The Homertonian 2023

HOMERTONIAN Homerton College Alumni Magazine

Number 27 | Summer 2023

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PRINCIPAL'S WELCOME

SUMMER 2023

David Johnson

Contents 02 Principal’s Welcome

News 03 Overcoming Class Barriers 03 Reverend Al Sharpton 04 Deborah Griffin 04 Poet in Residence 05 The Glennie Concert Aluphone 05 Michelle Mitchell joins Homerton as Honorary Fellow

Features 06 Day in the Life of Bill Proudfoot 08 Kate Pretty Lecture 09 Postgraduate Student Profile: Najib Sharifi

10 Student Profile: Sasha Grantham 12 Fellow in Focus: Dr Amelia Drew

Updates 13 Our Donors 15 Alumni Reunion Weekend 16 Alumni Benefits

Thank you to all our contributors and those who supplied images. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of Homerton College, Cambridge. Cover Photograph: Stephen Bond Design and print management: H2 Associates, Cambridge.

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y opening gambit during my Charter Dinner speech was meant to be bold, assertive but with a healthy dose of humility.

“Ladies and gentlemen”, I began, “after 19 wonderful months of being Principal here at Homerton, I can honestly say, that I now know what I’m doing”… long pause, sideways glance at the Senior Tutor… “Okay, okay. After 19 wonderful months of being Principal at Homerton… I think I know what I’m doing”. Howls of laughter, but crucially a message had landed.

I do increasingly feel honoured and confident about what my role is here at Homerton. At one level I’ve got to keep this well-oiled, well-organised ship running: housing and feeding many hundreds of students. And in an often too intense academic bubble, I’ve got to make sure that student wellbeing is a very high priority.

I’m always reminded by my great team of Fellows that teaching, alongside welfare, is

David Johnson

The Homertonian is Homerton College’s alumni magazine. It is published once a year. Contact us in the Development Office on Telephone: 01223 747251 or Email: alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk with feedback, news or letters. All our publications are available to read online on the Homerton Website: www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/ alumni-and-supporters/publications

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our core business. And we want to do that, along with engaging in some of the most exciting research, to the very best of our ability.

And alongside the welfare, the teaching and the research, there’s something else that all our Fellows fully agree on: that at Homerton we don’t just want our students to have a world-class degree, but also a strong and decent character. My superhero Dr Martin Luther King Jr summed it up beautifully when he said, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”

And what might we mean when we talk about character? There are many components to character, but, if I was to pick three for our students, they would be Humility (no matter what, not thinking you are better than others). Decency (being kind, thoughtful, understanding). And Selfbelief (having a quiet self-confidence that you can change the world).

These facets of character, along with a world-class Cambridge degree, are, we believe a formula for great success.

My role, therefore is to ensure that our College culture, and programmes like Homerton Changemakers, help deliver that.

As I closed my Charter Dinner speech I said: “My superhero Dr King, passed the baton to my other Civil Rights hero (and Homerton Honorary Fellow) Reverend Jesse Jackson. He has passed it on to many others including me, and I in turn have in my office 1200 batons, to pass on to our 1200 Homerton students, so they too can change the world”.

NEWS

An insightful symposium on working-class experiences

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means that working-class academics and students often think they’re alone, when they’re in fact surrounded by others with similar stories”.

Participants in the seven panels included Homerton students, Fellows and alumni, and senior academics from across the university. The themes discussed included attracting more working-class students to apply and supporting those already here; the issues faced by working-class women academics; changing the culture of the University and class barriers faced by ethnic minorities at Cambridge.

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he symposium “Overcoming Class Barriers at Cambridge” was convened

by Dr David Clifford, Associate Professor in English at Homerton, and addressed the role of social background as it affects Cambridge students and academic staff.

“There are many academics at Cambridge with working-class background,” said David, “but their origin stories are usually well concealed from students behind academic titles and a couple of decent pairs of shoes. The relative invisibility of social background – and, to be frank, the residual undercurrent of shame it still seems to harbour –

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In February, Homerton hosted American civil rights and social justice activist, Reverend Al Sharpton, who gave a penetrating and inspiring talk to students.

Lord Woolley has known “Reverend Al” for 30 years, and campaigned with him in the US and UK for voter registration.

In 1991, Rev. Sharpton founded the National Action Network (NAN), a leading civil rights organisation which works within the spirit and tradition of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr to promote a modern civil rights agenda and NAN is dedicated to the empowerment of marginalized communities, fostering dialogue and collaboration, and creating a more equitable society for all.

He told students “At the end of your life no-one will care how many degrees you had or how many cars you had.

They will remember those who served more than themselves. Service is the real reason to be alive.”

The audience experienced the power of Rev. Sharpton’s rhetoric at first-hand, and he brought his audience up short by observing, “Sharpton was not our name – it was my great-grandfather’s owner’s name. I don’t know my name. And you have the option of being bitter, you have the option of being angry, you have the option of getting revenge, or you have the option of taking the country the other way and choosing not to duplicate that [hate] within yourself.”

