College hails “Magnificent 7” shortlisted for Lantra awards
23 December 2011
College hails “Magnificent 7” shortlisted for Lantra awards
Oatridge College is hailing seven magnificent students who have been shortlisted for the last stage of Scotland’s most prestigious landbased industries awards.
With
ages ranging from 17 to 33, the seven will now be interviewed by expert
panellists to decide if they go forward to the final round of the Lantra
Landbased and Aquaculture Learner of the Awards and a glittering presentation
ceremony in March 2012.
They
follow in the footsteps of former Oatridge students, who have taken the overall
title six times in the last seven years. Three of the hopefuls, who face stiff
opposition from all around Scotland,
are studying horticulture, or have recently graduated, and they are joined by
two equine students and two landbased engineers.
The
youngest is Adam Melville, a pupil of Glencryan Special
School in Cumbernauld
(Pictured), who has been nominated by the College for overcoming a severe form
of word blindness to excel on a Skills for Work/Rural Skills programme. Adam, a
keen swimmer, previously won the sports category of the Young Scot of the Year
competition.
At
the other end of the age range is Samantha (Sam) Condie from Kelty in Fife, who
has combined being a housewife and mother, with helping to run the family
butchers’ business and caring for an elderly relative, yet emerged as “Best
Student” on an Higher National Certificate course in Equine Studies.
Among
the other Oatridge students to clear this important hurdle are David Smith, a
29 year old who has set up and is running his own gardening business from Plean
in Stirlingshire, after completing a landscaping course; Dylan Taylor, an 18
year old Modern Apprentice in Horticulture, who is one of only two staff
looking after the nationally important gardens at Torosay Castle on the island
of Mull, since the property was put up for sale; and Kim Boyle, a 19 year old
equine student from Carluke who has an cochlear implant to give her “a sense of
sound”. Kim travelled to the US
this year to work as a counsellor at a summer camp for youngsters.
Liam
Gunn from Edinburgh, who is 19, was nominated as “by far the most outstanding
student” on a mixed agricultural and horticultural engineering course, when
working for Edinburgh City Council, while Rhys Murdoch (20) from Girvan in
Ayrshire was put forward after excelling on a fast-track engineering course, in
spite of leaving school when he was just 15 and having to learn to cope with
colour-blindness.
Oatridge Principal David James says: “The College has a marvellous record in the annual Lantra Awards, but this is the first time that we have seen seven of our students short-listed. The competition is always fierce and it has got tougher every year, so we are very proud of all of our nominees. They have done incredibly well to get this far and everyone at Oatridge will be keeping their fingers crossed that they will be among the winners in March.”
