University

01 Apr 09

Matthew Morton, South East region winner of the 2009 International Student Awards, with members of the Youth Development Project (YDP) in Oxford.

Students at Oxford University have been named winner and runner-up in the South East region of the 2009 International Student Awards.

Matthew Morton, a DPhil student from the United States, was named the region’s International Student of the Year 2009 for his work with youth groups in Oxford and Europe. This is the second year in a row an Oxford student has received this award. Last year, Xin Hui Chan from Singapore won the regional prize.

Faisal Rahman, a medical student from Bangladesh, was runner-up in the same category. Judges read of his work establishing the Oxford Medical First Responders, where medical students are trained and equipped to respond to life-threatening emergency calls in the minutes before an ambulance arrives, and his time co-presenting a South Asian music and events show on Oxide, the student radio station. He has also found time to captain his college badminton team and compete for the University Blues Dancesport team.

The Oxford winners were two of more than 1,500 students, from 118 countries, to enter the seventh annual International Student Awards. The awards are an initiative from the British Council that shines a spotlight on international students and their contributions to life in the UK.

To enter, each student was asked to write a personal ‘letter home’ in English, highlighting the achievements that help make their time in the UK so rewarding and show how they are making the most of their time in the UK.  

The judges also highly commended Paul Kadetz, a post-graduate at the Department of International Development, after reading his letter to his sister. Paul, who is from New York, told his sister how he has been able to combine his studies with a wealth of other interests - from singing and drama, to leading a research expedition to Guatemala and organising a university-wide student research conference on human welfare.

Matthew Morton wrote his letter to the President of the Eckerd Family Foundation, who had helped Matthew start a teen centre in Florida when he was 15, and sponsored his Masters studies at Oxford.

He wrote: ‘I volunteer weekly as a mentor to a sixteen-year-old youth from the community. You and I have a mutual friend in child advocacy that once told me, 'All children need one person who is absolutely crazy about them.' There is no more powerful ingredient to youth development than this, and I am striving to do my part here in Oxfordshire to multiply it.’

Alongside mentoring one sixteen year-old, Matthew has also helped develop the ‘Youth Development Project’ (YDP) in Oxford, where he volunteers once a week to support the group in establishing a youth-driven community centre. He explains how he has helped the YDP link up with a group of youth leaders in Albania to organise a joint youth leadership forum.

Matthew also writes about how he has been able to put the skills and knowledge gained from his research at the Department of Social Policy & Social Work and the Saïd Business School into practice.

The European Commission selected him as a consultant for a senior-level workgroup looking at evaluating its Cohesion Policy – which will allocate over 350 billion Euros to social and development initiatives over five years.

He added: ‘In 2007, I had the privilege of serving as a group facilitator for the UK's first National Student Leadership Forum held at the Scottish Parliament and, in 2008, I was asked to deliver the Forum's keynote address on service.’

Dr Heather Bell, Director of International Strategy, said: ‘International students – now 32 per cent of full-time students at Oxford – enrich the university and our community immeasurably, and Matthew and Faisal’s stories show why. Not only do they bring their tremendous academic talent: they also bring their leadership skills and their commitment to public service. Congratulations on this terrific achievement.’

As the regional winner Matthew wins a £1,000 prize and will compete for the title of overall International Student of the Year 2009 at an awards ceremony in London later this month.