In April, at Rev. Sharpton’s invitation, Lord Woolley spoke in the prestigious annual NAN convention, ‘Dealing with the Dream Under Threat’, in New York, which featured a keynote speech by

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REVEREND AL SHARPTON AND HOMERTON

the US Vice-President, Kamala Harris.

Simon’s participation in the convention underscored Homerton College’s commitment to social justice, diversity and promoting positive change.

Simon commented “The struggle for race equality is global. The challenge is of global unity and global allyship that seeks to ensure we recognise the kaleidoscope of challenges for all communities and come together as one.”

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NEWS

DEBORAH GRIFFIN MAKES RUGBY HISTORY H

the antidote to over-working, which is not good for health, mind or work itself. Being physically active, particularly in the open air, is good for body and spirit.”

In June, Deborah joined Homerton College Boat Club to launch their new boat, christened ‘Griffin’ in her honour.

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PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW

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ariah Whelan is a poet, teacher and interdisciplinary researcher. She has been the College’s inaugural Poet-inResidence, a position generously funded

by Dr Norman Bardsley in memory of his wife, Jacqueline, who attended Homerton from 1960–62. Mrs Bardsley was a lifelong writer and lover of poetry. Mariah has

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School to develop sports facilities that are among the best in Cambridge.

Deborah explained “The ethos of team sport is so important for mental health and wellbeing. The need to be attentive and present in the moment is crucial for team sports, and sport can be

David Johnson

omerton College’s former Bursar is set to make history. Deborah Griffin OBE has been elected to become the first female President of the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Deborah, Bursar of Homerton from 2012– 2022, was a key figure in the early days of Women’s rugby, playing in the first official women’s game and competing for England in the World Cup in 1991. She later ran the RFUW (as the women’s club was then called), spearheading the merger with the men’s sport, and was the first woman elected to the board of the RFU. Whilst at Homerton, Deborah championed sport as part of the student experience. She wrote a strategy for sport at Homerton, found a permanent, fully equipped home for the College Boat Club, HCBC, and worked with St Mary’s

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degrees from Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of Manchester.

Mariah’s residency ends in August and she has reflected on what her time at Homerton has given her: “The Homerton residency has been amazing because it’s given me the time and space to develop my methods and approaches. I am so lucky to be able to come to Homerton for a few days each term and dedicate my time to practicing my craft. The poems I’ve written as part of the residency have been published in literary journals and shortlisted for poetry prizes and I have been able to finish the manuscript for Michael, my third book of poetry which was published in 2022.”

“In addition to taking the time to work on my own writing, my job is to create poetry for, and with the College community.

This means I get to work with students, alumni, staff and the Fellowship on all sorts of poetry-related projects. I’ve been commissioned to write specific poems for particular occasions, … I also ran a series of workshops open to everyone. Now we are out of the pandemic, they remain an important space where people can engage in creativity outside their studies. Playing with language and images nourishes the mind and soul. It gives us ways outside the everyday world of work to grapple with who we are and how we want the world to be. Something that is really important at Homerton.”

“The richness of thought at Homerton combined with the compassion and genuine care people have for the community is just such fertile ground for creativity to take place. That is rare and I have valued every moment of it.”

NEWS

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in her own right. She is a double Grammy winner and BAFTA nominee; she joined Homerton College as an Honorary Fellow in 2016 and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 2017.

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onorary Fellow Dame Evelyn Glennie CH has generously loaned an extraordinary musical instrument to the College. The Glennie Concert Aluphone, which Evelyn helped develop, is a tuned percussion instrument made up of coneshaped aluminium bells mounted on a frame. Evelyn famously played the Aluphone in the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists. Profoundly deaf from the age of 12, Glennie often performs barefoot, feeling the music through her body. Evelyn has made over 30 solo recordings, has commissioned more than 200 percussion pieces and is a composer

Positioned on display in our new Dining Hall, the Aluphone gives visitors rare access to this iconic instrument, as well as inspiring students to learn to play it and write original repertoire. This year’s Homerton Composing Competition invited students to compose pieces for the Aluphone, and the May Week Concert featured the winning composition, Entropy Bells by King’s College student Jack Robinson, and the runner-up, Blast Shadow

by Homerton student George Wise.

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MICHELLE MITCHELL JOINS AS AN HONORARY FELLOW M

ichelle Mitchell OBE, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK (CRUK), was sworn in as an Honorary Fellow of Homerton College in June.

Michelle has led CRUK, the largest independent funder of cancer research in the world, since November 2018, the culmination of a career dedicated to public service. She has previously led charities, including the MS Society and Age UK, with distinction.

She served as a Non-Executive Director of NHS England, the King’s Fund, the Power to Change Trust and the Fawcett Society. She grew up in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, where

she attended a comprehensive school. She was the first in her family to go to university.

Issues of social mobility, social change, and social justice have always motivated her, and in every organisation, she has worked to realise the potential of people from all sorts of backgrounds.

In 1997, Michelle joined the democratic change campaign Charter 88, and while there, met Simon Woolley, then a volunteer for the organisation. Simon and others set up Operation Black Vote from within Charter 88 in 1996.

