Two Cultural Anthropology students awarded Pieter de la Court Medal 2021
Claire van den Helder and Orestes Kyrgiakis won the Pieter de la Court Medal 2021. The Pieter de la Court Medal is an initiative for students by students and is awarded annually to students who voluntarily contribute to one of the Pieter de la Court themes. Claire van den Helder won the Medal for the themes diversity and inclusion and Orestes Kyrgiakis won the Medal for the themes of entrepreneurship and inclusion.
Watch the online awarding ceremony of the Pieter de la Court Medal
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Fourth-year Cultural Anthropologystudent Claire van den Helder is awarded the Pieter de la Court Medal for the themes of diversity and inclusion. She brings awareness about ableism to the general public, amongst others with her podcast Gewoon Disabled. In this podcast, Claire explains in-depth the experience of disabled people and how terms like validism, disability, and crip can be of help? On her blog, Bijzonder Autoimmuun Claire writes about her experiences of being ill, nutrition, and lifestyle. The jury called Claire a devoted role model. Claire: ‘I hope that in the future, representation for disabled people will be valued just as much as for non-disabled people.’ In July 2021 Claire shared her experiences and insight about studying and being chronically ill.
Medal for entrepreneurship and inclusion
Second-year Cultural Anthropologystudent Orestes Kyrgiakis was awarded the Pieter de la Court medal in the category entrepreneurship and inclusion. Together with the student committee No Student Without A Home, he battles for better housing marketing for (international) students. The jury emphasised that Orestes is an inspiration for others. Orestes: ‘It is absurd in the 21st century, with all the technology and experience that we possess as humans, to have students that live in tents.’ Orestes is also one of the OLC members of the Cultural Anthropology Institute where he also asks attention to the urgent housing problems for students. 'With colleagues of ours living in tents or struggling to pay their rent, it becomes impossible not to include issues of housing and social class accessibility to education in the discussion. Overall, active and united student participation in university affairs is necessary for bringing up any large-scale changes.'
The Pieter de la Court Medal is awarded annually by the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.
The Pieter de la Court Medal will be awarded each year for an initiative by a student or group of students that, over the last academic year, has made a particular contribution to at least one of the Pieter de la Court themes: Diversity, Inclusivity, Entrepreneurship, World trade and Democratization.