Lewis Hayes

Member of the Dean's List, class of 2020

Lewis was honoured the Dean's List award for his ability to adapt, his commitment to improving his own employability skills, and his dedication to helping his community.  Lewis also graduated as the Top Performer on the MSc International Management programme in the class of 2020.

Local and global

Before the pandemic, Lewis gained work experience during his part-time role in Front of House and as Delivery Driver for EDO Sushi UK, then moving on to become a Student Ambassador in the University, where he improved his interpersonal skills while talking to parents and prospective students at open days.

He broadened his experience further by travelling to Erba, Italy, for a role helping to run a socially distanced summer camp, where he created activity plans to engage children in their English language studies. He impressed his employers and after returning to the UK, he was offered a job in International Education at Duesmond International Study.

Following his committee role as Chair of the Bummit Society, Lewis hitchhiked from Sheffield to Glasgow to raise funds for charity, contributing to the society’s fundraising total of over £20,000. With Lewis’s support, the society won the award for Best Local Impact Project at the National Student Fundraising Awards 2019.

Adapting to change

To gain real-world business experience and put the theories of his degree into practice, Lewis completed the Employability Passport and successfully applied to undertake a Company Project for his dissertation module.  When his company project was cancelled due to Covid-19, he was quick to adapt to the challenge and created a new dissertation proposal whilst he worked abroad in Italy.

Offering a helping hand

Lewis improved his employability while also demonstrating social responsibility, when he took on a role as a Psychology Tutor to an A Level student during the lockdown as part of the UK Government’s Coronavirus Tutoring Initiative.  In support of his student community, he also undertook the roles of Student Ambassador and Academic Representative for his programme.

Off campus, he made time to volunteer with the Helping Hands homelessness charity via the Sheffield University Volunteering office. With Helping Hands, he spent an hour each week walking through the city, listening to and engaging with vulnerable and homeless people, offering food and providing assistance, such as accompanying a vulnerable person to attend the NHS Walk in Centre in Sheffield.