has been the cornerstone of our student recruitment team for over 40 years until her retirement earlier this year.
She has been responsible for recruiting thousands of students for this University, representing LJMU at countless events up and down the country, sharing her passion for higher education, and for this university, with school pupils and their families for decades.
She has been an excellent ambassador for this University - her enthusiasm, energy, sense of fun and absolute dedication to her profession embodies the spirit of LJMU and captures the essence of what we hope to inspire in our graduating students.
When Helen retired earlier this year, her colleagues approached the Vice-Chancellor to nominate her for this award and since the award was announced, we have been inundated with good wishes for Helen from staff across all of the Faculties as well as from colleagues outside the University.
I know that I speak on behalf of many of the staff here when I say that it is entirely appropriate that a person who has demonstrated such commitment to LJMU now becomes a permanent member of the extended University community.
Thus, it is with great personal pleasure that I present Helen Orme for admission as a Companion of Liverpool John Moores University.