Lord Woolley said: “I have known and respected Michelle Mitchell for nearly three decades, and I am so pleased she is joining our community here. What stands out is not just the energy and the

dynamism she brings to everything she does, but the level of decency and integrity, which resonate so strongly with our values at Homerton”.

Michelle Mitchell said: “I am delighted to join Homerton – not only to make common cause with Simon Woolley again, but because of Homerton’s values of fairness, openness, responsibility and excellence, and the unique position Homerton has forged for itself, since becoming a full College in 2010.”

Michelle is the 15th person to be elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Homerton, a number which includes Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, chair of Cancer Research UK, and formerly ViceChancellor of the University of Cambridge.

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FEATURE

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF… BILL PROUDFOOT

As Executive Head Chef, Bill oversees the kitchen teams. The new, open kitchen is integrated into

the award-winning new dining hall and buttery, and creating decent working conditions for the kitchen staff was a key objective in the move from the Great Hall.

Bill takes us through a typical day in his job.

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6.30am

10.10am

1pm

My working day starts early as I tend to do a morning shift. I open up the kitchen and check in with the chefs on duty that shift.

I have worked at Homerton for 11 years, starting as a Sous Chef and working my way up. Before that I worked as Head Chef at another Cambridge College, and before that at a small Cambridge hotel: I’ve been a chef for nearly 40 years.

The staff and I are really pleased with the new kitchens and facilities. It was a big change as we moved to a completely electric kitchen having always worked with gas. However electric is much cleaner for working and better for the environment. It did take the chefs a little while to get used to the induction hobs as they provide very fast, indirect heat and so it was a learning curve for the first couple of months with a few burnt sauces!

Catering tea break

The new shift team arrive and I get them set up for the evening. I have a 15-minute handover with Lewis, the Head Chef, discussing forthcoming menus, what ordering has been done and so forth. We plan our daily menu over 6 weeks. We cater for breakfast, lunch and dinner all yearround for students, staff and conferences.

We all work a shift pattern so I will work on planning rotas, and I finish off with the fruit and vegetable order.

7am – 10am I focus on the food deliveries coming in today.

Our food is sourced from local suppliers where we can: our butcher, greengrocer and prepared vegetable company are all local. We are also part of a couple of consortiums which enable us to bulk buy with other Cambridge Colleges, so it’s all as efficient as possible.

I check all the orders – 12 to 15 each day – making sure that they are delivered correctly, and that the food has come in at the right temperature. A kitchen porter will put the food deliveries away.

10am At 10am we always have the Catering and Conference Huddle - a five-minute get-together of all the staff working Front and Back of House. Fully staffed we have nine chefs, five kitchen porters and a few casuals in the main kitchen, and on the Front of House side two Managers, three Supervisors and more casuals. They are a great team. Just like the rest of the hospitality industry, we have some staff vacancies: we currently only have five chefs working for us and use agency workers to fill the gaps. I prepared and cooked the breakfasts this morning, and I will always step on to the tools if needed.

At the huddle we go through the shifts for the day as well who is on site – the duty chef and supervisor, plus we identify the fire wardens and first aiders, and we doublecheck the requirements of any conference clients we have today.

10.30am – 11.30am I do the ordering for the next day. We order a day in advance, so on a Monday, food is ordered to be delivered on a Tuesday, for preparing & serving on the Wednesday. It wouldn’t be possible to have delivery and prep on the same day just in case something is delayed. It gives us a chance to rectify any errors in advance and to change menus and reorder if necessary.

2pm – 2.30pm 11.30am I always allow time to check that our allergen labels are correct for the counter lunch service. Every menu, dish, dessert, and salad item must have all allergen details on display.

These details are checked and doublechecked before service. Where possible, we will always cater for special diets including vegan and gluten-free options.

I confirm with the chefs that they are happy with lunch and advise them on other dishes to prepare should they get very busy and need more food.

I also always check in with the kitchen porters. A kitchen is only as good as the kitchen porters: they are the unsung heroes of our department. You don’t get to see them very much, but they are the champions of the kitchen and do an amazing job.

One of the aspects which I like most in my role is making sure I have a happy team. I find that if my team is happy, then I get a lot more from them. I get on well with the team and they know I always have an open door, and I will do anything I can to support them.

12pm We have a conference meeting every week, and I also meet with the Assistant Bursar, the Head Chef, Front of House Managers, & Catering Supervisors on a regular basis.

Lunch time for us!

We are constantly looking at reducing food waste. All food is recycled and picked up by a waste food company, and we recycle all our cardboard which is collected along with other recyclable packaging. Waste oil is collected and recycled into biodiesel.

2.30pm The Catering Managers Committee meet to discuss procurement every month and there is also a quarterly Head Chef committee for Cambridge Colleges. A meeting like that might be the end of my shift, or I might be working on a special event like the Charter Dinner, which is planned 8 months in advance. Lewis will create the menu and there will then be tasting sessions with a small group of Fellows, the Bursar and the Principal Lord Woolley to finalise the menu and marry up the wines for the evening, which is a highlight of the College year.

Evening Once I am home, I will often cook for my family although my wife sometimes queries how many I think I’m catering for – and she reminds me that there are no other chefs or kitchen porters at home to help or clean up!

