The awards celebrate the achievements of students and alumni volunteers in the 2021/2022 academic year.

The awards were hosted by Tracy Bhamra, Senior Vice Principal at Royal Holloway and featured guest speakers, Moses Seitler and Diwa Ayubi from the charity Refugee Education UK, a national charity that supports education programmes for refugees in the UK.

41 students were presented with awards by Principal Paul Layzell DL at the ceremony, recognising their impact in the local community.

The Mayor of Runnymede, Councillor Margaret Harden, presented the Mayor’s Cup to student, Daniel Phillips, Team Leader of the ‘Love your Community’ project which set up a pen-pal scheme for students last year, as well as numerous events with local schools and a special gift box initiative, resulting in 144 boxes being given to NHS frontline workers during the pandemic. The Community Action Cup was awarded to the Royal Holloway Students’ Union Rock and Metal society for their amazing collection of donations to Runnymede Foodbank, supporting local people in a food crisis.

This year, Royal Holloway, presented a new award in memory of Bob O’Keefe, who was Vice Principal for External Engagement and joined Royal Holloway in 2012. Bob was a supporter of volunteering and community engagement at the university and the Bob O’Keefe Award recognises out-of-the-box creative thinking. The award was presented to Milo Dack, who has worked with the Mentality and Russian Speakers societies to organise a donation drive for Ukrainian refugees.

Phil Simcock, Volunteering Manager at Royal Holloway, said: “We were delighted to be able to hold this year’s volunteering awards in person on the eve of Volunteers’ Week and recognise the brilliant work carried out by our student volunteers in the local community.

“This year also marks the first year that Royal Holloway’s Volunteering Hub has been open. Since September we have had hundreds of student visitors to the hub, to learn more about the volunteering opportunities available in the local community through the university.

“So far, this academic year 592 students signed up as volunteers and Royal Holloway Volunteers recorded 4,000 hours of volunteering. These volunteers participated with over fifty different community partners and student-led projects including charities, schools, local councils and other non-profit organisations.

“ As well as this, over 60 students are due to volunteer abroad in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Peru and Thailand in the Summer, with our partner Challenges Abroad as part of the government’s Turing Scheme.”

This September the Festival of Volunteering returns to Royal Holloway, if your charity or a voluntary organisation you know would like to be represented at this volunteer recruitment event then please get in contact via email.

More information about Royal Holloway’s award winning volunteering programme can be found online.