Volunteer Awards

Our annual Volunteer Awards, which began in 2016, celebrate volunteers from across our campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia. The awards recognise people who have made outstanding contributions to the university and its community, showing exceptional dedication, creativity, innovation or leadership.

Congratulations to our 2022 winners!

Alumni Volunteer of the Year

Winner: Tobi Ruth Adebekun (French and International Media with Communications, 2014)

Volunteer roles: Ask a Graduate Ambassador, Attainment Gap Advisor, Career Mentor, Languages alumni speaker, BAME speaker.
Nominated by: Wayne Crawford – Volunteer and Advocacy Manager and Suzanne McGregor – Faculty Careers and Employability Consultant.

Tobi's nomination: Tobi has given her time to an extraordinary array of student experience, employability and highly strategic EDI projects at the university since early 2017. She shows a demonstrable commitment to EDI, something she has also done outside of her university volunteering as an Advisory Board member for BME PR Pros. We heartily recommend Tobi Ruth as she is a fantastic, positive and inspiring graduate who has a great attitude towards supporting current Nottingham students and being extremely generous with her time.

Meet Tobi: Like many students out there, I went to university with no idea what I wanted to do. Despite that uncertainty, I took a lot away from my time at the university both professionally and personally, so I am always more than happy to give back.

There is no one route into a career and there are new businesses being founded every single day – countless opportunities if students remain open, flexible and curious about the world. I hope my career journey helps them to see that. Finally, I have benefitted from the most amazing mentors and coaches in every job I’ve had and know how vital that support has been to my progression and success. As a Black woman working in predominantly white (and often male) spaces, it’s very important to me to be visible and approachable to young Black women so I can support them as they take the first steps in their career.

Highly commended: Erin Connelly (Medieval English, 2008)

Community Volunteer of the Year

Winner: Marko Voẞ

Volunteer role: HealthScout app creator and developer.
Nominated by: Joanne Stocks – Senior Research Fellow.

Marko's nomination: In March 2020, university colleagues wanted to commission the development of an app to monitor health changes during the pandemic. Unfortunately, all research fund spending was blocked. An international hackathon met in April 2020, creating solutions to problems arising due to Covid-19. I joined as a research scientist and Marko, a German developer, was assigned to help with my request to develop a study app. 

Marko worked free for over 18 months, for a foreign university he had no previous connection with. We now have an invaluable resource for future research studies and collaborations which would not have been possible without Marko’s tireless work.

Highly commended: Paul Dunnery (Summer Placement Host), John Birkill (Manager for Phoenix Aspirational Learning) 

Longstanding Volunteers

This award recognises individuals who have shown sustained and substantial commitment to the university for a period of at least four years. In 2022 we're delighted to share this award with the following volunteers:

Abigail Seager • Adebowale Dairo AKA Hakeem • Alastair Perry • Amanda Ferguson • Amanda Riddle • Amanda Howard-Sneyd (Horton Mastin) • Amy Prosser • Anastasia Makeeva • Andrew McNaughton • Anju Okhandiar • Carl Mundy • Carmen B Swanwick-Roa • Charles Pollard • Choong Hiong D Lee • Christopher Yim • Ciara Deall • Corinne Leighton • Craig Coulson • Dale Gilbert • David Clarke • Donna Omovbude • Eleri Davies • Elizabeth Tallett Wavle • Fernando De Barros Smye Frances O'Donnell • Giles Woodhouse • Gordon Lindsay • Graham Kill • Ian Sadler • Imran Rahman-Jones • James Hewlett • Jennifer Evans • Jerome Fielder • Jing Tang • Jingyi Fu • Jo McPhail • Jonathan Hughes • Karen Schrader • Karrish Devan • Keith Bound • Keith Spriggs • Kiri Madhani • Marianna Laviola • Martin Cooper • Martin Wolf • Matthew Lawson • Michael Harriott • Mohamed Hameed Sadurdeen AKA Ismail • Paul Kitchen • Peter Johnstone • Philip Pickard • Robert Clift • Roy Chambers • Rupert Hough • Sameen Barabhuiya • Samuel Uziel Rivero Prado • Sara Holland • Siaka Suma • Stephanie Dizon • Sudipta Mohanty • Thomas Lansdowne • Tim Calderhead • Ursula Edgington

Our previous recipients