Here’s my experience of winning Young Campaigner of the Year as a Royal Holloway student

The Inspirational Youth Awards celebrated its third awards ceremony in 2025 on the 12th April, recognising the extraordinary achievements of people aged 16 to 25.

This year was the first year the awards celebrated youth achievement nationally, so being involved as someone from the South of England was terrific.

Anita Chumber and Ifraz Ahmed, the co-founders of B Events, host the yearly award ceremony. B Events holds events that make a difference in people’s lives by recognising fantastic talent and hard work.

I caught up with one of the co-founders, Anita Chumber, after the event to understand how important it was to her to recognise youth talent nationwide: “This year’s Inspirational Youth Awards marked a powerful milestone by welcoming students from the South for the first time, including incredible talent from Royal Holloway. It’s been amazing to see the event expand its reach and truly celebrate the diverse achievements of young people across the country.”

As a campaigner for youth engagement in politics and proportional representation as a fairer electoral system, I was a finalist for the Campaigner of the Year category, which I was incredibly grateful to have won!

It’s essential to be able to give my work on youth engagement and proportional representation a platform because, without realising it, they are things that affect every aspect of a young person’s life. Hard work no longer guarantees anything. Youth engagement in politics is about taking back the power we have been led to believe we no longer have.

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I was not the only Royal Holloway student to have been a finalist at the award ceremony, though. David Gallardo-González was also a finalist for the prestigious Arts and Culture award for his work as the Students’ Union photographer and videographer, as well as his cinematography and acting in various projects within the university and further afield.

Inspirational Youth Awards 2025 ceremony via Edwin Ladd at Mr Ladd Media

With so many awards ranging from the Student of the Year to the Entrepreneur of the Year, 22 award categories in total, there were plenty of opportunities for young people to have a platform for appreciation and growth, which is invaluable for young people nowadays!

The award ceremony, held at the Eastside Rooms in Birmingham, was a black-tie event with a red carpet as guests entered, with photographers and one of the lovely judges interviewing the finalists before and after the awards ceremony. The ceremony was extravagant, with a mix of entertainment like poetry and live vocals to talented drummers, an incredible amount of food served in three courses, and the award presentations.

Each award winner’s name and face were blasted on a massive screen, and various people announced the winners. I sat at a table with my guests and various other finalists and their guests. My table was pretty successful with two other award winners, table 15. I guess that’s my new favourite number.

The night, as a whole, was an excellent opportunity to network with many people interested in my political campaigning and also many people with incredible and inspiring stories.

The process to the finals was so much fun and very accessible. Nominations closed on the 16th February of this year, and you could either self-nominate, be nominated by an organisation or absolutely anyone!

The judging panel then decided on a shortlist from a pool of over 400 nominations for a group of finalists for each category. From there, the floor was opened to a public vote, the judges voted, and the ceremony began.

The winners were decided from a mixture of the public vote and the judges’ decisions, so if you didn’t have a social media presence like mine to promote your nomination, you still had a fair chance! On the day of the finals, we were told that over 50,000 votes had been cast, which is a testament to the scope of the awards this year.

via Edwin Ladd at Mr Ladd Media

Make Votes Matter has been incredible at giving me a platform to inspire the Youth to be involved with politics, particularly electoral reform. Organisations like Make Votes Matter, the single-issue cross-party campaign for proportional representation in the UK, stand out in their recent creation of Young Make Votes Matter, of which I am an ambassador, because no matter your political beliefs, they want the youth voice to be championed, giving opportunities to the Youth like speaking at events, networking and training, an empowering force in a political climate in which everyone has an agenda.

I don’t think I would be able to campaign for youth engagement in politics without having political beliefs of my own; I joined the Green Party last year and became a member of the executive committee for the London Young Greens, the youth and student wing of the Green Party in London as well as having secured a spot on the 2025 Young Green’s flagship 30 under 30 programme, an incredible experience from start to finish!

The Green Party is an entirely member-led party, so people like me have a voice in what we want the party to look like and the direction that we want the party to go in. The Young Greens and the London Young Greens have impressively provided a space for many people across Britain to have a voice in their futures and a space to come together in an empowering way. My work and effort with these two organisations and beyond have been recognised in my award win this year.

So, now that the 2025 Inspirational Youth Awards are over, why not try your hand at the awards for 2026 or even nominate someone impressive that you know? That’s a wrap for this year; congratulations to all the finalists and winners.

Featured image via via Edwin Ladd at Mr Ladd Media