Daily Hospitality at Homerton by numbers In term time 80 for breakfast 300 for lunch Up to 300 for dinner 200 each for Formal Halls every week of term 200 each for Postgraduate Formal Hall’s three times per term

Conference business Catering for arrival and midmorning coffee, a conference lunch, afternoon tea and possibly dinner.

Upwards of 700 meals a day!

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FEATURE

KATE PRETTY LECTURE

BUILDING BELONGING THROUGH MUSIC The Great Hall was packed out for the 2023 Kate Pretty Lecture “Building Belonging Through Music”, given

by Sonita Alleyne OBE, Master of Jesus College and Chair of the Centre for Music Performance. The audience were also treated to a performance by singer-songwriter Eliane Brechbuehl, a PhD student at the CRUK Cambridge Institute.

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onita Alleyne’s lecture was all at once personal, celebratory and challenging.

Sonita described her school days, full of eclectic music from Mozart to Funkadelic, and the narrowing that was imposed on her musical identity as a student in Cambridge where, as she put it, “there are 29 organs but you sometimes struggle to find a working drumkit”.

Music, she said, had huge power to promote wellbeing, citing a survey showing that 85% of schoolchildren said that music “made them happy”. This made it even

more important that all students could enjoy and practice “their music” at Cambridge.

The Centre for Music Performance, Sonita explained, has inclusivity at its heart – providing opportunities for music-making at every level of expertise, for every audience both town and gown, and of every genre from orchestral to grunge and gamelan.

She recounted the expansive variety of activities the Centre had instigated in its first year, reported the positive testimony of participants, and sketched out some of its future work.

FEATURE

POSTGRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE

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ajib Sharifi is currently completing a PhD in Molecular Chemistry, having been an undergraduate from 2015–18.

Originally from Afghanistan, Najib found his undergraduate course in Chemical Engineering allconsuming, and it wasn’t until he started his PhD that he became more involved in College life. He invested more time in meeting people and in particular in Homerton Changemakers, which has supported him to co-found a charity, UniArk, helping those from persecuted communities to access education.

What was your motivation to engage with Changemakers?

“One of my reflections is that I had felt quite disappointed with my undergraduate experience: I was passionate about my course, but having grown up in an environment of politics and conflict in Afghanistan, I felt rather detached at College, as if I was living in a bubble isolated from the rest of the world. I was interested in how to navigate this different academic world and was actively looking for a means to contribute to my community in Afghanistan in a positive way, but those kinds of conversations did not take place for me at undergraduate level. I felt that the brilliant minds at Cambridge could be applied to find solutions to real world problems.”

“Besides being very passionate about science and academia, I have always been driven by the interests of my community, a persecuted and oppressed ethnic minority, the Hazara. The thought of contributing to a positive change, no matter how small, is what influences most of the key decisions I make. I have not only learnt a lot from the

Changemakers programme, but I also met amazing and inspiring individuals who are passionate about solving the big problems.

I have gone on to join Changemakers as an ambassador so I can continue to work with like-minded people and develop myself further so I can help oppressed communities like my own.

The Homerton Changemakers programme seeks to develop insight, leadership, knowledge and skills; amplifying academic learning and empowering students to create positive change in the community and the world at large.

It was developed in 2019 by Fellow Dr Alison Wood. Changemakers is supported

by Associate Fellow Dr Soraya Jones and a Student Ambassadors Group and also draws on a network of innovators, academics, philanthropists, professionals, and entrepreneurs.

Najib took part in the 2019 inaugural Changemakers Residential and was impressed by the discussions about creating positive change.

“Alison had bought in external speakers, and there were workshops on public

speaking, entrepreneurship and leadership skills. The community environment is one of the aspects I value most about Changemakers. It shifts your mindset to make you feel that you have a role to play in change, big or small. There is a danger of isolation at Cambridge, in the library or in our own work, whereas Changemakers takes us away from purely an academic focus. The Changemakers environment energises, and the call to make positive change resonates with everyone.”

“Events back at home have had a big influence on me. Last year there was a suicide attack which killed more than 50 female students at an Afghan education centre where hundreds of students had gathered to sit a practice test for university admissions. The attack affected me deeply and I arranged a candlelit vigil in their memory at Homerton supported by Senior Tutor Penny Barton and Changemakers.”

“Changemakers is a product of Homerton College and of its people. The right people like Alison and Soraya make Changemakers what it is. Alison is amazing and both she and Soraya create a great learning experience. Simon Woolley has also been a huge support. It’s the full environment at Homerton that allows change to happen.”

UniArk Najib has co-founded the charity UniArk with fellow Changemaker Goncalo Araujo Regado, Shukria Rezaei and Sebastian Abby Pratama. UniArk exists to help those living in persecuted communities in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ghana and elsewhere to get access to education abroad.

“In many countries students might be denied access to education because of their gender, sexual orientation or ethnic group”, says Najib. “Students risk violence and death to get an education. We wanted to contribute to helping those students."

“Three years on and we have about 40 volunteers working for UniArk. We have raised around £45,000, provided financial support to students, and advised them on how to get scholarships. We have helped a girl leave Afghanistan and get into a university abroad and supported a student from Indonesia who has got a place at Cambridge to do chemical engineering next year. UniArk also provides a network of supporters who can help. We make connections with schools and build alliances.”

