Amelie Abass is a Surrey Student who has been named a top 10 national finalist in the 2026 targetjobs Black Heritage Undergraduate of the Year Award in recognition of her outstanding work. Find out more about Amelie and her experience below: 

Becoming an undergraduate of the year award finalist as a single mum. How did I get there, and what does it mean to me? 

I am a second-year Politics student, a single mum and a business owner, and this year I was a top 10 national finalist for the 2026 targetjobs Black Heritage Undergraduate of the Year Award, sponsored by Sky. This was my second consecutive year applying for this award. I applied last year when I was at Royal Holloway, and I made it to the top 40. This year, I made it to the top 10.

The TargetJobs Undergraduate of the Year awards are an annual award ceremony aimed at finding the UK’s brightest and highest achieving undergraduates. This year, they had 16 categories, each sponsored by a different award partner. Sky sponsored my award (Yes, THE sky as in ‘believe in better’). Other awards and sponsors included the AI Innovator of the Year Award, sponsored by SkyScanner, and the Male Undergraduate of the Year Award, sponsored by L’Oréal.

As I had already applied last year, I knew exactly what the application process would be like, as I applied for the same award. The first section was filling out general questions, followed by answering 2 500-word questions about how I was showing creativity and leadership in my extracurricular activities.

The next stage of the application was to complete only psychometric tests, which took me about 1 hour. After these, the selected 40 students, based on their written answers and testing, would be invited to a video interview. This is the stage that I struggled with last year. I normally do very well at interviews; however, what was different about this interview was that you had one minute to answer one question, on this occasion, it was ‘Give me an example of an initiative which you led and how it impacted the community.’ Not only that, but the interview was also not live, meaning it was recorded for Sky to review at a later date. To make it even more nerve-wracking, you only get two tries, so if you mess up on the second, you still have to submit! For two years in a row, this stage has been difficult for me; it is surprisingly challenging!

From there, the top 10 finalists are selected and invited to an award ceremony hosted by TV personality Jamie Laing in central London, where the winners are announced. Sky also personally invites everyone who made it to the top 40 to a day at the Osterley campus for talks, networking, free food, merch, and much more. So, I am looking forward to that in June.

Unlike the other awards, the black heritage award focuses solely on the impact that the student is having on the wider community outside of their studies, which is part of the reason I was very drawn to the award, as my whole life outside of being a mum is my work with public speaking and youth engagement in politics. The other reason I was so drawn to the award with Sky was that Sky is one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world, and as someone wanting a job in the media as a presenter or broadcast journalist, this award is a great start.

The award for winning varies by sponsor, but is usually an internship. With Sky, the award this year is a multi-week bespoke paid work experience in person at the Sky campus, a fantastic opportunity for undergraduates. Despite not having walked away with the trophy, a couple of days after the final, a member of the Sky Early Careers team reached out to me and asked if I’d like to have a call about starting a one-year mentoring scheme with an employee of Sky in a department that most interests me. I have not yet been matched; however, I am excited to be mentored by someone within Sky News or the Sky media department until next summer.

Even though we were not told how many people applied for each award, we were told that there were over 6,500 applicants UK-wide across the 16 awards. The TargetJobs team also said on social media that the Black Heritage award was particularly competitive this year. From thousands of applicants, 162 finalists were selected across 16 award categories.

As for a little bit more about what I have done that got me to the finals of this prestigious award, ever since I went through the life-threatening birth of my son, I have been campaigning for youth engagement in politics and helping young people advocate for themselves. I am the founder of my own company, Amelie Abass Public Speaking Ltd, which, amongst other things, hosts workshops and talks for 11–18-year-olds to get them involved in politics. This recognition, out of thousands of students who applied for the award, is worth it. As the Black Heritage Award is available to undergraduates at any point in their degree, I will be applying again next year, so look out for another blog post.

Applications for next year’s awards will open late 2026 and close at the end of January 2027. For more information on how and when to apply, visit the main targetjobs website.

A big thank you to Amelie for sharing her experience. You can find more about Amelie here. 

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This blog is part of the Student Equality Networks My Lived Experience Project. The My Lived Experience project gives students the opportunity to share their personal stories, perspectives or interests. This could relate to a campaign, event, achievement, or simply something that you are passionate about. You can find out more here.