The Winners are:

Inchara Athreya (Psychology)

Inchara is a committed Psychology student. She has consistently achieved high grades throughout her time here at Warwick and has actively contributed to the Psychology department. She received the Warwick Undergraduate Global Excellence Scholarship and the Psychology Department Prize for Top-scoring student in her first year. She has also achieved the Warwick Award Gold Level.

In the summer of 2023, Inchara received Under Graduate Research Support Scheme funding to carry out a research project investigating the effect of living in multigenerational homes on happiness in India. She has also just been accepted to continue to an Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership funded MSc and PHD programme at Warwick.

Within the department of Psychology, Inchara has taken on a variety of roles that have actively contributed to the community and inclusive practice, these roles include:

• Student Experience Officer for two years, supporting the Directors of Student Experience to provide events and activities to create a community of inclusion and belonging in the Psychology department.
• She also maintains the departments Instagram account, ensuring that students are informed of the social and academic events held in the department.
• She is a Student Ambassador, assisting at open days by talking to parents and prospective students.
• She has been a member of Psychology Staff Student Liaison Committee since her first year and this year she has become Ch
  air.
• She has also worked as a Research Assistant, focusing on developing the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) toolkit.
• These roles demonstrate that Inchara’s work has had a huge amount of impact within the department.

Outside the department:

• She is the Vice President for the Warwick India Forum, of which her work contributed to their awards of Best Student Society Award in 2024 and won the Bright Network Commercial Awareness Society of the Year 2022. Furthermore, Inchara represents the British Psychological Society as a Student Ambassador.

When asked as to why she wanted to do all this, her answer was nothing but simple “I want to give back to this amazing community”.

She is a driven, committed and passionate individual who sets herself to helping others through whatever means.

Jade McFarlane (History)

Jade is an incredibly dedicated and passionate History student, with significant achievements within the History department and in the wider community.

She was nominated to sit on the Student Staff Liaison Committee after one of her lecturers spotted her creativity and passion for improving the lives of others. Since then, she has played an active role in the Student Voice at Warwick working as a student ambassador for three years, chairing the History Student Staff Liaison Committee in her second year, holding executive positions in the History Society and Caribbean Culture society and acting as a mentor to students across the University.

Jade’s determination to share her knowledge with students who are currently facing challenges she once encountered has been evident in her various mentoring roles.

However, Jade wanted to make even more of a difference. Utilising these experiences and skills gained, and in her final year Jade launched a new initiative focused on tackling the Black attainment gap in the History department through Reverse Mentoring. This scheme is the first of its kind at Warwick and reverses the traditional mentoring relationship by having Black students mentor professors, guiding them on how to improve the experience of Black history students at Warwick and provide better support. This project has been met with enthusiasm by staff and students, fostering an authentic dialogue within the department. As a result, the initiative will be expanded to include other underrepresented groups within the department in the upcoming years, with Jade training the future coordinator of the program.

Alongside this Jade volunteers in Coventry at Arawak, a Community Trust working with Caribbean elders living in Coventry. As part of her volunteering Jade created a historical exhibition dedicated to Coventry’s Caribbean Community history. Her exhibition focuses on the misrepresentations of Rastafarian women in Coventry. The exhibition was launched in June 2024, and it will be preserved as a digital, metaspace exhibition utilising new technologies that Jade has mastered.

During her year abroad in France, Jade pushed herself out of her comfort zone and joined her local community's charitable organisation, Lyon4water. Here, Jade helped fundraise money to build infrastructure for clean water in countries lacking this essential resource.

Despite engaging in extracurricular activities, Jade has maintained an impressive academic record and has continued to have a positive impact in society.

Chayn Sanjay Kohli (Warwick Business School)

Chayn has been an activist for gender equality and healthcare for the last seven years, and her activist movements have been recognized and featured in regional and international newspapers and channels by the media.

• In 2024, she was awarded by the Perfect Woman Magazine as their 'Youth Icon of the Year.'
• She also received the Golden Athena Swan 'Excellence in Gender Equality Award' from the University of Warwick in 2022.
• In 2023 she was awarded a certificate of recognition by the Gender Taskforce at Warwick for her continuous efforts to improve gender equality on campus.
• She has also received two international awards as a 'Social Worker' for Women's Empowerment in 2021.

Growing up in a country like India, with significant socio-economic disparities, especially in rural areas, and a culture deeply rooted in patriarchy, she could not help but notice that various women from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, ages, and cultures all faced some inequality. Observing the different obstacles women face in their fight for equality, she decided to overcome each one.

Her journey started at age 13 when she worked closely with government hospitals in India to provide them with the necessary equipment and facilities to increase access to healthcare. She also educated women in rural India about sex, menstruation, and hygiene, topics that are crucial but often taboo to discuss. Additionally, she taught English, Mathematics, and Arts to girls from underprivileged families.