In 2022, UniArk was awarded the first-ever Seed Fund by Changemakers. www.uniark.org

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FEATURE

STUDENT PROFILE

SASHA GRANTHAM Sasha studied Education with English and Drama and he has just graduated. Having been set on a course following in his father’s footsteps to Oxford, his plans changed, and he took two years out teaching at his old school instead. At Homerton Sasha threw himself into student life having a transformative impact on football and men’s mental health. At graduation he received the 2023 Westall Prize for the student who has contributed most to student life.

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LEAR

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hen I finally arrived at Homerton I was older than most other students. However, the gap years had given me experience and real-world perspective. There seems to be a bit of a stigma against it, but I think the more experiences you have that you can bring to Cambridge, the better.

I started my degree in 2020 in the midst of Covid, which was a strange experience.

Here at Homerton during Michaelmas Term we had to deal with the notorious West House Lockdown with all freshers locked in for two weeks because we had so many Covid infections after Freshers’ Week. It was a very tough start for me and my peers, coming in thinking “this is going to be my home for three years, this is a safe space” but unfortunately because of factors out of anyone’s control it couldn’t be. I know College staff and porters found it equally challenging. Lent Term was spent at home remotely, but summer term was normal, and we were all back.

This experience made us all quite tight knit as a year group. We only really knew each other as we had been segregated together and there were no societies or clubs or chances to explore Cambridge.

So, when it came to the second year, we were trying to manage a second-year workload with first-year curiosity.

Football My sport is football. Unfortunately (as anyone who has ever seen me on a football pitch will know), I can’t play, but I like to think that I am quite adept at managing, coaching and administration.

Homerton is a very strong sporting College and there is a large student body.

We are one of the only Colleges with three men’s football teams and a women’s team. During my first year we only managed one match which took place at Halloween – played by a third team affectionately known as the ‘Homerton Fourths’. They were known for being a bit of a joke team, they mucked about, and the captain didn’t know what the offside rule was. I thought we could be a little more ambitious, so I asked to take it over and I sat down with the captain of the other teams and said, ‘We are the largest College in terms of numbers and our first

team is one of the best. We can make something special here and the first thing I want to do is to get the Homerton Fourths promoted from Division 6 (where they had been languishing for some years). The best thing we can do is get them up.’

I proposed creating a sense of momentum and community; I started to turn up to matches each week in a threepiece suit and I’d stand on the sidelines.

I set up a social media account for the team and created film posters to promote the match fixtures (on one we replaced a photo of Harry Potter’s head with that of our striker). We got fans down to support at matches, and at the end of the season the Fourths were promoted to Division 5 for the first time in student memory.

My second year (2021) coincided with the opening of our new College sports facilities which are the envy of all the other Colleges. We have 4G and astroturf pitches, netball and tennis courts and a clubhouse. It raised our game, and over the summer we decided to change the structure of football at Homerton. We had three men’s teams and a women’s team (Hemmerton) which was joint with Emmanuel. We knew we could improve and have more continuity in the face of student turnover. So, we set up HCAFC, a unified club for the College. One of the first things we did, and the social achievement I am proudest of in my time here, was to field a Women’s and NonBinary College team (only the second one to exist at the University of Cambridge).

They are in the 2nd division of the Women’s League.

Mental Health Increasingly, as student group, we felt there was not enough awareness of mental health, not just in Homerton, or the University, but in society in general. We were particularly concerned about men’s mental health, as mental health issues in young men can often go undetected. In a place like Cambridge, which can be very pressured, and isolating, awareness is so important. We reflected that it was not just up to the College to facilitate support, but as friends and peer groups, we also needed to be able to offer support student to student.

This led us to set up Let’s Get Men Talking (LGMT) in 2022. It began as an informal event; a safe space for ‘those kind of conversations’, where students could talk to others about how they were feeling, but only if they wanted to. We aimed to create an environment to promote habits that are good for your mental and physical wellbeing. LGMT has gone from strength to strength, and we got students involved across year groups, subject groups and throughout the College.

We have hosted events with external speakers, collaborated with other Homerton societies and held a charity event for Cambridge Nightline. It has been a slow process as mental health is still seen as a bit of a taboo subject, but the crucial thing has been being very open and approachable.

The University wellbeing team have been watching our work and have asked us to create a blueprint for other Colleges to use as we are the first to have such a group in place. I was involved in the recruitment process for the Wellbeing Co-ordinator at Homerton and there has been an enormous amount of support from the College for non-academic pursuits. You do get out of it what you put in, and the number of people who want to stay at Homerton is a testament to the environment which has been created and to the people. Simon Woolley has been a great new Principal and we are proud to have him. Students know that his door is open.

What’s next?

Cambridge is a challenging university experience academically. I feel proud and privileged to have had that experience. In an ideal world I would like to pursue a career in sports management, in representation or as an agent – that’s the dream.

