EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST
EDUCATION CORNER PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH
Victoria Ayodeji EX CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE AND WINNER OF THE OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AT THE HOUSE OF LORDS FOR UK STUDENT SOCIAL MOBILITY Victoria was the second person from her school (The Petchey Academy in Hackney) to ever get into Cambridge. During her time studying there, she served as the BAME Officer for her college and has gone on to win prestigious awards such as the Outstanding Achievement Award at the House of Lords for the UK Student Social Mobility Awards and she was selected as one of Powerful Media’s Top 100 Future Leaders. Since, she has become one of the global winners of the McKinsey & Company Achievement Award, is the first Chair of the Career Ready Youth Advisory Board and is one of the members of the Sutton Trust Alumni Advisory Board, working closely with the trust to advise on their social mobility work. Victoria speaks about her experiences as a Black student from a disadvantaged background and her determination to overcome the many challenges she faced from her school years through to her gaining a place at Cambridge, despite the many difficulties 38 | EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | AU T U M N 2 02 2
that she faced. She offers advice to other young people and offers a positive and valuable insight into the many charities and support networks that are available and how having resilience and determination can lead to success despite the many challenges that young people may feel that they face. To start with, we are particularly interested in the work that you have done with the Sutton Trust Alumni Advisory Board, could you tell us a little more about what this involves and some of the things that you have done?
Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I came across the Sutton Trust by chance when I was researching free charities and opportunities in Year 12, which was around October or November a few years ago. I realised they had the Sutton Trust Summer School programme, which is a programme they run with different universities across the UK, like Cambridge and Durham, where students in Year 12 can gain an insight into life at university by
