On Thursday 12 October LSE100 held its annual awards ceremony and dinner to celebrate those students awarded prizes for their academic achievement in the 2016/17 academic year.
On the night we celebrated 33 prize winners from across a wide range of LSE departments. Of these, 30 received prizes for outstanding academic achievement, which are awarded to students who achieve marks of distinction on all six LSE100 assessments. Three students were awarded the Sir Robert Worcester Prize, named for Sir Robert Worcester, patron of LSE100, who generously donated a gift to support these awards. The Worcester prize is awarded to the student, or students, who receives the highest overall score on LSE100 each year and as such reflects truly outstanding academic work.
The event was very well attended, with special guests from the LSE community joining representatives of some of London’s biggest employers to congratulate our students on their efforts. Proceedings were opened by Professor Paul Kelly (Pro-Director of Education) who reminded everyone present that LSE100 is taken by all first and second year students at LSE and, as such, to be one of only 33 prize winners in a cohort of over 1,500 is a remarkable achievement. Prof Kelly also noted that achieving a distinction on LSE100 is one of the most demanding academic challenges at LSE!
Following Prof Kelly, we very pleased to welcome LSE’s Director, Dame Minouche Shafik, who gave the main address to the students. Minouche congratulated all the prize winners on their achievements and spoke about the importance of LSE100 in fulfilling the key missions of the School. Minouche highlighted the public role played by universities like LSE, which has a responsibility to develop students as active citizens who can contribute to a flourishing society, beyond individual career development. She praised LSE100 for exposing students to contrasting ways of understanding some of the most important issues facing the world today, and for equipping students with the analytical tools to attempt to address these issues.
Following the speeches prizes were awarded by Sir Robert Worcester and Dr Jessica Templeton, Director of LSE100. The evening was rounded off with a wonderful dinner served by the amazing catering team in the Senior Dining room. During dinner prize winners had an opportunity to mingle with staff from around the School and with representatives of the firms that could well be their destination after graduation! The event was a great a success and LSE100 looks forward to celebrating many more prize winners in the future.