Salim Ben Sellam won the HZ Changemaker Award on Thursday afternoon.
The jury felt that through his work for Oase Youth Care, he best contributes to the social mission of HZ University of Applied Sciences: 'Contributing to a better world'. The award is intended for a student, alumnus, or (former) employee of HZ.
Salim is a former student of the Social Work and Primary Teacher Education programmes. "It's wonderful to see that there is appreciation for the work we do in Vlissingen and the passion with which we do it," he said after receiving the award and a cheque for €750. "I hope that next year there will be even more changemakers standing on this stage."
Passion Award
There were nineteen nominees for the award this year. You can read their stories in this special magazine. In addition to the HZ Changemaker Award, a passion award and a public vote award were also presented. Global Project and Change Management student Emma Gavrilov received the passion award, which is intended as encouragement for her outstanding work. Through her foundation A Freedom Food Project, Emma is committed to a practical transition towards healthy, local, and organic food within the HZ community.
Public Vote Award
Mitra Vaskoska received the public vote award from HZ board members Hendrik-Jan van Arenthals and Richard Liefting. Mitra works in the Technology, Water & Environment domain. For her dedication to international students at HZ, both in and outside of working hours, she received the most votes out of the more than 1,500 cast. Her win was greeted with loud cheers from the students in attendance. "We say that as HZ we want to contribute to a better world. These people are all doing exactly that," said chair of the board Van Arenthals, referring to the nominees. "It makes us incredibly proud. They are an example to many others."
The HZ Changemaker Award was established three years ago by professor Ageeth van Maldegem of the HZ Knowledge Centre for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
