On 10 July 2021 CAT welcomed over fifty Graduate School graduates and their guests to celebrate their graduation in our very first online graduation ceremony.

The ceremony saw the first graduates from our Green Building, Sustainability and Behaviour Change and Sustainability and Ecology courses pick up their awards along with graduates from our other CAT postgraduate programmes: Sustainability and Adaptation,  Sustainability and Adaptation in the Built Environment,  Sustainability and Adaptation Planning,  Sustainability in Energy Provision and Demand Management,   Sustainable Food and Natural Resources and MArch in Sustainable Architecture.

Following postponement of the on-site ceremony because of COVID-19 it was great to be able to celebrate and catch up with graduates again through the virtual ceremony and breakout rooms. Due to the online nature of the ceremony we also welcomed a larger number of graduates who either studied via distance learning completely from overseas or who chose to study via distance to fit in with their current work or family commitments.

Positives after a difficult year

During the ceremony, graduates heard from CAT CEO Peter Tyldesley who discussed how CAT and the Graduate School had responded during the pandemic by developing further online activities and continuing to provide high-quality teaching while supporting students through distance learning.

He also said “I’d like to thank our students and graduates for their patience and perseverance during this past year, your hard work and continued dedication to your studies has shown, as can be seen by the large cohort graduating this evening. Your continued passion for influencing change and bringing about positive solutions to the climate and biodiversity emergency has really been inspiring, and we hope you continue this post CAT”  CAT CEO Peter Tyldesley

Sonya Bedford MBE also gave an address and talked about the inspiration she takes from fellow graduates and her inspiring journey from a CAT student to becoming a CAT trustee last year.

Inspiring graduate stories

This year’s attendees now join over 2,000 graduates from CAT, who through their studies have developed the skills and knowledge to bring about change, research and communicate positive solutions, and are now putting these into practice. It was great to reconnect with them and great to hear about their experiences of studying with us and what they’ve been up to since graduating.

Nathan Wearn-Hutter – Sustainability and Adaptation Graduate

“My MSc at CAT far exceeded my expectations. Taking my many years of practical experience of working within the landscape plus my ecology/conservation studies, CAT enabled me to add the human element and consider multiple timescales, thus imparting a thoroughly holistic outlook to how I now approach my life and work.’

Nathan now works as a Green Team Supervisor at Groundwork, a charity working to transform lives in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities. Through this role, he manages a green skills training programme for a mixture of volunteers and paid young adults at risk of long term unemployment.

Diana Tarcatu – Sustainable Architecture Graduate

Diana also attended the ceremony and is currently working as a Consultant Retrofit Designer for award-winning design and research consultancy URBED (Urbanism Environment and Design).  She is currently working on retrofit projects helping social landlords and householders decarbonise their homes.

Michael Lomotey – Sustainability and Adaptation Planning Graduate

Michael defines his work around the human rights impacts of tourism, anti-oppression and climate/ecology adaptation. Following on from his dissertation which focused on the intersections of oppression in the context of the environmental crisis he will be taking part in one of CAT’s upcoming Climate Justice Webinar series with fellow CAT student, Jo Becker.

Lea Leimann – Sustainable Food and Natural Resources Graduate

Lea was recently awarded a BioThesis 2021 prize for her MSc thesis on ‘Dairy system transformation in Germany’. The organic food industry research award was open internationally and Lea was one of five winners this year. Since graduating, Lea has continued working for the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production in Germany.

Celebration of Achievements

Graduates were also awarded further awards for highest performance on individual programmes and exceptional dissertation submissions. The ceremony was followed by further breakout rooms where students, staff and guests could celebrate the achievements and hear about the experiences and opportunities our graduands have gone onto since finishing their studies.

All graduates were also gifted free membership to CAT which includes free entry to our Visitor Centre and our quarterly Clean Slate magazines.

Finally, big congratulations to all those graduating and also to those that couldn’t attend the ceremony. We want to build on our informal graduate networks and develop the relations between CAT, our students and our graduates. We’d love to find out what interesting and important projects and work our graduates (from all courses and classes) are involved in, so don’t forget to keep in touch!

Related Topics

• Graduate School