Moreover, she raised over 500,000 Indian Rupees to sponsor the education of young girls who lost their soldier fathers in the Pulwama Attacks in 2019 and connected them to sponsors that guaranteed them employment.

Chayn has also pioneered a few initiatives here at Warwick. She co-founded the Indian National Student Association in 2022, providing students with career insights and networking opportunities. The society also focuses on addressing prominent issues such as gender inequality as they aim to increase the participation of women in STEM and finance.

Additionally, as the Head of Blogs, Magazines and Website at the Warwick Women's Career Society (WWCS), she curated and wrote articles, conducted CV clinics and hosted panel talks educating young women about different career opportunities and how to monetize them. Chayn pioneered the first podcast series for WWCS, where she interviewed leading women in different professions to advise young females on breaking into male-dominated industries.

Moreover, she has collaborated with Warwick's Chemistry department on their Designing for Inclusion program in 2023 to improve the participation of Women in STEM and Finance. Having designed and pitched initiatives such as coding programs, a community channel, and shark tank competitions for women to help increase their involvement across different fields and create a supportive environment. In the summer, Warwick IATL approved funds for the pitched project, which should be implemented soon.

Lastly, her social entrepreneurship flair has led to her recent venture, 'Synapse,' a registered media production company with a mission to create short films that dismantle dogma, raise awareness on mental health and gender inequality issues, and connect with the audience through their unique stories. She is producing her first short film, which focuses on raising awareness about depression and gender inequality.

Sophie Tam (Warwick Business School)

Sophie has demonstrated exceptional contribution and leadership, making a significant impact on citizenship, internationalisation, and entrepreneurial flairacross peer-to-peer, departmental, university, UK community, and international levels. Her influence spans three major areas:

The first area is. COVID-19 Recovery:

As the inaugural Head of Network in the COVID-19 Student Response Network, an online platform connecting consultancies with Non-Government Organisations struggling during the pandemic, Sophie played a pivotal role. Recognised by Boris Johnson, the former UK Prime Minister, for the leadership teams collaboration and ingenuity, she led an international team of six students and professionals. Here are three notable achievements:

• She oversaw the strategic direction for global expansion and the pitching strategy into America’s and Asia-Pacific, forging partnerships with 50+ consultancies in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US. This expansion ensured that the platform’s expertise reached a wider range of NGOs in need.
• She led major responses: the Malaysia Response and the India Response. These involved managing 80+ consulting projects, engaging 50+ consultants, and providing assistance to NGOs, contributing to pandemic recovery efforts.
• She transformed operations by initiating automated processes such as welcome emails and sign-up forms, significantly optimising the workflow for over 130 executives and 600 consultants.

The second major area of influence is Career Development:

Sophie’s impact as the President of Warwick Graphic Design and Marketing Society is transformative, shifting the society’s strategic focus from educating graphic design and marketing to an industry-level approach. Sophie led the coffee chat series, enabling students to directly network with 10+ employers. Expanding the society’s business-to-business initiatives. Through supporting User Interface (UI)/User Experience (UX) design and re-branding projects for 5+ clients such as Warwick Boring and The Open Acapella Community, she encouraged students to actively assume the role of ‘consultants’ rather than passive ‘learners’.

Sophie’s accomplishment as the WBS Placement Student of the Year in the Work International category highlights her exploration of unconventional career paths within the creative industry. Sophie actively advocates for alternative career options and inspires others as a mentor, providing guidance and support to 5+ incoming placement and exchange students. She has contributed to the internationalisation agenda of the university, fostering a more globally minded experience that prepares students for a rapidly evolving world.

Invited as a webinar speaker for Expivotal, a Human Resources consultancy, her presentation on Teamwork in the creative industry attracted an international audience of over 40 students and professionals, further highlighting her knowledge and ability to engage others.

Sophie’s third major area of influence is Equality, Diversity & Inclusion:

As the first group of the EDI Committee since its founding in 2020, Sophie played a key role in shaping the strategic direction and vision for EDI within the school. One of the notable accomplishments was the creation of a knowledge hub focusing on the nine protected characteristics. This knowledge hub aimed to raise awareness and educate over 1,000 students and staff members.

Sophie volunteered as a Human Library Volunteer, sharing her personal experiences in open discussions addressing LGBTQUIA+ and ethnic minorities. These one-to-one conversations with undergraduates and postgraduates allowed Sophie to directly engage with students with protected characteristics who felt disempowered, empowering them to embrace their own power and voice.

