The Provost's Prize has been awarded to four students who have made a significant contribution to the College community during their time at King's.
The winners of this year's prize are graduate student Brenna Salkin and undergraduates Tom Matthew, Sky Wallis and Mizanur Rahman. The awards were conferred by the Provost with the following citations:
Brenna Salkin has played a major part in the life of the College, both as an undergraduate and as an MPhil student this year. During her four years at King’s her contributions have been many and varied: from sharing her insights on university life with prospective applicants as a student ambassador with the Access and Outreach team; to her long stint as Chair of KCSU in which she provided much-needed continuity during the upheaval of the pandemic, and deputised on the College Council when the KCSU President and Vice-President were indisposed; to working with the Senior Tutor to bring about some important reforms to how KCSU elections are held; and more recently her role as Women’s and Non-Binary Officer for KCGS, through which she has provided helpful and practical advice in helping shape the College’s plans to mark the 50th anniversary of the admission of women. An ever-friendly presence around King’s, Brenna has shown boundless dedication to making meaningful change at King’s in a constructive and collaborative way.
Tom Matthew is largely responsible for reinvigorating King’s Politics. His efforts have been symbolic of the recovery from the pandemic, bringing together members of the College and the wider University for some fascinating events with high-profile speakers from a broad range of perspectives. Putting these events on has involved some incredibly hard work, which he has done while negotiating the difficult environment of the pandemic and the logistical challenges that it created, from putting together a speaker programme to dealing with detailed arrangements and budgets. The College is a better and more interesting place because of his efforts.
Sky Wallis has made many contributions to life at King’s and the wider University beyond her academic studies. She helped to found the University Plant Society, acting as Events Officer on the founding committee. She has contributed to the University SCOOP zero-waste store that runs pop-ups in Colleges, and within King’s she acts as volunteer co-ordinator and has previously been Sustainability Officer for the King’s Affair committee. Sky has also volunteered in the University Botanic Gardens and has worked with King's Research Fellow Cicely Marshall on the biodiversity survey in the wildflower meadow, a report for which will be published later this year.
Beyond all of this, as first in her family to attend University, Sky has mentored prospective students from her old sixth-form college and provides mentoring to her “College children” at King’s. She is a key member of her DoS group, always willing to help with a prompt and positive answer whenever needed and encouraging others to get involved.
Mizanur Rahman has devoted considerable time and energy to King's Politics and helped attract people to their events from wider collegiate Cambridge. Under his leadership, the society has this year launched an extraordinarily impressive set of events, with thinkers as renowned as Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis and Judith Butler, a wide range of British politicians (Emily Thornberry, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Andrea Leadsom) and an internationally- diverse array of speakers (Nazir Afzal, Emily Lau, Kalwant Bhopal, Nikole Hannah-Jones). The energy and commitment that this has taken is undoubtedly a group effort, which has been led by Mizanur.
