Two Flinders students, Houman Zandi-zadeh and Harmonie Wong, have won category awards in the fifth annual StudyAdelaide International Student Awards, which were presented at a ceremony this week by State Governor, Mr Hieu Van Le.

Winner of the Artistic Achievement Award, Houman Zandi-zadeh is in the process of completing his PhD in creative drama on the process of creating an intercultural adaption. In addition to his study, Houman is a poetry writer and is active in the Persian Cultural Association of South Australia. He has presented at several conferences and has been a joint director at the Humanities and Creative Arts Postgraduate Association at Flinders.

Now in his final year, he is set to commence post-doctoral work at the University of Oxford in 2017, applying for and securing his position based on a proposal titled “Greek Drama in Iran”.

Harmonie Wong, winner of the Sporting Achievement Award, moved to Australia from Canada to study medicine at Flinders in 2013. A former three-time senior national figure skater, she came out of retirement to skate competitively at the senior level after moving to Adelaide, and also teaches junior skaters.

Her training for the Skate South Australia’s Senior Ladies’ competition was disrupted for six months following her injury by a drunken driver, but Harmonie was able to recover, train and compete in the July 2015 event, taking out first place.

Two other Flinders students were highly commended: Lyna Kaul in the Academic Postgraduate Coursework category, and Nur Nadira Zainal in the Community/Volunteer category.