Rebecca Briggs (Warwick Medical School)

Rebecca has been nominated for this award for her work in setting up and ensuring sustainability for the Sydni Centre "Memory Lane Cafe". Rebecca is an exceptionally kind and caring person who has a passion for social prescribing and supporting people who are more vulnerable in our society. She has enacted this by setting up the memory lane cafe in Sydenham. She liaised with the centre manager to find out what the needs of the local population were and identified a need for support for people with, or at risk of dementia. She set up a committee of medical students with whom she visited other memory cafes and worked with Alzheimer’s UK. She obtained funding from Warwick Institute of Engagement to support the launch and has managed to get further funding from the local council for year 2.

Rebecca demonstrated incredible initiative working with centre managers, local NHS services (Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust as well as regional GPs) and national third sector organisations (Alzheimer’s UK) to develop the scheme.

The cafe appeared on Midlands Today and an interview with Rebecca was featured.

She has also spent hours putting up posters around the local community, talking to residents and leafleting sheltered housing.

Now in her final year she has recruited students to take over the committee, engaging with Warwick Volunteers for support. The plan w

as always to start a second location in Coventry once the first was established and it is fantastic that a Canley branch has now opened.

Rebecca is unique in her tireless commitment and passion for this project and despite its great success and her achievements, she remains modest and generous in the way she includes others and shares her knowledge of this area. She has been an advocate for people affected by dementia, an inspiration to other students and a great ambassador for the Medical School. Rebecca is a true beacon for the school and for students across the University.

Rebecca has also been awarded her Warwick Award for Public and Community Engagement (WAPCE) for the establishment of the Memory Lane Café, which provides a safe space for people with dementia and memory loss in Warwickshire to be able to connect, support each other and escape from the normal routines of life. The public engagement work Rebecca has pioneered will allow future Warwick medical students to engage with the local community in a meaningful way.

Kirsty Reed (Global Sustainable Development)

Kirsty is an exceptional final-year student in Global Sustainable Development (GSD). She is an incredibly

hardworking and passionate student, who truly embodies the University’s objective to embed learning experience in real world impact and promote meaningful change among young people and the wider society.

During her time at university, through a number of extra-curricular efforts and projects, she has offered remarkable contributions to youth development, disability inclusion, education co-production and community engagement.

Kirsty has volunteered and worked at the National Deaf Children’s Society. In recognition of her work, she was a keynote speaker at tw

o national conferences on deaf children and education: the British Association of Teachers of the Deaf (where she delivered a keynote on mental health, wellbeing and her experience as a deaf young person in education) and the National Deaf Children’s Society (where she spoke about co-production for deaf young people’s inclusion in education).

Kirsty has also been working part-time as a swimming teacher for Warwick Sport, she is Training Officer at Warwick Lifesaving Club, and has

volunteered as Welfare and Inclusion Officer at the British Universities Lifesaving Clubs Association, where she has led on issues of inclusion and contributed to the implementation of the newly created Diversity and Inclusion Policy, supporting equal access to this sport in British universities.

Her commitment to youth development and inclusion is also demonstrated by her work as a mentor for the UniversityGo pro

gramme with ThinkHigher, supporting access to higher education for care experienced young people across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Besides all the above, Kirsty is an incredible student, consistently showing dedication towards her studies through excellent results and enthusiastic participation.

Overall, Kirsty’s engagement with university life has been truly remarkable. At Warwick, she has also been contributing to an Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning supported project in Critical Employment Literacy as a student co-creator, advocating for the need for employability to be politically aware, empowering, holistic and collective. Working on this wider-University project, but specifically with GSD students, she ensured the relevance of the project to the GSD community. This is just one example of Kirsty’s commitment to student voice and co-creation, and her dedication to the GSD department, and in particular our community and the needs of our students.

Kirsty’s energy and passion have contributed significantly to Warwick’s community and the wider society. We strongly believe that her work towards the promotion of inclusion, participation and co-creation within education and beyond deserves recognition.

 

Alexander Reid (Economics)

Alex and his friends were workshopping ideas for a new sorting algorithm. They realised that they had a bigger vision than simply ranking undergraduates according to their popularity so why not make an app that would help to bring digital friendships off the screen and into the real world?

Alex explains: ‘’We all felt that social media has lost its way far from being social, these days it is about passive scrolling and the consumption of entertainment, often far removed from our own day to day lives so we decided to create a social media app that is grounded in our community, with all the content shared on the app being relevant to the real lives of its users and which puts the focus on enabling friendships in the real world.’’

Butterfly is only available to users with a Warwick student email, which keeps the content grounded in the realities of campus life. As well as creating their profile pages on the Butterfly ‘Flashcard,’ and posting thoughts and confessions, users can chat with their course-mates or explore societies and campus events before deciding to attend, taking a bit of the anxiety out of trying something new.

