Inspirational Women
Heena Karavadra
Heena has demonstrated exceptional commitment and initiative to create and set up two student engagement schemes. ‘Represent’ empowers students to select their own leisure reading titles for the library, reflecting diversity in the student population and nurturing a welcoming culture for underrepresented groups. Meanwhile, the student Library Champions positively contribute to wide ranging aspects of the Library. Both are new initiatives with no precedent. Both were conceived by and developed by Heena when new to the University and only recently qualified as a librarian. She created two substantial projects working independently, demonstrating her initiative, tenacity, dedication and integrity.
Heena is proactive and dedicated but she is also someone who really listens to others and puts the students’ views and their experience of taking part in projects at the heart of her work. She has worked with library colleagues to design relevant and engaging projects that not only benefit students but also help staff design services. These projects have shown it is possible to unite staff and students in working together to bring about change.
She has changed my view of what is possible. She has shown that you don’t need to be a pushy or egotistical person to make changes and that this has a more powerful influence when you work to bring out the best in others to influence each other. This in turn has given me confidence to support other voices who are less often heard and focus on making positive change.