In the first of five graduation events to take place in Australia this year, AWARD School Melbourne celebrated the achievements of 50 students at Smart Artz Gallery in South Melbourne last night.

Following a display of outstanding work from this year’s student portfolios, the award for top student was presented to Hannah Payton by AWARD School Heads Sarah McGregor (Head of Copy, Leo Burnett) and Michael Mulcahy (Writer, JWT).

The award for second place was presented to William Cooper, with third going to James Matthews. In no particular order, the remaining top ten places were awarded to:

Nicola Simmons

Laurence Punshon

Duncan Le Cornu

Max Reed

Stian Berg

Kieran Adams

Vanessa Every-Burns

Welcoming the crowd of over 140 industry professionals, supporters and graduates, AWARD School Melbourne Head Sarah McGregor said: “Huge congratulations to all the graduating students. Tonight marks the end of a challenging 12 weeks but the beginning of what will be hopefully an incredibly rewarding career.” The heads also thanked the tutors and lecturers for their enthusiasm and commitment throughout the course.

Tim Holmes (Creative Director, JWT) was on hand to present the top 10 certificates and to offer some inspiring words of encouragement, saying “persistence, passion and talent are all essential to succeed in the industry”.

AWARD graduation ceremonies are still set to take place across Australia in July and August. Dates for the upcoming ceremonies are as follows:

Sydney            Tuesday 28 July
Adelaide          Thursday 6 August
Brisbane          Thursday 6 August
Perth                Friday 14 August

AWARD School will also run in Auckland and Tasmania in July.

The AWARD School program has now been running for 30 years; the 2015 graduates follow in the footsteps of many of today’s creative leaders, including past students: Craig Davis, ex-Chairman of AWARD and co-chairman & chief creative officer of Publicis Mojo, David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5, and Matt Eastwood, chief creative officer at DDB New York.