We could not be more grateful for the thousands of people who take time out to volunteer with us and inspire young people across the UK.
Whether it’s one in person event that took half an hour to prepare for, or 10 virtual events for different age groups, you’ve made a tangible difference.
Award winning volunteers 2026
For the first time ever, we launched volunteer awards to celebrate our amazing volunteers and provide the opportunity for volunteers to be nominated by others and recognised for their role in inspiring the future.
Here are the categories and winners for 2026:
🌟Volunteer excellence
Andy Dinsdale, Submarine Engineer
🌟Outstanding Contribution
Bal Choda, Lead Engineer
🌟Above and Beyond
Sajana Kabaria, Business Manager at Bank of America
🌟First Time Star
Hannah Estruch HRBP at Netflix
🌟Most Rewarding Moment
Aparna Potluri, Senior consultant
🌟Above and Beyond
Mike Glen, Head of Airspace and Noise
🌟Incredible Impact
Jyoti Saini, Senior Principal Pharmacist Medicines Optimisation at NHS Black Country
Penny Parker, Head of HR at Imperial Healthcare Trust
Importantly, Jyoti openly addressed stereotypes and spoke about representation within healthcare careers. As a strong role model within our wonderfully diverse school community, she inspired many pupils who could see themselves reflected in her story.
Hannah gave a fun insight into her career which was pitched perfectly for pupils. The debrief highlighted the impact of what she had shared as many of the young people come from single parent households and now have just heard how they can still be successful!
Bal began volunteering in 2002 as STEM Ambassador and became involved with Inspiring the Future at its inception in 2012. Over the years, he has participated in more than 500 events and has directly engaged with over 100,000 young people.
Andy was not afraid to answer any questions that ten-year-old children may throw at him. Once the presentation had finished and many children still had millions more questions about his amazing job he offered for teachers to write the questions down and email them so no child missed out.
The most important outcome for me is that year on year, the number of students from St. Augustine’s applying for courses like physiotherapy, osteopathy, radiography, midwifery and biomedical sciences has grown; Pen has broken the myth that the NHS is only for doctors and dentists!