The university's annual volunteer awards celebrate the outstanding contributions our alumni, staff and community volunteers make to the university and the wider world.

The universities Campaigns and Alumni Relations office (CARO) have announced the winners, who can be found below, as part of National Volunteers week. This year’s winners include individuals who have gone above and beyond during the Covid-19 pandemic whether that be in terms of our student experience or the research the university has undertaken.

This year’s winners are:

Community volunteer award winners

• Individual Community Volunteer of the Year - Paul Corcoran
• Group Community Volunteer of the Year - PROTECT-CH Trial, Val Leyland and Maureen Godfrey

Alumni volunteer award winners

• Exceptional Contribution - Yinka Adegbenle
• Longstanding Volunteer - Michael Abiodun Olatokun, Yinka Adegbenle, Ivy Roy, Alison Isherwood, Shash Patel

Volunteer co-ordinator award winners

• Volunteer Co-ordinator of the Year (Careers and Employability) - Alex Owusu
• Volunteer Co-ordinator of the Year (Engineering) - Vince Pizzoni

Volunteer of the Year

Michael Abiodun Olatokun (Law, 2014)

Volunteer roles: Career Mentor (2019 – 2021), BME Careers Speaker (2019), Alumni Proposition Webinar Speaker (2020), Get Connected Speed-Networking (2021), Alumni to Alumni Mentor (2017), CARO Communications Volunteer (2017).

"Michael is one of Nottingham's most outstanding long-term volunteers and advocates, taking part in a variety of events, communications pieces, and virtual volunteering and advocacy opportunities which have benefitted literally hundreds of students and alumni at the University of Nottingham.

He is currently the Head of Public and Youth Engagement at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, a law lecturer at London South Bank University and a visiting lecturer at Middlesex University - with this in mind, how he has time to say yes to everything we send boggles the mind!"

To find out more about this years winners, and winners from previous years head over to CARO's volunteer awards page, or you can find more on CARO's work and National Volunteers Week on their give your time pages.