Principal's Medal: Léa Weimann

I should now like to introduce the Principal’s Medal. This award was inaugurated twelve years ago with a gift from three anonymous donors and is supported by Ede and Ravenscroft, believed to be the oldest firm of tailors and robe-makers in the world.

The award of the Principal’s Medal recognises students who display exceptional endeavour and achievement during their time at St Andrews. The awards are open to final-year undergraduates and postgraduates in any discipline, and the achievements celebrated are both academic and extra-curricular.

For the academic year 2020 to 2021, the Principal’s Medal is being presented to three outstanding students. Today we recognise Léa Weimann, who has just received her Master of Arts with Honours in International Relations and Sustainable Development – and I am pleased to note that she has received a first-class degree.

Léa is, first and foremost, an outstandingly accomplished scholar, and she graduates with one of the most distinguished academic profiles in her entire cohort. But Léa tirelessly goes above and beyond to put her insightful theoretical understandings of politics and sustainability into practice through environmental activism which is as compelling as it is inventive, inspiring, and impactful. Environmental work for Léa is not about assuming positions of responsibility: instead, it is a deeply felt mission and attitude which she integrates into every area of her life, whilst seeking also to motivate others to become increasingly mindful of their relationship to the planet and its resources. To that end, Léa runs an advocacy website, Eco Activists, which includes everything from vegan recipes to self-produced podcasts, and in 2020 Léa launched her first book – a collection of environmental poetry entitled Dear Earth.

Léa puts passion into practice through her significant organising activities: she has taken a leading role in organising climate protests in St Andrews, including the iconic Line in the Sand demonstration in 2019. And in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, Léa served both as the Environment Officer at the Students’ Association and as an adviser to the University’s Environmental Sustainability Board. The Chair of that Board, Professor Sir Ian Boyd, the former Chief Scientific Officer at the UK Government’s Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, wrote in the nomination that Léa ‘has the capacity to capture the imagination of other students and has achieved this through organisation and political intelligence and hard work.’ 

Léa, in recognition of all that you have achieved both academically and personally during your time as an undergraduate, it gives me great pleasure to bestow upon you the Principal’s Medal. Léa will join us at one of the rescheduled ceremonies to receive her medal from me in person; for now, I am pleased that Léa will share a few words of her own.

– Principal Sally Mapstone