Lamentillo receives Oxford Prize, honors classmates’ quiet bravery

OXFORD, United Kingdom — Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo has been awarded the Programme Director’s Prize at the University of Oxford, earning recognition for her exceptional contribution to the classroom and the wider MSc in Major Programme Management cohort at Saïd Business School.

The distinction is presented to a student whose academic engagement, presence and participation have made a meaningful impact on the life of the program. The recipient is selected by a panel that includes the Programme Director and Academic Director.

READ: Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo on receiving Oxford honor: A ‘Full-Circle Moment’

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Lamentillo received the award during the cohort’s final ceremony at the Holywell Music Room, where she also delivered a speech on behalf of the graduating class.

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Her address centered on the perseverance required not only to enter Oxford, but also to continue studying while carrying professional, personal and, in some cases, life-threatening burdens.

“This moment means so much to all of us, because we know it did not come easily,” Lamentillo said. “We know what it took to get here, and what it took to remain here.”

She described graduating from Oxford as an achievement weighted with history and expectation. For many students, she said, the university had once seemed distant and almost unreachable.

“And yet, here we are,” she said. “Not because the road was easy, but because we kept walking it.”

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The occasion held particular significance for Lamentillo, who reflected on her experience learning English and growing up as a member of the Karay-a ethnolinguistic community.

“English is not my first language. I am from the Karay-a ethnolinguistic tribe. I grew up with a speech defect. And the first book I ever had in English was an Oxford dictionary,” she said.

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Standing at Oxford to address her classmates brought that journey full circle.

“A child who first encountered English through an Oxford dictionary is now graduating from Oxford,” Lamentillo said. “That is something I will carry with gratitude for the rest of my life.”

While acknowledging her personal milestone, Lamentillo devoted much of her address to the experiences of her classmates. She said the cohort’s success was defined not only by academic performance, but also by acts of courage that were rarely visible to others.

“When I look at us, I do not just see achievement. I see bravery. Real bravery,” she said.

She characterized that bravery as quiet and persistent—the kind expressed through the decision to keep going when circumstances make stopping understandable.

Some classmates, Lamentillo said, travelled for as long as 48 hours by train to attend the program. Others crossed several countries amid war to reach Oxford. Some returned to homes where heating could be unavailable for days or weeks, while others joined group work with the sounds of bombings and drones in the background.

Those realities changed the meaning of subjects discussed in the classroom, she said.

“For most of the people in this class, crisis is not a case study,” Lamentillo said. “It is not an abstract concept. It is not a classroom exercise. It is not a framework on a reading list. It is something lived.”

For some students, she added, crisis meant hearing drones overhead, receiving a message from home they were afraid to open or wondering whether family members were warm, safe and alive.

Their classroom contributions therefore came not only from professional knowledge or academic study, but also from memory and direct experience.

Lamentillo praised the courage required to continue learning in the presence of fear and to take part in discussions while carrying realities that a classroom could not fully contain.

“And that bravery is not limited to war,” she said.

She also recognized students who managed businesses, worked full-time or balanced their studies with responsibilities as parents, children, caregivers and community members.

Some continued studying while grieving. Others cared for children, parents or siblings while still attending lectures, meeting deadlines and completing papers.

“Bravery is going home to a real life that is heavy, and then still returning to class,” she said. “Bravery is holding together two worlds at once: the world here, and the world waiting for us beyond Oxford.”

Lamentillo said the graduation ceremony should therefore be viewed not only as a celebration of scholarship, but also as recognition of endurance, sacrifice and resilience.

“This is not only a celebration of academic accomplishment,” she said. “It is a celebration of endurance. Of sacrifice. Of resilience. Of the decision, made over and over again, not to give up.”

She also reflected on the relationships formed within the cohort, whose members came from different countries, professions, beliefs and personal histories.

Although members of the class sometimes disagreed, she said those differences created conversations that challenged and changed them.

“What an honor to learn with you. What an honor to be challenged by you. What an honor to be changed by you,” Lamentillo told her classmates.

She thanked Oxford and the faculty and academic staff for giving students a place to think, question and grow. She particularly acknowledged those who maintained academic rigor while responding to students with compassion and humanity.

“Thank you for seeing us not only as students, but as people with lives beyond the classroom,” she said.

Lamentillo said the flexibility and understanding shown by faculty and staff had helped students carry both their studies and the difficult realities they faced outside Oxford.

“Thank you for understanding that excellence does not always come from ease, and that sometimes the greatest academic achievement is simply that a student found the strength to return,” she said.

“Your support mattered. Your compassion mattered. Your flexibility mattered. And for many of us, it made the difference between stopping and finishing.”

The recognition, she added, also belonged to the families, friends and communities that supported the graduates throughout the program.

She thanked loved ones who offered encouragement, children who shared their time, parents who made sacrifices and friends who listened during difficult periods.

“They may not have sat in our classes, but they walked this journey with us,” Lamentillo said.

Addressing those considering the Major Programmes course, she said Oxford would demand significant effort from its students. The graduating class, however, demonstrated that people with complicated histories and heavy responsibilities continued to belong in places associated with excellence.

“We are proof that belonging is not reserved for those with easy journeys,” she said.“We are proof that language barriers do not define the limits of a voice. We are proofthat struggle does not cancel brilliance.”

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“We are proof that courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision to continue in spite of it.”