The LSE Volunteer Centre has received some fantastic nominations for the LSE Volunteer of the Year Award 2023! Students have been nominated by charities, fellow LSE students and LSE members of staff. We’re incredibly proud to be home to so many committed, enthusiastic and passionate student volunteers. The award winners will be announced at our in-person LSE Volunteer Awards ceremony on Wednesday 3 May, and we’ll be tasked with the difficult decision of choosing them. Congratulations to the following nominees for their excellence in volunteering while being students at the LSE and read more about them below!

Helen Bourne (BSc International Social and Public Policy, 2025)  

• Role: SVA, National City Park Foundation Trustee Advisor, Student Union, LSESU 93% Club
• Helen’s enthusiasm for volunteering know no bounds. She has involved herself in so many projects and organisations over the past year and made a difference at all of them. In her role as a Student Volunteering Ambassador she has spent hours talking to other students about why they might want to volunteer and how they can do so. Additionally she helped organise Student Volunteering Week putting on an incredible week of events for fellow students packed full of activities and charities coming on to campus. Aside from this she is also a trustee advisor for the National City Park Foundation, on the committee for the LSESU 93% Club and has just been elected as a trustee for the LSE Student’s Union. She had made an incredible impact from day one and I have no doubt she’ll continue to do in the rest of her time at LSE. 

Rebekah Cathcart (MSc International Social and Public Policy, 2023) 

• Role: Digital Skills Training Volunteer with Breaking Barriers 
• In Rebekah‘s role she works one-on-one with people of refugee background, teaching them essential digital skills like how to use Microsoft Office and Google Suite and how to remain safe online. Rebekah has been one of our most committed volunteers on the programme. She has supported several clients over a long period, and we have seen the way that clients have improved over time from their continued work with Rebekah. We have had great feedback about Rebekah‘s performance from our clients, who say she is extremely patient and always makes them feel comfortable and confident in sessions. Rebekah has gone above and beyond the responsibilities of her role, creating unique support guides for specific clients who struggle with citation, Excel, or other specific skills. Rebekah‘s involvement has led to increased confidence in our refugee clients, supported them in their employment journey and helped them build wider independence during resettlement. A huge thank you to Rebekah! 

Park Chatsiriwech (BSc Financial Mathematics and Statistics, 2023)  

• Role: Student Academic Mentor 
• Park is my student academic mentor, who has given me much support throughout the year.We have met over 5 times, and she kindly gave me plenty of useful suggestions for both my study and intern applications. To be more specific, I was extremely stressed at the end of MT because of time management, and she kindly arranged several meetings to share her experience and discuss the best solutions for me. I want to say huge thanks for her unconditional support so that I can achieve satisfactory results in the end, and she deserves this volunteer award for her patience and effort made in the past year. 

Zoe Cordner (BSc Environment and Development, 2025) 

• Role: Volunteer with Students Talk about Loss
• Zoe‘s immeasurable contribution to this year’s programme of Students Talks About Loss meetups has derived principally from her instinctive ability to validate other people’s feelings and to make them feel comfortable while discussing an enormously difficult topic. She has supported the group right from the start, coming on board in September, and quickly took on a facilitation role, helping students to open up about their own experiences by offering personal insights, showing empathy, and listening actively. She also showed dedication by attending almost every meetup despite a busy personal schedule. I am just in awe of the courage and emotional sensitivity that she demonstrated by taking on this role in her first year at LSE, alongside all of the challenges and upheavals that starting at university entails. 

Sarah Finkel (MSc Environment and Development, 2023) 

• Role: Communications Volunteer with WONDER Foundation 
• As a communications volunteer with WONDER, Sarah has been a dedicated writer, undertaking research and crafting engaging articles for our website. Her work supports our fundraising and communications team, demonstrating WONDER’s impact and giving our supporter and followers a deeper understanding of the challenges women and girls face when accessing education. Sarah helps fill a vital role at a small charity and contributes to our ability to support thousands and women and girls around the world each year.

Hannah Gillott (BSc Politics and Philosophy, 2024) 

• Role: Peer Support Scheme 
• Hannah has been really pro-active in putting in place one of the recommendations from last year’s Changemakers report, and providing admin for all students accessing the scheme via an online form. She has also been heavily involved in supporting students directly herself, and has just been elected as LGBT officer in the SU for 2023-24. Thank you Hannah for all the time and effort you have put in to supporting others.

Maya Kaul (BSc Economics, 2023)   

• Role: SVA, Salusbury World mentor, WONDER Foundation Intern, Foodbank collection 
• Maya is graduating this summer and it is hard to imagine how someone could dedicate this much time to volunteering during their time at LSE. From taking part in the first edition of the Community Engagement Programme in 2021 to volunteering with Salusbury World as a mentor, an intern at the Wonder Foundation, helping organise a foodbank collection and being a dedicated Student Volunteering Ambassador in the past academic year. She has made a huge difference to so many people in all of these roles. Her dedication to helping others benefit from volunteering shines through with her work being a Student Volunteering Ambassador too. She helped organise a fantastic Student Volunteering Week and as part of it ran a one-off volunteering opportunity for students and staff to write letters of advice about university to young people that Salusbury World work with. Throughout all of this she is humble and the ultimate team player. LSE will miss her when she graduates. 

