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Nahida touches down as Student of the Year
A BEDFORD Academy student has been named East of England Student of the Year after rubbing shoulders with Olympic athletes at a star-studded event held at Wembley Stadium.
Nahida Begum was one of 12 regional finalists at the ceremony, where she was presented with the award by Olympic gold medallist Darren Campbell.
And he said that Nahida, who hopes to become a psychologist when she leaves school, showed how sport can be used to help young people to realise their potential.
Michael Cox, school sports co-ordinator at Bedford Academy, said: “Nahida greatly lacked self-confidence before taking part in Sky Sports Living for Sport and would not push herself to achieve what she was capable of.
“However, through completing the project she has gained confidence beyond what we expected, going on to represent the school in several different sporting events.
“She continues to be a model student and is pushing towards her life goal of becoming a psychologist.”
The six-week project saw students from Bedford Academy train in American Football, a sport most of them had never played before.
After hard work and training the girls took on a side of male pupils and only narrowly lost.
Former BMX world champion Mike Mullen helped to mentor the girls, and when he learnt that Nahida had never ridden a bike before he showed her how to do so.
She has now played for several of the school’s sports teams, and was part of the side that won the district cricket side,
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Monday 28 May 2012
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