Azida Ahmad Azmi

Community Bursary Award Holder

MSc Social Anthropology (2025)

My sincere gratitude goes to David Scrymgeour and Career Essentials Inc. for their generous bursary. At a time when pursuing higher education can be both financially and emotionally demanding, this support is a powerful reminder that acts of generosity make it possible for others to keep going and to imagine futures that might otherwise feel out of reach. 

As a Chevening scholar currently pursuing an MSc in Social Anthropology, my academic and community work is grounded in a longstanding commitment to educational equity and to reimagining systems of opportunity for underserved communities. Previously, I completed an M.S. in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, where I served in leadership and service roles across the university community, including as President of the Association for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and on the Columbia Judicial Board. At Oxford, I serve on the Joint Consultative Committee for my course and mentor refugee students applying for postgraduate study through the Refugee-Led Research Hub. 

Over the past six years, I have been involved in community-led initiatives in Malaysia, ranging from flood rescue missions to youth empowerment programmes. This commitment to service has also shaped my leadership journey abroad, where I contributed to the Columbia community through the above-mentioned roles and in the Office of Admissions, while also engaging in research as a fellow at the Coordinated Management of Meaning Institute and a research assistant for the Difficult Conversations Lab. I also received the inaugural Dean’s Excellence Award in recognition of my contributions to the university community. 

Beyond academia, I founded Ezzy’s Consulting Service, a pro-bono mentorship initiative that has supported over 1,000 Malaysian students, many from low- and middle-income backgrounds, in navigating higher education and post-graduation pathways. I also lead A Peace of Education (APoE), a grassroots initiative dedicated to building more equitable educational futures through the lens of conflict resolution. This bursary will allow me to develop APoE into a registered philanthropic foundation and expand the mentorship capacity of Ezzy’s Consulting Service so that more students can thrive in higher education.