Architecture student wins tenacity award

Nsamba was delighted with the recognition and said, “I am immensely grateful that my efforts and hard work have been recognised. This honour will undoubtedly be a motivator for my future academic pursuits and a precious accolade in my educational career. This award will be a constant reminder of my commitment to academic excellence.”

Nsamba recently graduated, following completion of the Architecture (ARB/RIBA) Part 1 BSc (Hons) programme, which she chose to study in order to expand her creativity and find solutions to problems. During her academic journey, she had to overcome financial pressures, two difficult pregnancies, accommodation issues, and the loss of her second daughter.

Deborah Do-Rosario-Benros, Cluster Lead for Architecture and Physical Design said the School was incredibly proud of Nsamba’s achievement. She said, “We are thrilled that Gertrude has received the Architecture Award for Tenacity. She is more than deserving of the award since she went through so much his year and still managed to submit work at a high standard, exceeding expectations with a First degree.”

During her time at UEL, Nsamba said she enjoyed the modules, workshops, and on-site experience, which she said “were great and enriching because by teaching us more in practice, it prepared me better for working life. When I was allowed to do job shadowing at Grimshaw I realised that their work was remarkably similar to what we do at university, so it was not difficult for me to adapt to the new experience.”

She also credited her tutors and classmates for helping her enjoy the process and overcome difficulties, naming Catherine Phillips, Phillipa Longson, Claudia Palma, Fernanda Palmieri, Alice D'Andrea and Do-Rosario-Benros as key to her development. Another highlight of her time at UEL was the cultural diversity of the staff and students. She said, 

I am Black African and in my third year of university it was the first time that I had a Black African tutor, this made me happy and helped me to be more ambitious. But I also loved having Spanish tutors, because I was born and raised in Spain, and they make you feel at home. I really enjoyed having teachers and classmates from different parts of the world. At UEL, you always learn something new, the people open your mind and broaden your vision.” 

Nsamba is taking the time to enjoy her recent successes while working at Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical and plans to continue her studies, in future, with UEL’s Architecture (ARB/RIBA PART 2) MArch programme. She also hopes to continue work exploring the relationship between architecture and health, which she has written about in her essays ‘Alvar Alto’, ‘Architecture and Pandemics’, and ‘Architecture and Malaria.’ 

UEL offers a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Architecture and Design.