Outstanding Student Contribution Awards given out at Warwick summer graduation ceremony

Eight students have been announced as the recipients of an Outstanding Student Contribution Award (OSCA) during this summer’s Degree Congregation ceremonies, an award given by the University of Warwick to recognise exceptional student achievement.

In awarding OSCA’s, the University aims “to celebrate individuals whose efforts have made a difference”, whether it be campaigning for good causes, raising money for charities, starting a small business or working with local charities.

A nomination for an OSCA can be made by any member of the University community, student or staff, as long as the nominated student is in their final year of study (this includes Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral level students).

On this year’s panel which selected the winners was Registrar Rachel Sandby-Thomas, Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Hughes, Student Union President Hope Worsdale and Student Union Education Officer Liam Jackson.

While five of the recipients were presented with the award during their graduation ceremony this summer, Kieran Hall and Anna York’s OSCA will be presented to them at the January 2019 Degree Congregation ceremonies.

The first recipient of an OSCA this year was German Studies and Sociology student, Helen McLaughlin. Helen, who has spina-bifida, which requires her to use a wheelchair or walking frame, is recognised for her support towards disabled, disadvantaged, and vulnerable people – both on campus and in the wider community.

During her year abroad in Lbbecke in Germany she secured a placement at a home for people with learning disabilities where she helped shape local disability policies and acted as an advisor to regional government. She also gave presentations on the British system of disability support to social work students at Bielefeld Fachhochschule, the second largest educational institute in Bielefeld, Germany.

Throughout her last year at Warwick, Helen was also the Welfare and Access Officer for Warwick Enable, a role which saw her, among other notable actions, set up a student council to improve user feedback to Disability Services and researching and improving the access to universities for disabled school pupils.

The University aims “to celebrate individuals whose efforts have made a difference”, whether it be campaigning for good causes, raising money for charities, starting a small business or working with local charities

The next OSCA recipient was Sophie Miller, whose work with the English Department led to her being known as ‘the face of Creative Writing at Warwick’. She has represented the English Department at almost every open and offer holder day as well as blog for the Department for three years.

Along with working with the Outreach Services team to run a workshop for pupils in a local school, Sophie was a member of the English Department Staff Student Liaison Committee and winner of Undergraduate Outstanding Course Rep Award 2017/18, an award granted at the Student Union’s Representation Awards as a result of her work overhauling the module selection and timetabling processes and changing degree structures.

Aside from her work with the English Department, Sophie is also head steward for the Mead Gallery and volunteer for Girl Guiding UK. On top of this, she also had a lengthy period of chronic illness, which culminated in the diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/M.E.

Manan Mehta received his OSCA for his commitment to helping underprivileged children in developing countries. Collaborating with ‘Warwick Raising and Giving’ and ‘Childreach International’ Manan helped to raise money towards making education accessible for those in most need.

He volunteered in the ‘Warwick in Africa‘ program, acting as a volunteer teacher for six weeks during the summer of 2017 in the township of Alexandra, South Africa. There he taught Maths to 250 children worked with the local community to create an outdoor place for children to play.

Manan has also been associated with Warwick Emerging Markets Society as a writer and Warwick Politics Society as a panellist along with being an advocate for mental wellbeing, speaking about happiness in a TEDxWarwick talk entitled ‘If you needed 100 reasons to be happy, money could buy 70 of them’.

Asked about his time as a student at Warwick by The Boar, Manan said that “from a timid fresher to passionate graduate, Warwick has given me the space to accomplish feats”.

“The wonderful people, extraordinary experiences and diverse cultures and ideas has made me a very open-minded person ready to catapult setbacks into future success.

“Warwick has also instilled this pair of lens that makes me an inherently curious and excited person. The award is a reminder that I must keep pouring passion into all I do and that you must be the change you wish to see around you.”

The award is a reminder that I must keep pouring passion into all I do and that you must be the change you wish to see around you

– Manan Mehta

During his time at Warwick Business School, Umar Taj, showed a high level of entrepreneurialism for which he received an OSCA. He invented a crowd-sourcing activity which brings together teams of students called the ‘Nudgeathon’, to challenge problems faced by society today.

Working with Gallup International, Umar helped them devise surveys, alongside the principles of behavioural science. For this, he developed a relationship between Gallup and academics at Warwick, a relationship that become part of a successful recent major research bid.

Umar has also been closely associated with the United Nations Development Programme in Pakistan. One of his projects involved getting young people at risk of extremism to learn a trade in Karachi, resulting in over 2,000 at-risk young adults obtaining jobs. He developed a “rule of law” index for Pakistani provinces too, the purpose which is to classify provinces according to how well they conform to the law.

Another of this year’s OSCA recipients was Physics student, Clement Mawby. He was dedicated to the Tocil Wood Conservation project, for which he volunteered for more than 500 hours and also Leamington Winter Support, a homeless shelter where he often stays overnight and helps to serve food.

Clement also joined ‘Rawkus’ food collection, a collection service which redistributes surplus food at the end of each term, in his first year and is currently an organiser, actively promoting Rawkus clean-up events.

Aside from his charity work, Clement has given a talk on Alan Turing’s life and works at a Drama Society theatre production. He has also lead Physics outreach events, such as the Christmas lectures and the Science Gala, amongst others and is the academic lead for the undergraduate Physics Society.

“It’s been an honour to win this award for my contributions, but I have done none of them alone; I give a heartfelt thanks to every single one of you who I’ve worked with, volunteered with, or been supported by”, Clement told The Boar.

“It is never too late to start helping others, and any amount of time will help. Your best bet is to attend the volunteering fair next year, and look for a project that interests you, and that would benefit from your own unique set of talents. It’s very worthwhile – you can change people’s lives. It’s also way more fun than you’ll expect!”

The final recipient of an OSCA this year was Hasan Suida. Throughout his time at Warwick, Hasan volunteered for the Warwick Laksh Programme, which offers free extra-curricular tuition to over 1000 children, in partnership with the Laksh Foundation, India.

Whilst on placement, Hasan worked with the Laksh teaching team which was made up of members of the local community. He helped design workshops to challenge and empower the teachers and now continues to help the team devise training plans for subsequent volunteers.

Hasan also made contributions to other activities and societies on campus including Ted-X, The Boar, Warwick in Africa and the Philosophy, Politics and Economics society.