Cardonad brings glamour and talent to Student Press Awards 2010

Award Winners! From Left to Right: Rosemary Lowne, Hazel McMaster, Iain Smith, Nadine Walker, Martin Boyle, Nicola Hamilton, Lesley Quin

The student newspaper of Cardonald College Glasgow's HND Journalism students was named best college publication at the 14th Herald Student Press Awards last night.

Cardonald has beaten Glasgow's Metropolitan College for the 5th consecutive year with their diverse, strong and professional news, features, entertainment and sports stories.

The Cardonald Courier editor, Rosemary Lowne said: "I would like to say a big thank you to our lecturer Martin Boyle who has been absolutely brilliant. Thanks so much, each and every one of us have put in so much effort everyone really deserve this.

Cardonald Representatives Rosemary Lowne, Nadine Walker, Iain Smith, Hazel McMaster, Nicola Hamilton and Lesley Quinn took to the stage to collect the prestigious award with smiles from ear to ear.

Senior Lecturer, Martin Boyle said: “It has been another very successful year for the course. We continue to attract some of the very best in Scotland's journalistic talent, our NCTJ results continue to rise, and now all of the students' hard work has been rewarded.

"This award is particularly appreciated because it rewards their work as a team, and they all take away a lot of credit for their time, efforts and energy."

The Herald Student Press Awards were held in The Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow and were attended by students from Glasgow University, Edinburgh University, Napier University to name a few.

The awards celebrated inspiring journalists of the past by dedicating the “Best News Writing Award”- sponsored by BT Scotland- in memory of Calum Macdonald, a journalist with The Herald who died of cancer two years ago.

Anna Steven, BT Scotland’s senior manager for media and corporate relations, said: “We are totally committed to continuous improvement in our workforce, encouraging people to strive for excellence and recognising success.

“The Herald’s Scottish Student Press Awards share this ethos, fostering a sense of optimism and confidence in our media industry.”

The best college publication award ended a successful week for the students at Cardonald College Glasgow. Editor Rosemary Lowne won ‘Journalist of the year’ and ‘Scoop of the year’ at The Right Stuff Awards the night before.

Covering Glasgow

Their feel good gig’s are fast turning them into Glasgow’s new favourite cover’s band.

The Raybandos have a popular live act to be proud of; taking to the stage of live music venue Box once a month and with a red stripe in hand, the 5 piece Kev, Steph, Mark, Cheeky and David are guaranteed to get the crowd dancing.

‘Rock n roll and shades of soul’ is The Raybandos promise, as they treat Glasgow with their ‘Stones’, ‘Otis Redding’ and ‘Faces’ covers.

Stephen McKellar, base player, said: “We play good time rock and roll, soul and rhythm blues! We want people to get up of their arse and enjoy themselves!”

A set including ‘Happy’ by the Rolling Stones to ‘heatwave’ by Marth n Vandellas- their soulful rock n roll interpretations, smooth guitar plucking and fashion sense are sending them on the road to rack in a strong Glasgow following.

Like local friends Figure 5- fresh faced, unsigned and playing packed Mchuill’s with little arrogance- the gigs and beers is all part of the lads weekend.

You can check them out by going along to their monthly gig, the last Friday of the month in Box and keep up-to-date with shows by searching for “The Raybandos” on facebook and bebo.

Virtual Swap Shop

Saturday mornings as a kid were exciting; “Swap Shop” inflicted on us a magical world of swapping old toys that had lost their sparkle for other kids’ treasure. Jump forward thirty-odd years and the fashionably interactive generation are treated to the world of an online vintage swapping community in the form of covertcandy.com.

The concept is simple- upload items of your clothing you no longer want onto the site and pass them onto other like minded users for credits. You then search the virtual wardrobes of other users, purchasing items that take your fancy with the credits you have earned. This innovative approach to online clothing exchange means that you can get the clothes that you want for free.

Since the launch in January 2009, CovertCandy now has a strong community of 3500 fashion obsessed members. CovertCandy- the proud to be British network- was selected as a top 20 webstart up in Europe by Seedcam. The 4 brain children behind the idea combined to create a simple design for their peers. Business graduate Harry Follett said:

“We felt there was a gap in the market. There was nothing out there that appealed to young creative people like us, who wanted an alternative way to get their clothes online.

“CovertCandy does something about this. It was absolutely the right time economically to launch a concept like this.”

CovertCandy ticks all the green boxes, helping the strain put upon the planet from the thriving cheap throwaway fashion industry. By swapping with one another around the UK; the hippies, rock chicks and Topshop princess’ amongst us find a revolutionary way of getting hold of one another’s clothes while counteractively helping our environment and wallets in a fashionable manner.

Visit CovertCandy!