Natalia Tasker was at Hymers College from 2005 until 2010.  She was recently one of the winners of the Hull and Humber Top 30 Under 30 award, which recognises the talent of employees within their organisation.

Every year I look out for the announcement of the Hull and Humber Top 30 Under 30 as there have been a few previous winners that I have known. I didn't know that I had been nominated as this had been done in secret, so when I was announced as a winner it was a complete surprise to me!

The winners are from a variety of roles, in a variety of industries across the region which is great as we are all winners for very different reasons. As well as being listed as winner, we will take part in a 10 week LEAP Programme (Leadership, Excellence, Acceleration Programme) with coaches to help push us out of our comfort zone and really help us grow in our careers.

I think it is so important that there is a scheme in place for Under 30's as this is the age where you can really shape your career, even if it is in a different direction to where you started! It helps boost the confidence of young people to know that they are valued and have great future potential that can be unlocked. It's also really great that this scheme is recognising the talent in the Hull and Humber area, as it shows there is top talent in the area and that businesses and people can do well, you don't need to go to the bigger cities to be successful.

After leaving Hymers College, Natalia carried on her studies at Manchester Metropolitan University.  There she studied Business Management, which included a year in industry which they had to source and gain themselves. She was successful in gaining a place on the IBM placement year scheme in which she was a Client Account Manager for the Walgreens Boots Alliance account.

When she finished university, she was then successful in gaining a place on the Santander Graduate scheme.  Unfortunately, she soon realised that this was not the right career path for her. She then had a role as Executive Assistant at Jacksons Bakery, (the smell of bread instantly brought back memories for Natalia of being back on the AstroTurf at Hymers!) which is where she was given the opportunity to be more creative. This started her marketing career doing B2B Brand Management and Internal Communications.

Fast forward a few years to summer 2021, and the opportunity arose for Natalia to become Wykeland's Marketing Executive, which she found to be a very exciting opportunity with them being a local property developer.

This was a new role to the company, covering design work, social media and community engagement just to name a few. Not only do I cover a range of tasks, many of their developments are completely different, from Fruit Market and @TheDock Tech Campus in Hull, to Melton West and Bridgehead Business Park - no two are the same. This means that every day is different for me and I get to cover a range of different marketing activities for differing audiences which I love about my role.

Natalia credits the school with helping her shape her career and instilling a determination to never give up on challenges.

The teachers and staff at Hymers do a great job in helping shape your career choices, from running lots of career nights where you can speak with local businesses to find out what potential roles are out there, to the teachers themselves being great at giving guidance on how to improve in subjects.

I was really struggling with my Spanish, as I had taken on both French and Spanish for GCSE, and had been predicted an E which I was really upset about. My teacher at the time, (I think she was called Mrs Lafferton), had sat me down and ran through my options and suggested I take the foundation exam which has a highest grade of a C. This was not something that I wanted to do, as I knew I wanted to achieve better than this. Extra afterschool classes were put on for myself and some other pupils, and this really helped me understand it more as I pushed myself to learn and understand and ended up achieving an A in Spanish! Although I don't do anything Spanish related now, this really helped shape my career as I learnt not to give up and if you really apply yourself you can achieve more.

When reflecting on the teachers during her time at the school, her favourite teacher was always Mr McTeare who she had for business studies, and always looked forward to his lessons.

It was my favourite subject as it was one of the ones I naturally found easier and understood more quickly, however he would always make even the boring parts seem more fun and found videos to also help us learn the subject which can be a bit more interesting than reading a textbook all the time. During my time at one of my previous roles, MrMcTeare visited my work with business studies pupils as part of a local school trip and it was great to see him, and for him to still remember me as one of his pupils.

As well as her studies at the school, Natalia also found time to be part of the Hockey Squad and she also played the clarinet for three of her five years at Hymers, with Mr Penny as her teacher. She has also remained in touch with some of her school friends.

I got married in 2022 and one of my bridesmaids was Alexandra Todd (OH 2002-10) who I met when I started Hymers. Although we now live in different cities so see each other a lot less, we are still close and will always make an effort to catch up with each other!

Congratulations on your award, Natalia.