Congratulations to Satha Alaganandasundaram, one of our staff governors, who has won the first ever Volunteer of the Year award from the University of Essex. Satha has been part of #TeamNELFT for nearly 20 years, working in our finance department. 

Satha has been volunteering for the University of Essex for nearly 25 years and in this time he has supported them with numerous volunteering roles, including mentoring third year undergraduates and postgraduates, coaching students on interview process, chairing the alumni sub committee, helping to recruit overseas students (especially from Sri Lanka), attending graduation ceremonies as an alumni rep, giving presentations on various NHS functions and on NHS resilience during the pandemic and much more. 

Sarah Manders, alumni relations officer at the University of Essex, said:

"I am absolutely delighted to offer Satha our inaugural Volunteer of the Year award. We wanted to recognise the amazing support and commitment he's given to Essex over many years and we’re delighted to distinguish his service in this way. Satha is really one of our most involved alumni volunteers and we cannot thank him enough for all that he does to support our work and the University as a whole. His involvement will be of real inspiration to fellow graduates and we are honoured to recognise him in our first volunteer awards."

Satha said on winning the award:

"I am over the moon and thrilled to hear of this prestigious recognition and to be the first to receive this award from University of Essex. Volunteering has always been in my blood, I picked this up from my father who was a GP and did lots in the community in Sri Lanka when i was growing up. I have also volunteered in my local community in Redbridge, being a safer neighbourhood co-ordinator until recently."