An Adam Smith Business School student has won Outstanding Contribution from a University Student at this year’s Herald Education Awards. 

Laavanya Varadarajan Shanmugapriya was nominated for being a highly engaged, high-performing student in her third year of a joint Economics and Psychology degree. She has an exceptional talent for applying interdisciplinary thinking to address social and environmental challenges. Her journey reflects a deep commitment to sustainability, the university, local community engagement and global collaboration.

During her time as a student, she’s engaged in a wide range of activities, including:

• Attending Bocconi University to pursue a summer course on Sustainable Transitions, ESG finance, and Energy Management.  Subsequently, Laavanya served as Research Engagement Intern on a project exploring decolonial perspectives in learning, teaching and assessment.
• Participated in the 12-week hybrid CIVIS BIP ‘Pluralism of Economics’ hosted by Università degli Studi di Roma, presenting a reading on Paolo Sylos Labini’s Prospects for the World Economy. Furthering her interests in Education for Sustainable Development, she presented her collaborative work titled ‘Co-creating and Collaborating Pathways for Sustainable and Equitable Futures’ at Advance HE’s Students as Co-Creators Symposium 2025 (Jan 2025) and IBE-ReGloMi conference Zuyd University, Maastricht (June 2025).
• Served as Co-Investigator on a grant-awarded project called Community-based Microgreens Project Integrating Individuals with Learning Disabilities into the Sustainability Transition. Blending her diverse research streams, she inspired academics from ASBS to create the Ecologies of Knowing project, which spearheaded scholarship on decolonial perspectives in environmental sustainability. She is currently completing an eight-month research internship with GALLANT, where she has applied economic literature review and policy analysis to develop a strategy for advancing the community wealth-building agenda for the Glasgow City Council.

In addition, Laavanya serves as Head of Project Development at Enactus Glasgow Student Society, where she leads and volunteers with two student teams: Art Bridges Glasgow and SustainAble Microgreens that deliver sustainable positive impact to vulnerable communities through social enterprise.

A keen cricketer, she plays for the Women’s First XI, West of Scotland Cricket Club as a Wicketkeeper batter. She has also represented the Sunday XI, Men’s 3rd XI and Glasgow University Cricket Club at the Wee Bash and inter-university friendlies.

As part of the ASBS’s business case competition activities, she has represented the Business School. Her team finished first in the ASBS Internal Case Competition 2024 (won Best Speaker); second runners-up in the UofG Sustainability Challenge 2024; participated in the Universities Business Challenge 2024; Corvinus University Case Competition 2025 in Budapest; Copenhagen Business School Case Competition 2025 and at the Enactus Regional Qualifiers for the past two years.

The Herald awards highlight innovation in teaching, explore how colleges and universities market themselves, support students, and engage with employers, as well as recognising the amazing students who make a significant contribution to student life as well as academia.

The awards help to build future excellence by facilitating the sharing of good practice, with the utmost aim of strengthening the status of learning and teaching in the Scottish further and higher education sectors.

For additional insights, announcements and perspectives, visit the conversation on Business Education.