Congratulations to Nina Ubaldi and Adam Fovent, who were honoured in the 2016 University of Sydney Alumni Achievement Awards on 19 April 2016.
Nina Ubaldi (BA ’13 LLB ’15) was awarded the Convocation Medal for undergraduate achievement. She is a winner of major debating tournaments and moots and recipient of several academic prizes and scholarships, including an International Exchange Scholarship 2015 and the Walter Reid Memorial Prize for Arts and Law in 2009 and 2012.
Her original, thoughtful thesis on the politics surrounding Italian dialects earned her the University Medal in Government and International Relations in 2012.
As a debater, Nina won three major tournaments, including the Australasian Debating Championship. She also volunteered as the Chief Adjudicator of the Women’s Debating Tournament, ran training days for school students, and represented the University in the prestigious Jessup International Law Moot.
Nina was editor-in-chief of the Law Society’s social justice journal Dissent, and assisted two law professors with research.
“The University’s lecturers and tutors fostered my academic curiosity and taught me the patience and skill necessary for good research,” she says.
Adam Fovent (BSc (Adv) ’11 JD ’16) won the Edmund Barton Medal for master’s by coursework achievement in the Alumni Awards. The first in his family to undertake tertiary education, Adam achieved high distinction averages in both the Bachelor of Science (Advanced) and the Juris Doctor.
Though faced with a significant medical diagnosis during his time at university, he has been recognised with a range of academic prizes and scholarships from the faculties of Science, Medicine and Law.
He served as a student representative on the University’s Disability Action Plan Consultative Committee, and completed a student placement at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre
In Cambodia, he conducted fundraising campaigns for NGOs, and volunteered at an orphanage for children living with HIV, and with a grassroots NGO combating the causes of human trafficking.
He also volunteered in Costa Rica, and has a long standing involvement in Australia Japan cultural exchange initiatives.
“My fundamental desire is to pursue a career characterised by the centrality of service,” he says.