Homerton College want to you to explore the city and yourself, to speak to people, make new friends and explore diverse perspectives. Everything is on your doorstep here and there are plenty of opportunities to figure out who you are and what you want to do, so take them. The worst possible thing at the end of three years would be to have an enormous amount of academic knowledge and no self-knowledge.

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ere able to clearly articulate FFI’s role within the wider conservation movement, and celebrated the value of our relatively modest size, stating that we appeared to combine some of the best characteristics of being a big organisation with those of being small. The report also reiterated our own internal perspectives of FFI’s unique role, which focuses on “(i) collaboration through lasting partnerships, (ii) leadership through innovative models, and (iii) a lean entrepreneurial style allowing fast and flexible engagement on critical issues.”

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FEATURE

FELLOW IN FOCUS

WHEN THE UNIVERSE WAS YOUNG

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was Stephen Hawking’s home for most of his career. Amelia is Hawking’s doctoral grand-daughter: he was the PhD supervisor of her PhD supervisor, and she met him at Department seminars.

The effort to understand cosmic strings is global, and Amelia is part of a European co-operation effort on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (endearingly known as WIMPs). Her part is to make accurate predictions about mass, so that theory can be tested against observations. The observed range of mass then informs experimental design. Experiments are expensive, so accurate theoretical predictions of mass are important before undertaking the experiment.

Amelia explains, “My job is to formulate the theoretical model: there are others within the big international collaboration who look after the experimentation.”

It seems likely that Amelia was destined from the cradle to become a mathematician.

Certainly, there is a phone video of her, aged five, saying “Maths!” when asked about her favourite subject. Nevertheless, there were at least two sliding-doors moments which could have led elsewhere. When she came to Cambridge as an undergraduate it was not as a Mathematician, but as a Natural Scientist, and by that time her preference had meandered towards biology. The Natural Sciences course at Cambridge is very broad and allows later specialisation, and slightly to her surprise Amelia ended up taking all physics options after the first year (“because they were the hardest”, she says, demonstrating the strength of her intellectual curiosity). But as a mathematician might put it, course ≠ career, and in fact, she says, “I actually thought when I was an undergraduate that I was going to be a professional violinist. I’ve played in lots of Axion (dark matter?) radiation emitting from a cosmic string hen the Universe was very young, or so the theory goes, it cracked, leaving one-dimensional cosmic strings that may be with us still. It’s a hypothesis, a conjecture, and one that absorbs Homerton’s Dr Amelia Drew. Amelia’s work on predicting the mass of these theoretical defects in spacetime may end up helping to prove whether they do, in fact, exist.

Amelia is a Junior Research Fellow, who came to Homerton in 2020, fresh from finishing a PhD in Cosmology at Gonville and Caius College.

Most Cambridge Colleges have some number of Junior Research Fellows: postdoctoral researchers who are employed by the College, and affiliated to an academic department of the University. The reverse is far more common: there are over 4,000 postdocs in the University, funded by research grants in their department, while at any one time a College like Homerton might have only a handful of JRFs. The three JRFs in the 2020 cohort at Homerton are Dr Sofia Singler, JRF in Architecture, Dr Meredith McLaughlin, a JRF jointly funded by The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, and Amelia.

Amelia’s department is Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, which

orchestras, and I sang in Gonville and Caius College choir in my first year. I was in a band called The Explorers’ Society – we wrote a track called Cosmic Strings and I’m proud to say it’s still there on Spotify!”

Because a JRF is an early career position, they are designed to help move people to the next stage in academia – just as for students, a JRF’s Cambridge career can be “blink and you miss it”, such is the pace of work. In October 2023 Amelia, Sofia and Meredith will start their last year at Homerton, and be looking for the Next Thing.

At Homerton, Junior Research Fellows are full members of the Governing Body of the College. Amelia is reflective about the benefits of being funded by the College rather than through her Department: “it’s a key difference. I get support from Homerton relating to career development but not specific to my discipline. And it provides a community totally unrelated to my research, and adds an important dimension.” Amelia tells of attending a Homerton research seminar by a Kazakh sociologist on the Fellowship, “just out of curiosity”, and meeting PhD students there whom she’s now advising on their postdoctoral applications – clearing the pipeline for new researchers to rise and seize their opportunities.

UPDATE

OUR DONORS

1968 Mrs Kathy Down Dr Anne Martin Mrs Robyn Mitchell Mrs Lynne Parsons Mrs Anne Rogers Mrs Pemma SpencerChapman Mrs Marilyn Stansfield

1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023

The Principal, Fellows, students and staff of Homerton College wish to thank alumni and friends who have generously made donations to the College over the last year. Every effort has been made to ensure this list is accurate; do contact us if you believe we have made an omission.

