At an event held at Middlesbrough Football Club’s Riverside Stadium on Tuesday 6th March, we saw 21 students take to the stage to accept their graduation certificates.

The graduation ceremony itself was opened by Chairman of the High Tide Foundation, Kevin Shakesheff, who welcomed and thanked every single individual that took part in each of the placements and trips over the summer months.

During the evening, trustee of the Foundation and Chief Executive of PD Ports, David Robinson, delivered an inspirational speech, speaking about the highlights and success of the Summer Scheme, as well as how we are continuing to create opportunities for young people on Teesside through our wide range of programmes. After the recent High Tide Fundraising Ball, which is set to run annually to raise money for our work, the atmosphere and positivity was electric, and made us feel excited about the future of the charity.

A select few of the students also got up to talk during the event, including Jake Whitfield, Amy Bain, Chloe Hodge and Jak Miller. Jake Whitfield is a student who was incredibly lucky to take part in the Summer Scheme two years running. As he had such a positive experience last year, he decided he wanted to try it all over again. He confidently spoke about the London law trip that he embarked on back in August with another five students, confessing that his experience with High Tide was better than he could have ever imagined.

Both Amy Bain and Chloe Hodge took part in our container ship placement in July of this year, where they boarded a ship for Klaipeda in Lithuania. The girls both stood up and delivered an excellent presentation on their nine day journey to the city via exciting stop-offs in Helsinki and Rotterdam.

Jak Miller also spoke at the graduation event, and being a very keen student who secured three different placements this year, he had quite a lot to reflect on with the attendees. He recited his experiences from his placement at Middlesbrough Football Club, at which he was offered a part-time job and accepted; and he also talked about how students can really make the most out of experiences like this. He finished his speech by saying how much he enjoyed each and every placement he was lucky enough to be selected for, and about how much he learnt during this period. Astonishingly, Jak is planning on applying again next year and he even knows which placement he would like to secure; Handlesbanken!

After an amazing evening of presentations, speeches, networking and sharing experiences, we believe the event was a great success! We’re so proud of the students that get involved with High Tide and we really do forge lasting relationships with each and every pupil, who we are happy to keep in touch with and mentor into further education or a blossoming career.

We want to urge  both schools and young individuals with huge aspirations for their futures to get in touch with us to see how we can give you a helping hand along this sometimes tough road.

For more information on the High Tide Foundation and the various programmes and schemes that we run, contact us on info@hightidefoundation.com, or feel free to browse our website.

While you’re here, why not check out our new video, which features a couple of the speakers we mentioned above.