Dowon Kim (MSc International Relations, 2023) 

• Role: Communications Intern with WONDER Foundation
• As a communications intern at WONDER, Dowon plays a key role in helping us reach new donors, share our work, and continue to support thousands of women and girls around the world each year. Dowon is creative and dedicated, taking the initiative to edit videos that demonstrate WONDER’s impact and share updates from our partners. In fact, one of our partners (the Baytree Centre in Brixton) was so impressed by her work that they asked her to lead a photography workshop for teenage girls. This means that not only has Dowon supported WONDER from a marketing perspective, she has now taken an active role in providing education to girls with our partner organisations. Dowon is always reliable, and has given much of her time while balancing a master’s degree to improve the lives of women and girls. 

Kajal Knight (BSc Poliitcs and History, 2024) 

• Role: Producer of the London Child Poverty Summit with The Childhood Trust 
• Kajal was solely responsible for producing our London Child Poverty Summit. Over a four month period Kajal, (19yrs old ) grew in confidence and stature as she utilised her skills and knowledge. Kajal helped to shape the programme, came up with ideas for panellists, worte briefing papers and then approached very high level and senior figures to request their particpation in the summit. The LCPS was sold-out and attended by over 300 people. The programme was widely praised for it’s representation of young people and Kajal played an important part in ensuring this outcome. Kajal worked tirelessly to make the summit a success. All of the young people who attended and spoke felt they had made a major contribution to the debate around child poverty in London. The importance of their contribution was acknowledged by the Deputy Mayor for Social Inclusion as well as politicians from all the major parties.

Wei Chee Leung (BSc Accounting and Finance, 2023)  

• Role: Peer Support Scheme 
• Wei Chee has been in charge of the peer support Instagram account this year, spreading the message of available support far and wide, and a real champion for the scheme.

• Estefania Asturizaga Lozano(MSc Gender, Development and Globalisation)  
  • Role: WONDER Volunteer 
  • Estefania has taken leadership on exploring the post-COVID, cost-of-living crisis challenges affecting Latin American women using the services of our partner, the Baytree Centre, in Lambeth. Latin American women are typically overlooked and often invisible in statistics, and those with low levels of English or education often struggle to engage with services that they are entitled to, or to make the most of them. Estefania persevered to conduct her interviews with women whose timetables and lives are very changeable. She built trust with her interviewees, making the interview process very dignified for them. Her research is informing WONDER’s work with this demographic, and we hope to publish it in the future.

Mary Ann MacDonald (BSc International Relations and History, 2025)

• Role: SVA, Office and Communications Volunteer at CAFOD
• Mary Ann has shown a huge amount of dedication to volunteering in her first year at LSE. From helping organise a food drive on campus to blogging about volunteering within international development and being part of the team that helped organise Student Volunteering Week she has helped inspire the LSE community to volunteer for causes which they are passionate about. She has also dedicated a lot of time to volunteering with CAFOD and has invited them on to campus to help them recruit other students from LSE. She has been fantastic from her first day at LSE and I look forward to seeing her future achievements.

Leon Madakbas (BSc International Relations and History, 2024) 

• Role: Peer Support Scheme 
• Leon is a dedicated peer supporter who has been fully committed to the scheme and demonstrated his ability to go above and beyond in his support of others.  Thank you, Leon, for your time and effort.

Sarah Onifade (BSc International Relations, 2024) 

• Role: Tutor with the Nation, Human Appeal, Student Volunteering Ambassador, Peer Support Scheme
• Actively participated in LSE peer support group, and advocated for funding for black-led well-being workshops. Founded and lead the “Uplift Black Students” campaign, which was unanimously approved as a policy proposal to address EDI concerns and issues faced by black students at LSE. Volunteered as a Student Volunteer Ambassador and organised a mental health awareness day for LSE Volunteer Week. Collaborated with Tutor the Nation to tutor a sociology student. Organised a free headshot event for Bankside students as an LSE peer supporter. Contributed to the Rejoin Stonewall campaign group and participated in the staff-student UCU solidarity action. Served as a core team member of Occupy LSE, which focuses on visible solidarity among students and staff.Sarah‘s extensive volunteer experience showcases her dedication to serving her community and making a positive impact. Her leadership as a volunteer ambassador and co-head of student volunteer week demonstrate her commitment to promoting volunteering and ensuring that volunteers feel supported and appreciated. Through her organisation of a mental health day, Sarah showed a holistic approach to volunteering by prioritising the well-being of volunteers themselves. Her inclusion of activities such as yoga, arts, and study sessions highlights her understanding that volunteer work can be emotionally taxing and that self-care is crucial. Overall, Sarah‘s passion for volunteering, her leadership skills, and her focus on volunteer well-being make her deserving for Student Volunteer of the Year. 

Read Part 2 of our fantastic student nominees!