Key: (d)* = deceased blue = 1768 Society

Alumni 1943 Mrs Kathleen Hayward (d) 1948 Mrs Mary Dowse Mrs Coral Harrow Miss Elizabeth Rainsbury 1950 Mrs Dorothy Elven 1952 Mrs Shirley Haslam 1953 Mrs Elizabeth Tunnicliffe 1954 Mrs Pauline Curtis Mrs Sheila Mackenzie Mrs Penny Marshall Mrs Ruth Orr Mrs Sheila Pearce 1955 Mrs Gwenda Ackroyd Mrs Christine Grainge Mrs Gillian Hewin Mrs Doreen Hobbs Mrs Wendy Oakley 1956 Mrs Elizabeth Benning Mrs Alice Severs

Mrs Diana Hadaway Mrs Jill Hicks Mrs Vivien Ivell Mrs Beryl Izzard Mrs Wanda Kielbinska Mrs Rachel Macdonald Mrs Judy Manson Mrs Beatrice Pryce Mrs Patricia Stott 1959 Mrs Dora Beeteson Mrs Carole Evans Mrs Ann Hardie Mrs Ruth Jerram Mrs Diana Lucas Mrs Annmarie Mackay Miss Gill Rogers 1960 Mrs Rosemary Allan Lady (Gill) Baker Dr J. Norman Bardsley in memory of Mrs Jacqueline Bardsley Mrs Jean Clarke Mrs Sue Dickinson Mrs Jenifer Freeman Mrs Rosemary Hill Mrs Val Johnson Mrs Jennifer McKay Mrs Rosemary Rees Mrs Jacqueline Swegen Mrs Janet Valentine

1957 Mrs Julia Davis Mrs Gillian Figures Mr Gordon Gaddes in memory of Mrs Pamela Gaddes Mrs Christine Lincoln Mrs Josephine Sutton

1961 Mrs Katie Abbott Mrs Jan Campbell Mrs Marilyn Clare Mrs Anne Hulse Mrs Joy Kohn Mrs Susan Lovett Mrs Sue McFarland Mrs Jean Thorman

1958 Mrs Patsy and Mr John Blythe Miss Freda Crispin

1962 Mrs Adrianne Ashcroft Mrs Carol Bowen Mrs Diana Dalton

Mrs Lynn Dowson Mrs Marion Foley (d) Mrs Carole Girdler Mrs Gwendolyn Williams 1963 Mrs Jean AddisonFitch Mrs Andrea Caish The Revd Dr Anthea Cannell Mrs Christine Macpherson Mrs Janet Mayo Mrs Kate Ryder 1964 Mrs Maggie Meredith Mrs Sue Rescorla Mrs Jill Taylor Ms Marjorie Thorley Mrs Jane Woodford 1965 Dr Tricia Cusack Mrs Wendy Dunnett Mrs Annie Illingworth Mrs Judy MartinJenkins Mrs Dorothy Nicholls Mrs Sue Pinner Mrs Janet Webb Mrs Dilys West 1966 Mrs Wendy Farmer Lady (Marilyn) Fersht Mrs Margaret Funnell Mrs Judith Queripel Mrs Margaret Robbie Mrs Jill Russell Mrs Cheryl Trafford Miss Lorraine Welch Mrs Jan Wilkinson 1967 Mrs Marjorie Caie Mrs Miriam France Mrs Avril Growcott Mrs Marion Pogson Mrs Netti Smallbone

1969 Mrs Patricia Colyer Mrs Tricia Coombes Dr Joan Fraser Dr Vicky McNeile Ms Anne Reyersbach Ms Tessa Robinson in memory of Miss Bridget Robinson Ms Hilary Stokes Mrs Sarah Taylor (d) 1970 Mrs Patrica Bradley Ms Fiona Cook The Revd Claire Heald Mrs Mary McCosh Dr Roz Sendorek Mrs Denise Shakespeare Mrs Sue Smith Mrs Helen Wood Mrs Mary Wyatt 1971 Dr Jane Clements MBE Mrs Patty Darke Mrs Denise Few Mrs Anne Moller Mrs Mal Reid Ms Helen Sandle-Baker

1972 Mrs Ros Allwood Ms Catherine Beavis Mrs Sarah Flynn Ms Margaret Howell Ms Anne Kennedy Ms Jane Lewin Smith Mrs Helen Malcolm Mrs Caroline Melrose Mrs Valerie Mills Mrs Penny Riley Mrs Annie Ryder Mrs Angela Swindell Mrs Maureen Weston 1973 Mrs Sheila Martin Mrs Jane McLean Mrs Dilys Murch Mrs Heather Wilkinson 1974 Mrs Elizabeth Rose 1975 Mrs Alyson Baker 1976 Mrs Judy Clarke Mrs Joan Gibson Ms Jill Grimshaw Miss Amanda James Mrs Ann Kirkby Mr Tony Little