Regular giveaways and prizes keep the community engaged, and there are perks for registered users such as discounts. Alex says:

‘’We now have over 60 discounts at partner stores, exclusive to Butterfly users. Our partners now include Kasbah, Tenpin, Phat Buns, Royal Pug, and Boom Battle Bar Coventry’’. We also have a fantastic partnership with Benugo’’.

Commenting on the app, first year student Sofia said: “Butterfly has completely changed my university experience at Warwick. It has built my confidence and encouraged me to go to lots of events”.

Since its launch in September last year Butterfly has been downloaded 3,000 times. Its creators have won Warwick’s Student Enterprise Competition and been accepted onto Google’s Startups for Cloud Programme.

Brooke Beard (School of Life Sciences)

Brooke is a committed School of Life Sciences student and is the President of and helped to set up the Warwick Branch of Make a Smile, a charity dedicated to brightening the days of children with illnesses, disabilities and disadvantages by providing them with visits from their favourite characters (princesses, superheroes, mermaids…)

Along with her Executive team Brooke:

• Set up Make a Smile Warwick as an official society with Warwick Student Union.
• Set up bi-weekly visits to University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire and Warwick Hospital, and regular visits to local disability support groups and hospices.
• Recruited over 100 volunteers to the branch.
• Raised over £1000 for the charity.
• Made over 1000 'smiles' (visited over 1000 children).
• Committed over 250 hours of volunteering as a princess and President of the Charity branch.

Brooke’s work has not only had an impact while she has been doing all of this, but the dedication she has shown will create a legacy that means the charity work will continue once she graduates.

She also volunteers with Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital where she chats, plays games and helps run a movement group for patients recovering from stroke and other neurological illnesses and injuries.

Brooke has made an outstanding contribution to the lives of fellow university students that have also contributed to Make a Smile, and those that will contribute in the future. Most importantly her outstanding contribution has touched the lives of over a thousand children, so far. Those children and others that have witnessed Brooke’s work will know that she is a highlight of what the best of us at the University of Warwick can do. Aside from what Brooke has given, she has shown considerable entrepreneurial flair, for the benefit of many people, including for the benefit of the university.

This has all been delivered while excelling in her studies, working as a Course Representative and spending a year chairing the department’s undergraduate Student Staff Liaison Committee. She is truly an outstanding person, princess and President.

Saba Alhagagi (School of Life Sciences)

Saba is a is a final year Biomedical Science student who has substantially contributed to Warwick and the wider community since 2020, through her commitment to bringing people together and making sure that everyone around her has the same opportunities to succeed and give back.

She is immensely passionate about Science Communication and Public Engagement. As a university, we have unparalleled access to bleeding-edge research and knowledge, and she firmly believes that it is our social responsibility to disseminate what we know and get the public involved in research that directly affects them through collaboration and co-production, so that we can contribute to a fairer and healthier society.

Her interest in this started as early as her first year at university, where she volunteered at a science non-profit organisation, playing a pivotal role in facilitating several annual events designed to engage and inspire all demographics and audiences. This grew into organising public engagement events in her department, delivering her own activities supported by successful grant applications, and connecting other researchers with community partners and charities.

Saba’s dedication to public engagement is exceptional, and this is evident by the fact that she is the only undergraduate student to hold positions as a senior fellow, and chair of a learning circle for two years, at Warwick’s Institute of Engagement. In these roles, she has contributed strategically to enhancing the provision for students to get involved in Public Engagement at Warwick, by advocating for students and societies to have the opportunity to lead, design and fulfil their own projects, access suitable funding and gain recognition for their work.

Additionally, she has been a panel reviewer for various funding calls at WIE and has worked with academics across the university to embed public engagement training into their modules.

She is a huge advocate of outreach and widening participation and has worked with 10 plus primary and secondary schools in Coventry, championing students, particularly women from underrepresented backgrounds, to pursue careers in STEM through inspirational science talks and workshops.

Saba’s commitment to ensuring equitable access to higher education is highlighted by continuous roles in mentoring GCSE and A-Level students throughout her degree, through the Warwick Scholars program, where she supports many students with their learning, demystifies university life and encourages them to widen their horizons.

For these students in particular, the transition to higher education is a daunting process which should be readily supported by universities. She has worked with university staff on developing inclusive frameworks to ensure that curricula are more accessible and learning environments can foster a sense of belonging, which thereby increase academic confidence in students for a more fulfilling university experience.

Throughout her time at Warwick, she has maintained an active involvement with student life, holding an exec position at Warwick BioSoc, being a student ambassador in her department’s Staff Student Liaison Committee, fundraising over £500 for charities and emergency relief funds, and fostering a sense of community among her cohort.

She has also empowered other students at the School of Life Sciences, leveraging her own summer research studentships so that she can help them to improve their CVs, get in contact with academics, and figure out how to fund their lab experience during their undergraduate degree