This year, the LSE Volunteer Centre will be recognising a new award, Voluntary Group of the Year! This award is dedicated to student groups who work together to do meaningful volunteering; this may include societies or other student groups who go above and beyond to engage with the community through voluntary work.  

The award-winning group will be announced at our in-person LSE Volunteer Awards ceremony on Thursday 2 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!

Baytree Centre – Community Engagement Programme Team (Eleanor Williams, Shani Adesanya, Gabriele Maggi, Kalli Dockrill, Farah Irna Ang, Tarushi Argawal)

One: The Community Engagement Programme student team volunteering as consultants for the Baytree Centre produced a high-quality report for the charity, winning one of the ‘highly commended’ awards at the Community Engagement Programme conference. The team appeared to work seamlessly together, investing a considerable amount of time and energy in their project. They received excellent feedback from the charity, who are keen to sustain the relationship via other (related) volunteering opportunities. Thank you for your commitment and hard work!

Two: The team were incredible from start to finish. They took initiative and brought lots of really interesting ideas and perspectives to the project. The report is amazing and completed to a very high standard of quality. The Baytree centre and myself appreciate all of their support and hard work.

City Year UK – Research Volunteering Scheme Team (Ira Georgia Stamatiou, Yufei Zhou, Antonis Hadjiosif)

The Research Volunteering Scheme student team volunteering for City Year UK worked incredibly hard right from the scheme’s outset. They forged strong relations with each other and invested a lot of time, energy and expertise in their project, showing great amounts of diligence. The team was also wonderful to correspond with and 100% reliable.

HandsOff LSE (Georgie Andrews, Zarina Huq, Ellen Gisto, Lottie Lewis, Vandana Venkataraman, Emma Do, Camilla Tiana, Anaelle Thoreau, and Erifili Philippides)

HandsOff LSE has had an immensely difficult year this year. From supporting survivors through disclosures and reporting, to organising a response and action in the wake of the recent revelations in The Beaver, this hard and emotional work has been non-stop for the campaign. Despite this ongoing work, HandsOff have also organised events throughout the year to tackle rape culture on campus. To name a few, HandsOff have launched the ‘Anonymous Disclosures’ form, giving survivors a space to share their stories, hosted the first annual ‘locker room talk’, organised HandsOff sway (which raised over £3,000 for The Survivors Trust), hosted two HandsOff self-defence sessions, organised the Carol Pledge, arranged sexual health testing on campus and a ‘supporting male survivors’ event, and facilitated Consent Education workshops for hundreds of students. Georgie, Zarina, Ellen, and Camilla have shown immense dedication to this cause, and I continue to admire them and their work every day.

LSESU 93% Club

• Participation in fifty events, initiatives and activities completed by the end of the academic year, fostering inclusion, equity, and empowerment for state-educated students.
• Each event organised is purposeful and original, maximising the impact of the committee’s volunteering efforts.
• One criterion guides the group; members’ needs and their feedback.
• Members’ feedback highlights transformative impact: career and academic advancements, increased accessibility to the university, and enhanced sense of belonging.
• Flexible, year-round, volunteering opportunities available to all members.
• Other LSE and LSESU groups have been inspired to focus on empowering state-educated students and promoting equity.
• The society has been revitalised from scratch, with no legacy, to successfully acquiring support from charities, speakers, and companies.

LSESU RAG

This student group stands out as the deserving LSE Volunteer Group of the Year for their unparalleled commitment to enhancing charity relations and their pivotal role in the LSE RAG. Their tireless efforts extend beyond just event participation; they have also excelled in organising events that have successfully raised significant funds for Safe Passage & other charities. By consistently informing and engaging the community about upcoming events and making strategic visits to organisations like Safe Passage to discuss and refine fundraising ideas, they’ve significantly amplified their impact. Their ability to mobilize resources and people towards meaningful causes, thereby raising substantial funds for charities, exemplifies their dedication and effectiveness as a volunteer group. Their actions not only bridge the gap between LSE and the wider community but also set a powerful example of how collective efforts can lead to substantial support for those in need.

Residential Life (Caroline Bazambanza, Katherine Ajibade, Ikenna Acholonu)

In 2023 Residential Services launched a new strategy which focused on creating a sustainable LSE, creating a sustainable home for learning and investing in our community – all strands of the ‘Shape the world’ 2030 strategy. We will grow from 4,000 student bed spaces to over 6,000, enabling us to guarantee an offer of accommodation to all new first year students.  To support this, we will officially open ‘Robeson House’ in 2024 offering 676 bed spaces for our students.

Robeson House is named after Eslanda Cordozo Goode Robeson (1895-1965) who studied at LSE from 1933-1935 and in the Lent term of the session 1937-38. Eslanda Robeson was an anti-racist, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist, and feminist. She is remembered as a unique black woman of her time. Over the past 6 months, students Caroline Bazambanza, Katherine Ajibade and Ikenna Acholonu – PHD students in the Department of Anthropology have carefully and sensitively researched Eslanda Robeson.

The volunteer research group have selected several images of Eslanda and her family, which will be prominently displayed throughout the new hall. Caroline, Katherine and Ikenna have also created text, QR codes and online blogs that will complement each image. With the support of the PHD research group we have been able to tell the story of Eslanda for future students and staff to appreciate. Residential Services look forward to continuing the excellent volunteer work of these students, and ensuring their personal contribution is reflected within Robeson House

Spring ACT – Community Engagement Programme Team (Zainab Ali, Weili Zhai Bay, Clara Ng, Alyse Andre, Yi Jiang, Érika Huartos-Casteneda)

The Community Engagement Programme student team volunteering as consultants for Spring ACT received excellent feedback from their charity partner. They worked consistently hard throughout the programme, forging a strong relationship with their clients from the outset and conducting extensive research to inform their consultancy report. The enthusiasm the team emanated throughout the programme was a real joy to experience. Thank you for your commitment and hard work.

Students Talk About Loss (Joss, Sarita, Zoe)

Students Talk About Loss at LSE is a volunteer-led group that organises meetups for bereaved students to talk about their experience of loss and grief in a safe and welcoming space. The volunteers that run these sessions are compassionate, caring and professional who are looking to support their fellow students through incredibly difficult times. Finding such a space in an incredibly busy city and university isn’t always easy and these student volunteers have made LSE a more caring place through their volunteering.

Sustainable LSE Recycling Audits Volunteering Group (Yamini Samineni, Zoey Chen, Ella Zhao, Melisa Maiju)

Sustainable LSE is only possible thanks to the dedication of LSE’s students. As part of our programming to collect data to inform sustainable programming within halls of residence, Sustainable LSE in partnership with SOS-UK runs recycling audits twice annually.

Yamini, Zoey, Ella, and Melisa participated in both audits, however I would like to highlight their effort and enthusiasm in November 2023. Despite having recruited 9 volunteers, only these four showed up and shouldered far more than their previously discussed workload, volunteering for longer hours and without any hesitation. Ella even audited directly before an exam and came to support a mega-engagement event in January 2024 just out of the pure enjoyment of the experience!

Through their efforts we were able to coordinate with halls managers to audit 205 kitchens and collect necessary data on the recycling habits and efficiency of students, which improved before the second audit. This was only possible with their help!

You can read more about the nominees for Volunteer of the Year in part 1 and part 2 and Voluntary Organisation of the Year!