Student Awards for Anouk van Veldhoven, Sisi Chen and Angeliki Gianniou, Yashna Pande & Isabel Dahmen

During the opening of the Academic Year, vice-President Margot van the Starre presented the Student Awards. Anouk van Veldhoven. Her thesis examined how an edutainment intervention targeting specific genders affects marital violence in Pakistan. The Vliegenthart thesis award, in honor of Prof. Hans Vliegenthart, goes to Sisi Chen, whose thesis examined how socioeconomic status affects friendships and bullying behavior in elementary school. The student award Social Impact (before award for Exceptional Extracurricular Achievements was awarded to Angeliki Gianniou, Yashna Pande & Isabel Dahmen voor their activities supporting student welfare and mental health with f.o. peer-support groups Good Mournings en Conscious Conntections.  

Anouk van Veldhoven, winner of Best Master's Thesis Award

For her thesis, Anouk collaborated and read with a large team researching marriages in Pakistan. Specifically, she focused on how edutainment affects the interrelationships in a family and family and causes less violence.

The jury was impressed with Anouk's writing style and quality, good use of sources and clear exposition of year's findings. Also, the thesis is socially relevant.

Read the jury's full laudation (link will follow).

Sisi Chen, Winner Vliegenthart Thesis Award

Prof. Hans Vliegenthart has been strongly committed to the university and the university fund for many years. To thank him for his achievements, the Vliegenthart Thesis Prize was created, which each year chooses a different field of study for its award. This year it was the Gamma Sciences. REBO and FSW competed for the title for the Vliegenthart Thesis Prize and this year it was Sisi!

Sisi wrote a thesis where she researched how and if socioeconomic status affects how elementary school children see and interact with each other. There have been many studies on how gender and culture influence that, but not yet in combination with socioeconomic status. Her thesis is interestingly written and takes you into the perceptions of the newest generations. Socially relevant and useful for teachers and parents to use against bullying. Prof. Vliegenthart and the jury were very pleased with the quality of this thesis.

Winner Student Award Social Impact: Angeliki Gianniou, Yashna Pande & Isabel Dahmen.

Isabel Dahmen, Yashna Pande & Angeliki Gianniou conceptualised, facilitated, evaluated and reinvented a peer group for students grieving the loss of a loved one (Good Mourning) and students struggling with loneliness (ConsciousConnections). To do this, they held intakes with all interested students, and if necessary, they referred them to students in need of professional healthcare. They facilitated all peer support sessions independently, adopted all the ideas of the participants and created a community of openness between them.

They participated in the UU wellness week, shared their own experiences in a podcast and have already been able to help more than 50 students through the focus groups (and the next groups are already being set up). In this way, they have made a positive impact on the student well-being of our students.

Read the full laudatio (pdf, in Dutch) of the jury.