We welcomed Film Studies alumna, Louise Ben-Nathan, back to campus after 26 years to proudly unveil an Innovate UK purple plaque.

Innovate UK Women in Innovation award-winner, Louise Ben-Nathan

Awards

Louise Ben-Nathan talking to a camera at Solent University

My name is Lou Ben Nathan and I'm a graduate of Southampton Solent University and I left this University, I spent 18 years working as a film and television camera assistant. Illness caused me to have a career change direction and I now design medical products to improve women's health care. so I'm at Southampton Solent today, because I won a women in Innovation award from innovate UK which is the government funding that you can go to if you're doing something that hasn't been done before and get a grant money to develop your idea.

Louise Ben-Nathan talking to a camera at Solent University and then cuts away to her receiving the plaque

But innovate noticed that only one in seven of their applications were coming from women and then if women contributed more to the economy, they would increase it by about 180 billion. So they set up the women Innovation award and I entered the competition and won and as part of that competition we get presented with a purple plaque, to present to our University or where we got our education in the hope of inspiring other women to take risks, think big and start changing the world with good new innovations.

Louise Ben-Nathan talking to a camera at Solent University and then cuts away to her having a discussion with staff and students.

The value of higher education for me is a chance for you to leave home, a chance for you to make the friendships and bonds that are going to kind of stick with you through thick and thin for the rest of your life and having had an illness it was the friends that I met met here that supported me through them. But it's interesting because once you graduate nobody is really bothered what your degree is in, but you've shown that you've got the intellectual capabilities to take arguments, to work with people, to put them down on paper or in a visual format. It shows you can work as part of a team and I think that's really important.

I think for me I selected Solent University because it's really important that one, I want my innovation to be seen by the younger generation, I want women to see this award and think "you know what? perhaps that could be me", and this is a place where I had a lot of fun so and I was welcome back with such open arms I'm so incredibly grateful for this experience today, thank you.

Innovate UK Women in Innovation award-winner, Louise Ben-Nathan

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