Maisha Hossain was nominated by no less than three individuals for her innovative use of social platforms to transform the social experience of her peers under lockdown.

Despite several proactive initiatives in the Department of Psychology we experienced real difficulty in resolving one of the main problems during lockdown: loneliness. While we did set up a student MS Teams channel to facilitate interaction… the feedback was that Teams didn’t provide the independence and privacy needed for students to chat freely. When this was discussed in a Wellbeing, Equality & Diversity Committee meeting, for which Maisha is the student representative, she came up with a simple solution: Discord. She proactively took the lead in creating Discord servers and, in collaboration with the Teaching Office and other student representatives, ensured that all students who wished to be were aware of these and signed up, across a fairly disparate student body encompassing multiple Triposes.

Maisha further created a varied programme of study and social events – including silent study sessions, arts & crafts nights, and online games – to encourage interaction that will benefit her peers’ Cambridge experience and learning. Student feedback has been positive and a Departmental committee recommended that the details be shared with the School as an excellent example of using online social platforms. This single innovation has transformed students’ academic experience during lockdown.

Maisha’s care and commitment as the student representative on the Wellbeing, Equality & Diversity Committee is evident through her other activities. At the start of the year she approached her Director of Studies and the Teaching Office with proposals to help welcome the incoming first-years, namely by setting up an online social evening and sending each of them a chocolate orange to their College. These initiatives were well-received and greatly helped in easing the students into what would be a daunting start to the university life. Maisha’s outstanding contributions in this difficult year have helped shape her peers’ experience into something that we hope will be memorable for the positives.

In 2020-21, Maisha was a third-year Undergraduate reading Psychological & Behavioural Sciences at Newnham College.