Law student Bana Itani wins at the Targetjobs Undergraduate of the Year Awards 2022

26 May 2022

Law student Bana Itani won the Young Activist Undergraduate of the Year with Clifford Chance and One Young World at the Targetjobs Undergraduate of the Year Awards Grand Final which took place at the East Wintergarden in Canary Wharf on Friday 29 April.

The event was hosted by Sue Perkins where the top 122 students out of 3968 applications across 12 categories were in attendance.

Bana is a final year Law student completing the senior status LLB.

Bana co-founded Be Brave Beirut, a grassroots initiative providing free remote mental health services in Lebanon that began after the devastating explosion in Beirut on August 4, 2020. To date, Be Brave Beirut has helped over 1,000 beneficiaries, delivered more than 6,000 hours of emotional support and garnered more than 4,000 social media followers.

In reaction to receiving the award Bana said:

"It was a really humbling feeling because when you do a project like Be Brave Beirut, you don't do it because you want recognition or awards - it really just came out of a sense of duty. But to have Be Brave Beirut and my work with it get recognised at such a noteworthy ceremony in the UK was really exciting. I'm really happy to have been named Young Activist of the Year."

Dr Clara Della Croce, Lecturer in Law said: "We at the School of Law, Gender and Media are so very proud of Bana for winning the Young Activist Undergraduate of the Year award!  By co-founding BeBraveBeirut, a grassroots initiative after the Beirut explosion which provides free and remote mental health services, Bana showed a great example of a SOAS student who carries forward SOAS’ values instigating change in communities. She is an inspiration to us all!"