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This prize is awarded to a student who has gone beyond their usual studies, working on activities such as (but not limited to) lack of role models, discrimination, barriers or unconscious bias.
The recipient of this year's UCL Department of Earth Sciences Marguerite T Williams Award for Student Initiative on Race/Ethnicity is Nahum Fekadu, for his work on forming "YoungGeoscientistsSociety.Africa" to bring geology education to children and teenagers in Ethiopia. Nahum is a 1st year Environmental Geoscience student and we caught up with him to hear about his motivation and plans for the project.
Nahum explained that, during the course field trip to Cornwall and Weymouth this year, a memory was triggered of the geology of Ethiopia, his home country, and a place rich with geological interest: its capital Adis Ababa is surrounded by mountains, the country is on a tectonic boundary and it has many volcanoes.
Images: Year 1 fieldwork in Cornwall & Dorset. Credits: the photos of the scenery were taken by Nahum, & the photo of Nahum was by Egor Fedorenko.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed, he tells me, is an advocate of environmental initiatives, and in 2019 the country pledged to plant over 20 billion trees by the end of 2022, even though such initiatives are jeopardised by the civil war. These initiatives are an inspiration to Nahum, who wanted to think about how he, living here in the UK but with connections to his home country of Ethiopia can make an impact. He outlines some challenges: many students leave Ethiopia for other countries such as the UK and US for university education, and many children do not receive a full school education, with under a third progressing to secondary school. Why not, he thought, enhance this this kind of education in Ethiopia where the youth can learn about the fascinating landscape around them by creating partnerships with universities from other parts of the world.
He spoke to a friend about his idea to form the society; the friend was keen to get involved and they are currently producing a website which will be a hub for education and ideas, to bring people together. His ambition is therefore to develop links via partnerships with the country, with a focus on the website which he hopes will be widely shared and contributed to. He is linking up with Ethiopian family, friends as well as UCL course mates to create the biggest possible reach.
We wish him all the best and will be happy to get involved via our Ethnic Diversity Network.
Links:
- UCL Department of Earth Sciences Marguerite T Williams Award for Student Initiative on Race/Ethnicity