Sophie Rayner receives inaugural Katherine Parr Award

Sophie Rayner is the first recipient of the Katherine Parr award, given to a final year undergraduate who has made an outstanding contribution to the College through academic and extra-curricular achievements.

English student Sophie said that she was ‘absolutely delighted and honoured’.

My time at Trinity has been full of brilliant opportunities in the arts, in sport and in my academics.

I would like to thank the donor and also the College for recognising the importance in students immersing themselves in a range of pursuits or going deeper into an existing interest because of the range of opportunities available here.

And also to everyone who has celebrated success – both in and out of the exam hall.

Sophie, who will graduate this summer, played a key role in setting up Arts Week at Trinity –  a programme of talks, workshops and performances open to all Cambridge students.

This first-of-its-kind programme was a collaboration between Trinity’s arts societies and included readings by poets Mona Arshi, James Harpur and Rebecca Watts; an LGBTQ+ arts night in chapel; and a Q&A with alumnus Rupert Goold.

Sophie is also out-going president of the Dryden Society, the resident performing arts society at Trinity College.

This year she co-captained Trinity Women’s Netball Team which only lost one league match. She has also been a student ambassador since her first year, working at open days, during interview week and at residentials.

Katherine Parr was the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII. Her role in Henry’s founding of Trinity College – one of the last acts of the King’s life – is disputed. But her own education is documented. Katherine was fluent several languages and she published religious works under her own name.

A portrait of Katherine Parr, by former Fellow Commoner in the Creative Arts Ulyana Gumeniuk, hangs in Trinity’s Dining Hall.

The  Katherine Parr Award is established through the generosity of an alumnus and will be made annually. The recipient is recommended by a judging panel and approved by College Council.

Arts Week at Trinity – Trinity College Cambridge

Queen Katherine Parr’s role in founding Trinity is ‘romantic fiction’ – Trinity College Cambridge