Grace Youell Awarded Highest Marks at Smith School

Grace Youell was awarded two prizes for her performance in the MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment programme. She received the Highest Overall Result, and Highest Dissertation Mark for 2022.  

Her dissertation, Institutional Investment and Commodity-Driven Deforestation involved researching commitments made by asset managers at COP26 to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation from their portfolios. 

Grace was a Greencoat Scholar at the Smith School, and was part of the Global Leadership Initiative (GLI) organised by the Oxford Character Project, a seven-month leadership programme for Oxford postgrads selected from across academic disciplines, focusing on leadership and character. 

“The GLI was the best thing I did at Oxford,” Grace said, “and I think this sort of programme should be mandatory at schools and universities.” 

Now she applies the learning from her MSc as a consultant in Climate & Resilience at Willis Towers Watson (WTW), specialising in climate governance. Grace is currently seconded to the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investment (CCRI). Launched at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in 2019, the CCRI is a private sector-led initiative dedicated to supporting investors and governments to better understand and manage physical climate risks (PCRs).

While at St Cross, Grace was also a keen sportswoman, playing basketball for the University, rowing for the College and running the London Marathon.   

“Meeting the Master, Carole Souter, at the beginning of the year, and experiencing her kindness and interest in me and my research, set the tone for my time at St Cross.” Grace says. “St Cross provides an incredibly supportive and friendly environment, and the staff and fellow students I met throughout my time were lovely.” 

Since leaving St Cross, Grace continues to live in Oxford and is involved with teaching and research at the Smith School. 

St Cross provides an incredibly supportive and friendly environment, and the staff and fellow students I met throughout my time were lovely.

“I am very grateful to those who enabled and encouraged me to study. I will make sure to pay this support, kindness and mentorship forward," Grace says, and gives special thanks to Richard Nourse and the Greencoat Scholarship.  

“Thank you especially to my partner Michael, my family, Dr Laurence Wainwright, the Smith School and the MSc SEE 2021-22 cohort for a year I will remember forever.” 

Congratulations, Grace, on your outstanding academic achievements!