We firmly believe that King's not only has an academic mission to educate its
students to the highest standards but it also has a social mission to bring about
social mobility.
I think a big barrier for people who are thinking about
applying to Cambridge is generally trying to imagine themselves in the
space, and one of the things that we tried to do as Access Officers was
really show people that it was an option.
Students from private schools or the
best schools in the country are taught about Oxbridge from a very early age
and shown that it's attainable but people from disadvantaged backgrounds are just
not given that kind of information so it's really imperative that students
speak to students.
First coming to King's there was an aspect of it that
was a little bit intimidating for me - I was a minority in a number of ways but
what that made me realise was I have an opportunity to educate people that may
not have come in contact with people with my experience.
You can't claim that this is the best university in the world
if all it does is recycle the same ideas
over and over again; you have to be able to have people who will disrupt that.
Last year we also hosted Target Oxbridge here in which people of colour were given
a lot of information about studying here - mainly to inspire them to apply in the
first place.
I know so many people who come to Cambridge and are scared about
being a minority and not fitting in and not finding their place.
Just existing as a BME student in Cambridge
has so much influence that you don't even think
about and I think it's important to just show that you exist - to show that
there be are BME people here who are surviving but also thriving here, who are
having a great time - I know there are issues and we should talk about these
issues - but also to say that it is possible to come here and have a good
time, to learn so much and then to go beyond that and just impact your
community for good after.
I think it's really important for
students who are thinking about coming to Cambridge to have a role model to
look up to and to understand that there are black people at Cambridge and that
they can come here.
King's in particular is good for having a range of people
from lots of different backgrounds and I know that my views on some things have
certainly changed just from spending time with people here, and so that view
that you might not fit in beforehand and everyone might be a bit different - well
everyone's a bit different and no one fits in because you've not
formed your own community yet.
I love Cambridge because a lot of my learning
here has not been restricted to just the classroom or just to conversations with
professors; I've actually learned a lot just from conversations with students here -
my peers, friends, and it's actually great how you get to see the world in
a different way, from a different set of eyes.
I think it just makes life a little
bit more interesting - you could be working on an essay and just telling
people about it who don't do your subject at lunch, and obviously people
from a different subject and from a different country will have a completely
different take on it.
Being in a place like Cambridge where you can actually
sit down at lunch and talk to the historian or talk to the philosopher;
I have a very lovely colleague that is a specialist on
Shakespeare for example, and we suddenly talk about that -
this is priceless.
Coming to Cambridge I really did think
this is kind of like an old boys' club - all the buildings, especially the chapel,
very imposing - King's has absolutely dispelled that myth.
All you need to do is break the chain once - in other words bring a student from
a family that has never had anyone go to university - and then you've broken that
chain forever.
When you have a group of students who feel like King's was a good
experience for them, and coming to King's was great for them academically but also
socially, they are more likely to go back to their communities and to go back to
their fields of influence and share that.
I think King's is a very warm and
welcoming place and so I've really managed to find a solid group of friends
that I know will be my friends for life and that just helped give me a real
sense of belonging which is really nice.
It is very much like kind of a family
just looking after you and making sure you're doing okay; just over the course
of two years I feel like I'll know these people for a lot longer to come.
When I came to King's I thought I was living a dream - the buildings so majestic it was
like stepping into a little bit of history. Then I realized it was a live
organization and abuzz with ideas. I always think back on this place as a
little period of serenity in my life - I think it was a great launching pad
and I shall always be grateful.
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