For three weeks, six groups of residential students took part in this year’s Louise Gourlay Prize for Social Change.
Following the philosophy of Margaret Mead, ‘never doubt that a small, committed group of citizens can change the world’, students were challenged to 'change the work in a week' by raising awareness of current social issues. The projects had to be implemented with a minimum budget and be within the reach of the average citizen.
This year's entrants tackled a wide range of important issues including food waste, alcohol consumption, sexual assault education, mental health, water consumption and sustainable textbook exchanges.
The competition culminated with a series of presentations and were judged by a panel including Will Gourlay (TC 1984), Michael Harrison and TCAC Community Representative, Erin Barnes (3rd year Arts).
The sustainability of the project served as the chief criterion for the judges this year; a high quality ran across all entries which made it difficult to pick a winner.
The ultimate winners were Natasha Robbins (3rd year Arts) and Chantelle Robbins (1st year Arts), who implemented a sustainable washing program.
‘We sought to use the social change project to emphasise the opportunities students have living in a communal environment to reduce their carbon footprint and overall water consumption rates,’ they said.
Joint second place was awarded to the ‘compost crusade’ team and the ‘tBay’ team. These groups tackled food wastage and implemented an innovative online textbook exchange site to help negate the disposable attitude of today’s society.
Our thanks to Louise Gourlay, who generously funds the prizes for the Social Change project each year.
