Principal's Medal Zainab Magzoub

I should now like to introduce the Principal’s Medal. This award was inaugurated thirteen years ago with a gift from three anonymous donors and is supported by Ede and Ravenscroft, believed to be the oldest firm of tailors and robe-makers in the world. The award of the Principal’s Medal recognises students who display exceptional endeavour and achievement during their time at St Andrews. The awards are open to final-year undergraduates and postgraduates in any discipline, and the achievements celebrated are both academic and extra-curricular.

For the academic year 2020 to 2021, the Principal’s Medal was awarded to three outstanding students, and this celebration enables us to bestow the medal in the customary way. Today we recognise Zainab Magzoub, who graduated with a Master of Arts with Honours in Arabic, Spanish, and International Relations – and I am pleased to note that she received a very strong first-class degree.

Zainab applied to join the University of St Andrews through our Supported Pathway programme, which is designed to unlock potential where it had previously not been allowed to flourish. Zainab impressed the interview panel so much that she was accepted directly into the School of International Relations rather than onto the supported pathway, and she was utterly triumphant in her academic endeavours from the get-go – consistently ranking at the top of her class. Whilst so doing, Zainab served as an exemplary colleague to her peers, including by volunteering as a mentor to incoming students on widening access programmes for over two years.

Outwith the University, Zainab committed substantial portions of her time to supporting people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Zainab worked with the Scottish Refugee Council as a Children and Families Support Worker, and she spent time around her studies teaching English to refugees and asylum-seekers in the UK. Zainab has also advocated to raise awareness of human rights crises as a Humanitarian Schools Speaker for the Red Cross, and she supported young people as an Ambassador for the Prince’s Trust – for which she was a finalist for the Young Ambassador of the Year award in 2018. These are just a few of the organisations with which Zainab has worked, which range further from Queen Margaret University to Waverley Care, and on subjects from decolonising educational curricula to awareness-raising about the prevalence of female genital mutilation.

In all of these activities, Zainab demonstrated a deep-rooted commitment to supporting others and to wielding her education for the good of the people around her and the society of which she is a part. That is an exemplary way to use one’s St Andrews education, and I am delighted to recognise that Zainab is pursuing further study at King’s College, London, where she is reading for the degree of Master of Science in Global Health.

Zainab, in recognition of all that you achieved academically and your selfless support of others during your time as an undergraduate, it gives me great pleasure to bestow upon you the Principal’s Medal.