Versa: Issue Eleven

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OA News
OA WINS NCTJ
AWARD
for Excellence
Tomás Hill López-Menchero (OA 2016) was the
winner of the Student Sports Journalism category
at the 2021 NCTJ Awards for Excellence, which
were awarded in March 2022.
Currently working at ESPN as a sports journalist,
having joined from The Times in July 2022, Tomás
studied for his NCTJ (National Council for the Training
of Journalists) qualification at News Associates after
completing his undergraduate degree in Modern
Languages and Cultures at Durham University.
Tomás said: “I was very pleased and surprised to have
won the NCTJ Student Sports Journalist of the Year
Award! I couldn’t have done it without the support and
advice of my far more talented colleagues and editors at
The Times’ Sports section and News Associates.”
The judges looked at three pieces by Tomás – two articles
from The Times titled ‘How the famous Panini sticker
books remain iconic in a digital age᾽ and ‘Raducanumania
takes hold in streets where she grew up᾽, as well
as one for Mail Online called ‘The remarkable story of
Huracan FC London.᾽
The annual NCTJ awards, which highlight the
achievements of promising journalists at the start of their
careers, look at a range of categories, including news,
sports and podcast journalism. The 2021 awards received
a record number of entries – a shortlist of 66 nominees
was whittled down from 481 entries across 17 categories.
OACC LEGENDS
TRIUMPH
AGAINST
Lord’s Taverners
There is a little-known event in the OA cricketing
calendar, an annual fixture between the ‘OACC
Legends’ and the Hertfordshire Lord’s Taverners.
This is used as a fundraising event for the Taverners, whilst
simultaneously being a thoroughly enjoyable social occasion,
to which both teams look forward to each year.
The OAs have a good track record in this fixture but suffered
defeat in 2021.
I am therefore pleased to report that the OAs turned the
tables in 2022, mainly owing to their batting strength led
by Tim Smith and Graham Dill who each recorded fifties,
enabling the OAs to reach a total beyond the reach of the
Lord’s Taverners.
As ever with the Lord’s Taverners, there is a strong social
element to the day, as both teams and their supporters gather
for a three-course roast lunch before the game.
The photo shows four of the OAs who participated this
year – Tom Preest (OA 1988), Graham Dill (OA 1989),
Tony Dalwood (OA 1989) and Ben le Fleming (OA 1990) –
reunited with Nigel Woodsmith, who no doubt has stood as
their umpire on countless occasions.
The date for next year is yet to be confirmed, but we hope it
will be Sunday 25 June 2023.
Now is the time I must confess that I am also
on the Committee of the Hertfordshire Lord’s
Taverners, for whom I have to write a very
different report!
Alan Philpott
IMPERIAL COLLEGE
STUDENT’S DIVE INTO
DEEP TECHNOLOGY
Aryan Shah (OA 2021), a second year Earth
and Planetary Science undergraduate
at Imperial College London (ICL), has
achieved a number of great feats in the last few
months.
Aryan has recently created his own start-up
InXploratus Technologies (InX Tech), in which
they are building long range autonomous
underwater vehicles to survey the ocean floor and
the seas for a variety of uses such as conservation,
pipeline inspection and helping oil and gas
companies drill sustainably.
Aryan has also been promoted to Partnerships
Lead for the Business Division of the Karman
Space Programme, a student team at ICL
attempting to be the first student team to launch
a reusable rocket into space and back. In July, the
team successfully launched a rocket to 5km in
Scotland and are sponsored by some of the largest
Keagan Witts (OA 2015) has recently received two awards for
his work as a volunteer with St John Ambulance (SJA).
A current medical student, Keagan was put forward to
receive the Sovereign’s Award earlier this year. This extremely
prestigious award is only given to ten individuals internationally
each year and recognises members between 16 and 25 for
outstanding achievement in personal development, the benefit
to the community and the benefit to St John.
Keagan said: “I am extremely honoured to be nominated and
awarded a Sovereign’s Award recognising the impact of my
volunteering on my communities, St John Ambulance, and
personal development. I feel very privileged to have received
one of the final awards sanctioned by the late HM The Queen
and it’s particularly special to receive this award in a year
celebrating both her Jubilee and her life as Queen. I’ve been
afforded a lot of opportunity through volunteering, allowing
me to grow immeasurably, and I look forward to what the
future brings.”
companies in the aerospace industry, including
Northrup Grumman, Microsoft and Google.
Recently, Aryan and his friend also entered a
competition from the UK Space Agency, the
SateLife 2022 Competition, to design a business
idea using satellite data to benefit people on
Earth. They came up with an idea for a deep
learning algorithm that takes satellite and
autonomous underwater vehicle data, combines
them and runs them through the algorithm
to come up with an accurate prediction of
earthquakes around the world. As one of the
competition winners, they were awarded £4,500
and were given the opportunity to pitch their idea
to the European Space Agency and the UK Space
Agency in a Dragons’ Den event.
Congratulations on your hard work Aryan!
To read more, please visit the News section of the
OA Connect website.
OA RECEIVES TWO AWARDS
for volunteer efforts
Alongside this, Keagan also received a Commissioner’s
Commendation for Exceptional Service. This is an internal
recognition for exceptional service, and Keagan was
nominated by a peer for the work he has done in St John
relating to disability support, including chairing and growing
the new Disability & Accessibility
Network from conception last year.
After leaving St Albans School, Keagan
studied Biomedical Sciences at Queen
Mary University of London, before
beginning his medical degree in 2019.
As well as volunteering as ambulance
crew, Keagan is also the National
Student Volunteering Manager
overseeing SJA’s offer for
volunteering whilst at
university, where he first
got involved with SJA.