DPIR student Jacob Kelly awarded top prize for charitable work

PPE undergraduate Jacob Kelly (Lincoln, 2018) has been awarded one of the Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Awards 2021 for his work helping underprivileged students.

Jacob won the accolade in the awards’ Undergraduate & Integrated Masters category for founding the Coronavirus Tutoring Initiative (CTI) - a charitable organisation which delivered free tutoring to underprivileged students during the pandemic.

He started CTI in March 2020 in response to school closures, to prevent underprivileged students missing out on face-to-face teaching and thus falling further behind their peers.

Thanks to thousands of volunteers from universities across the UK, the charity delivered more than 50,000 hours of tutoring within 18 months, saving an estimated £1.25 million for the families of the pupils involved.

Since the start of July, Jacob has been working full-time on Tutor the Nation, a new charity which seeks to continue the mission of CTI long-term. He is focussing on recruiting new volunteers to bring the benefits of free tutoring to even more underprivileged pupils across the country. 

He said: “I'm really delighted to have been recognised by the Oxford Hub and the Vice Chancellor with this award. It was a lovely surprise and a great way to finish my time at Oxford, especially as I received the news in the same week as my degree results!

“Of course, the success of CTI was really a team effort and the recognition should be shared with all of the volunteers, including many from the DPIR, who gave so much of their time to help CTI succeed.”

The Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Awards were set up in 2010 by former Vice-Chancellor Andrew Hamilton, to showcase and recognise the commitment of Oxford students in volunteering, charity fundraising, campaigning, or carrying out research on social and environmental issues.