One of the highly competitive dissertation prizes awarded by UCL Institute of the Americas every year is the Allende Prize, awarded to mark an outstanding piece of original research in Latin American themes. This year, we are pleased to announce the winner is Virut Helminrat (MA Latin American Studies, 2016-17) for: Commodity Trade with China and Latin American Industrialisation during the 2000s’ Commodity Boom.
Virut says: ‘My master’s degree’s year at the institute was intellectually fruitful and highly memorable. As my understanding of Latin America had been limited to what was obtained from the news and my journeys in South America, I expected my time at UCL to be highly challenging. However, through the institute’s support structure, regular contact hours, public evening events, and the university’s wealth of academic resources, I quickly developed nuanced understanding of the region.
What I like most about the institute is the size, atmosphere, and spirit of the place. As a small department, students were given maximum opportunities to take part in class discussions. Meanwhile, the level of support offered by our lecturers and professors was unmatched. Their friendliness and genuine desire to help students succeed made all the difference. Beyond the academic aspect of university life, I benefited greatly from the international make-up of the institute, which enabled me to make new friends from all over the world while also enhancing my Spanish and Portuguese skills. Now that my master’s degree has ended, I am completing an internship in business administration, where I get to use transferable skills gained from my time at the institute, particularly my newfound knowledge of statistics, which formed the basis of my dissertation research’.
We would like to congratulate Virut and wish him every success in his current endeavours.