We are excited to announce the winners of the Cambridge Students' Awards 2024! These awards were created to recognise the outstanding volunteering work students do across the university and the wider Cambridge community. With over 300 nominations received, it was a very difficult job to shortlist and pick the winners. A huge congratulations to everyone nominated and our winners!
Campaign Impact
Winner: Sam Hutton
Their tireless advocacy and commitment to sustainability has made a profound impact, particularly in their push for the university to implement a moratorium on funding from fossil fuel companies. This landmark decision demonstrates the power of grassroots activism in driving institutional change.
Contribution to the City
Winner: Nightline
Every night student volunteers take a number of calls from both students and non-students alike, answering thousands of calls or messages per year. Volunteers ensure that no call or message goes unanswered, and that every caller is treated with dignity, patience, and empathy.
Academic Rep of the Year
Winner: Amelia Dubin
Amelia has been shortlisted because of the physical action taken to help HSPS students have their voices heard, by taking responsibility for creating open letters to the department, creating polls, and circulating feedback forms. Amelia has been an amazing advocate and voice for disabled students and can always be counted on to make sure that lecture content is accessible to all.
Contribution to Equality and Liberation
Winner: Isabel Beresford-Cole
As Newnham JCR's BME officer, Isabel has completely reinvented the role, including running a BME speakers' event/formal last term that sold out in hours. She also recently received Zero Gravity's Highly Commended Mentor of the Year Award for outstanding support during the Oxbridge application process.
Contribution to Access and Widening Participation
Winner: Éireann Attridge
Her passion is clear from the dedication she pours into various initiatives to support this cause from academia, industry to social media. She has researched social mobility at Cambridge and Oxford, now at Wolfson for her PhD, as well as contributing professionally to the higher education sector, including being instrumental to the creation of the Class Act Campaign here at the SU.
College Officers of the Year
Undergraduate Winner: Andre Pancholi
Andre is one of the welfare officers at Homerton College. He has gone above and beyond in creating an incredible term card of welfare events throughout the year, including pumpkin carving, five pet therapy sessions and a bob ross painting tutorial night! One student noted that he is “truly one of the kindest, most welcoming people I have met”.
Postgraduate Winner: Emily Quin
As President of Pembroke’s Graduate Parlour, she has successfully pushed for improvements to college storage facilities, brought about the ‘Student Special’, a cut-price, incredibly popular option available at lunch and dinner, and launched an ‘Initiatives Scheme’ whereby the Graduate Parlour fund the student community.
Contribution to Student Community
Winner: Dalia Bornstein
Dalia is the backbone of the Jewish student community here in Cambridge. Being an outstanding president in a difficult time, one could barely notice any discrepancy in this student’s presence in the daily duties of the president. She organised multiple well-being events and ensured that students across the religious spectrum felt represented and heard. She is an unsung hero - someone who is extremely selfless and kind to everyone she meets.
Event of the Year
Winner: 'The Watersprite Film Festival' Watersprite
Watersprite is now the world's largest student film festival. The committee ran a full weekend of events, screenings, and ceremonies, all available free and live-streamed. There were over 21,000 attendees from 79 countries and 36 films were screened, selected from over 1750 entries from 93 countries.The festival's core principles are accessibility and inclusion, tearing down the barriers into the creative industries and celebrating the future of film.
Society of the Year
Winner: Hands-On Science
They bring hands-on science experiments and demonstrations to schools, community centers, and various events. The organization ensures that its science demonstrations and activities are accessible to people of all backgrounds and abilities. The organization relies on the dedication and enthusiasm of volunteers to deliver its programs effectively. By fostering creativity and innovation in science outreach efforts, this student group sets a high standard for engaging educational experiences.
Outstanding Contribution
First Winner: James Walsh
James was nominated because of their dedication to Girton College through freezing rents, lobbying for enhanced lighting and improved bus tracking system. The nominations that were submitted for this individual were very impressed with the work they have done this year.
Second Winner: Beth Doherty
Beth is involved in KCSU, working on rent strike, free period products, 24h library access, and welfare support. The nominations that were submitted for this individual stated that they work tirelessly and give every moment to KCSU.