Students from Sheffield Park and Springs Academies feature in new What Makes Sheffield campaign

Louise Innocent / 13 January 2020 / Categories: News

Four students from Sheffield Park and Springs Academies have been helping to promote their city, as part of a new council-backed campaign.

What Makes Sheffield aims to drive awareness and change perceptions of the city, celebrating some of Sheffield’s amazing stories of inventiveness and shining a spotlight on its innovative research, initiatives and individuals making a difference.

The students, Mollie Azizi and Robin Kaleja from Sheffield Park Academy and Romeo Dolinkski and Maria Ungureanu from Sheffield Springs Academy, were interviewed as part of a video launched on the new What Makes Sheffield website. In the video, alongside other individuals living and working in Sheffield, they speak about their experiences as young people growing up in the city and seeing the changes for the better taking place around them. 

They were specially selected for the project in recognition for their positive work as ambassadors for their school. Executive Principal of Sheffield Park and Springs Academies, Craig Dillon, said:

“As schools at the heart of our community, we were keen to be involved in promoting Sheffield and delighted that our students could be ambassadors for their city. We want all our students to grow into confident, capable and ambitious young adults that are able to make their mark on the world, so it is great that the project is bringing similar, local stories to life. It is these sorts of initiatives we know help to inspire our students and opportunities we try to provide as part of an Education with Character.”

What Makes Sheffield’s website has been created by Marketing Sheffield, the city’s official destination organisation and part of the Council’s City Growth Department. Explaining the vision behind the new website Edward Highfield, Director of City Growth, Sheffield City Council, said: 

“Research tells us the true value of any place is the people who form it and that couldn’t be truer in Sheffield. It’s this that has become the defining theme of our Sheffield brand and the new What Makes Sheffield site, in that ‘Sheffield makes people, and people make Sheffield’.

“By sharing these stories, we hope to showcase to external audiences the city’s transformation and drive further investment here, as well as demonstrate why we are a fantastic place to live, work and visit. But more than that, it's about showing what we contribute to the world and how as a collection of people the city is helping to solve some of the most significant problems we face – locally, regionally, nationally and on a global scale.”