Zach Rault wins young people’s award for resilience

Monday 26 November 2018

A former student at Guernsey College of Further Education, has been presented with the E J Blight trophy for persevering with his studies and achieving his qualifications, despite facing a number of challenges, including learning, anxiety and confidence issues.

Zach Rault was nominated for the award by Head of Engineering at the college, John Semenowicz who said that the college created a bespoke course for Zach to ensure he could maximise his potential.

“Zach impressed us by his hard work, dedication and commitment to complete his qualifications.  He is a self-motivated and enthusiastic student, who is passionate about welding and exhibits an in-depth range of welding knowledge that is outside of the content for the qualification he is studying for,” he said.

The E J Blight trophy commemorates the life of E J Blight, a Guernsey man who died in action during World War 1 on March 10th 1917.

His family donated a trophy which was originally an award for local swimming competitions. The trophy had been left unused for more than 20 years and then in 2017, it was re-launched as an annual award to commemorate Lieutenant Blight’s bravery, by presenting it to a Guernsey young person, who has experienced tough times but showed resilience in overcoming adversity.

Alun Williams, Lifelong Learning Manager, Education Services explained that one of the most important qualities that young people need to thrive in the 21st century is resilience and that it was equally a characteristic that E J Blight would have had to demonstrate during his time serving in the First World War.

Mr Rault was presented with the trophy by Grace Lindsay, Emotional Health and Wellbeing Worker at the Guernsey Youth Commission and was delighted to have been selected by the judges. He explained that the  college had been incredibly supportive: “The support I had from the tutors was really helpful when I had any issues. Doing the course has really helped me with my confidence. I was never a confident person before.”

Pictured top l to r: Alun Williams, John Semenowicz, Zach Rault, Warren Mauger (judge) and Grace Lindsay (judge)