The annual Volunteering Awards event was held in the Holdenby Lecture Theatre, Park Campus.
The Vice Chancellors Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Volunteering was presented by Professor Nick Petford and was awarded to final year BSc Computing student Vimukthi Mudiyanselage. The 24-year-old was nominated by one of his lecturers, Rashmi Dravid from the School of Science and Technology.
Linda Davis, Head of the Centre for Community Volunteering said: "Typically this award goes to a final year student who has achieved over and above what might be expected of a student volunteer and is an excellent ambassador for volunteering and The University of Northampton
"Vimukthi has been volunteering his time since early 2011 both on campus to support fellow students and in the wider community too. For the past eighteen months he has been supporting a member of the Northampton MDF BiPolar Self Help Group.
"More generally as a Study Support Mentor with Centre for Academic Practice he has volunteered many hours helping fellow students with their academic needs including running workshops, face-to-face and on-line.
"Vimukthi is just one of so many staff and students that give their time and skills to help others. Although the full benefit to volunteers and those they support are hard to quantify we do calculate that in the 2010/2011 academic year our volunteers will have contributed volunteer 'hours' comparable to around £470,000, which is truly amazing."
This award will help me to promote the message that volunteering is for everybody and it is fun and exciting. I have got so much out of the activities. It is something that can be done at one's own pace with very little if any impact on academic performance
Vimukthi Mudiyanselage
More information
