That's a Wrap on Student Impact Awards

Our first-ever Student Impact awards occurred just before Summer Ball on June 6th, and what a night it was! 

We’ve had an absolutely incredible year, supporting our 1,029 elected Student Leaders build and develop their communities, introducing our Priority 8, facilitating and running over 2,000 inclusive events for our membership, and launching our brand-new strategy: Building Community and Leading Change. 

Student leaders are what make Royal Holloway a community. They work tirelessly to represent, advocate and bring together their communities to ensure every student finds their home and their why. We have 184 student-led communities and collectively they have run 2,602 events for their 4,271 members and wider audiences. The Student Impact Awards was centred around celebrating these incredible students at Royal Holloway. 

We’ve listed our winners and shortlist below and we are so proud of what they have achieved. Click the button below to learn more about what each Student Impact Winner has achieved this year. 

Find out more about the winners  

COMMUNITY LEADER OF THE YEAR 

Winner: Farha Faisal, International Students Community Officer 

Shortlist: Grace Hagon, Darcy Masters 

Caption: Farha Faizal (Community Leader Winner)  

ACADEMIC COMMUNITY OF THE YEAR 

Winner: Classics Society 

Shortlist: Elise Eriksson, Womxn of Colour in LSS 

Caption: Classics Society (Academic Community Winner)  

STUDENT CAMPAIGNER OF THE YEAR 

Winner: Molly Hanning 

Shortlist: Jakob Bird, Poppy Coates 

Caption: Molly Hanning (Student Campaigner Winner) and Sharanya Sivarajah (SU President 24/25)  

STUDENT INCLUSIVITY CHAMPION OF THE YEAR 

Winner: Jakob Bird 

Shortlist: Grace Hagon, Jamie Bamba 

Caption: Jakob Bird (Student Inclusivity Champion Winner)  

 STUDENT ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR 

Winner: Claude Kumar 

Shortlist: Dominika Biel, Eleanor Wooller 

Caption: Jamie Bamba (Student Inclusivity Champion Shortlist) with Claude Kumar (Student Advocate Winner) 

STUDENT STAFF MEMBER OF THE YEAR 

Winner: Jessica Clayton-Rowley  

Shortlist: Alana Penney, Eiman Elsir 

Caption:  

• Image 9: Jess Clayton-Rowley (Student Staff Member Winner) 

• Image 10: Eiman Elsir (L) (Student Staff Member Shortlist)  

• Image 11: Alana Penney (L) (Student Staff Member Shortlist) with her Manager, Elise Thornton (R) (Research and Insight Coordinator)  

COLLABORATION AND CODESIGN AWARD 

Winner: Katie Green 

Shortlist: Rachel Graham and Vanessa Law & Iona Sweeney 

Caption:  

• Image 12: Katie Green (Collaboration and Codesign Winner) 

• Image 13: Rachel Graham (L) (Collaboration and Codesign Shortlist) and Matt Searle (R) (Head of Student Engagement and Insights)   

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO UNIVERSITY LIFE  

Winner: Poppy Coates 

Shortlist: Islamic Society (Honorary Mention), Eleanor Wooler 

Caption:  

• Image 14: Poppy Coates (R) (Outstanding Contribution Winner) and Julie Sanders (R) (Vice-Chancellor and Principal)  

• Image 15: L-R – Rory Shanks (Lay Trustee and Vice-Chair of RHSU Board), Julie Sanders (Vice-Chancellor and Principal), Tony Logan (RHSU CEO)  

THANK YOU!  

We are so proud of all our student leaders and are in awe of all they have achieved this year. We have witnessed them work tirelessly to deliver the best for their peers and to build a community on campus. Not to mention, they have also done these amazing things alongside their studies!  

We’d like to thank staff at all levels across the University and the Students’ Union for a year of incredible collaboration. The Student Impact Awards was proof that when we work in partnership, we can deliver so many incredible things alongside our student leaders.  

It was a wonderful inaugural Student Impact Awards, and I can't wait to see from afar what you all get up to next year! Congratulations once again and we’ll see you for next year’s Student Impact Awards!