Mrs Ann Muston Mrs Jo Newman Mrs Zena Tinsley 1977 Miss Sheila Berry Mrs Lalli Draper Ms Jane Edwards Mrs Ann Jackman Mrs Helen Mitchell Mrs Louise Mursell Mrs Clare Myers Mrs Jane Pearson Mrs Lesley Thomas Mrs Angela Wimbush 1978 Mrs Vicki Addey Mrs Marianne Billitt Ms Jackie Blackmore Mrs Ruth Briant Mrs Sandra Burmicz Mrs Annette Cameron Mrs Clare Danielian Mrs Dee Davey Mrs Caroline Hanton Mrs Mary Powles 1979 Mrs Oyinkan Ade-Ajayi Mrs Jane Bishop Mrs Rachel Bond Mrs Leonie Hyde Mrs Brenda Thompson Mr Chris Tottman 1980 Ms Victoria Brahm Mrs Jo Broughton Mr Ian Copeland Mrs Catherine Hicks Mrs Sarah Holmes Mr John Turner 1981 Miss Anna Chapple Ms Liz Clifford Mrs Amanda Edwards Mrs Cordelia Myers Ms Sara Wolfson 1982 Mr Mark HanleyBrowne Mr Brian Howarth 1983 Mrs Theresa Atal Mrs Alison Brinklow Mr Jez Crook Mrs Susan Hill Mrs Karen Miranthis Mrs Sarah Palmer Ms Emma Rawson Mrs Frances Surridge 1984 Ms Cathy Graham Ms Gek-Ling Lee Ms Alison Mesher 1985 Dr Kirsty Byrne Mrs Karen Coombs Mrs Sally Jaspars Mrs Anna Williams

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OUR DONORS cont...

1986 Mrs Keren Cooke Ms Nansi Ellis Miss Samantha Taylor Mrs Yvonne Wiggall 1987 Mrs Kim Chaplin Mrs Michaela Khatib Mrs Keeley Rayner Mr James Thomson 1988 Mrs Tamsin Austoni Mrs Katie Mayne Ms Phillipa Rushby Mr Giles Storch Miss Jen Svrcek 1989 Mr Tarquin BennettColes Miss Lucy Bradley Ms Fran Harrison Mr Carl Howarth Mrs Charlotte Irving Mrs Penny Lee Mr Simon Ray The Revd Wendy Wale 1990 Mrs Naomi Baynes Mr Phil Coldicott Mrs Karen George Mrs Fiona Gruneberg Mr Ian Hodgson Mrs Sharon Holloway Mrs Sarah McWhinnie Dr Susi Pinkus Dr Helen Price 1991 Mrs Joy Bensley Mr David Chapman Miss Claire Corkran Mrs Elizabeth Sartain 1992 Dr Simon Camby Mrs Sarah Haines Mrs Diane Rawlins 1993 Dr Steven Chapman Miss Helen Diggle Mrs Helen Morgan 1994 Mrs Claire Brooks Mrs Torie True Mrs Emma Vyvyan 1995 Ms Nicola Abery Mrs Carol Carlsson Browne Mr Mark Thomas 1996 Mr Ian Bettison Miss Jo Cullen Mr Ian Frith Mrs Audrey Hinnells Mr Christopher Shephard Mrs Louise Tomlinson

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HOMERTONIAN

1997 Mr Matt Buck Ms Sadeka Choudhuri Ms Vicky Silver 1998 Mr Alastair Chipp Mr John Moore 1999 Miss Dawn Alderson Dr Neil Hennessy Mr Richard Marshall Mrs Denise Mieszkowski Mrs Laura Penrose Dr Louisa Tipler Mrs Zoe Yeomans 2000 Mrs Sue Aldred Miss Rebecca Bauckham Mrs Angela Clark Mrs Abby Deeks Dr Richard De Orfe Dr Rekha Elaswasapu Mrs Emma Holt Dr Tom Kitchen Mrs Amy McDonnell Mrs Annabelle Payne Mrs Cheryl Smith 2001 Miss Emma Cosby Mrs Lesley Crooks Mrs Julie Dear Miss Lidia Fesshazion Mrs Amy Fleming Mr James Frecknall Mr Paul Jones Mrs Sandra Stapleton Miss Emily Tattoo Mrs Mandy WarnerBradshaw 2002 Mr Chris Adams Mr Ali Azeem Dr James Croft Mr Sam Farmer Mr Sutherland Forsyth Mrs Carys Gladdish Mr Chris Kellaway Mr Remi Moynihan Miss Krista Pullan Mr Tim Scott Dr Lisa Sessions Mrs Sharron Shackell Mrs Stephanie Shelmerdine Mrs Helen Smith Mrs Angela Woodruffe Mrs Rhiannon Wynne-Lord 2003 Ms Susanna Bellino Mr Louis Budworth Mr Raymond Cilia Mr Gregoire Hodder Mrs Anne Howell Mrs Catherine Kitchen Mrs Aleishia Lewis Mrs Elizabeth Mansfield Mr Daniel Roberts

Mr Jonathan Ross Mr Tim Rothwell Dr Tovah Shaw Mr Jean-Paul Skoczylas Mr Tristan Stone Miss Stephanie Tillotson Mr John White 2004 Mr Laurence Ball Mrs Emily Davies Mr Colin Ferguson Miss Natasha Gray Mr Richard Hopkins Mrs Nadine LLoyd Mr Ravi Raichura Mrs Kimberley Rayson Dr Jeptepkeny Ronoh Mrs Sian Shaw Miss Jennifer Sneyd Mrs Sarah South Ms Verity Worthington 2005 Dr Enyi Anosike Mr Nicholas Bebb Mrs Katy Coles Mr Andy Gard Miss Sian Mawditt Mrs Rebekah Perry Dr Oliver Rupar Mrs Liz Sharp Ms Nadia Syed Mr Han Tu 2006 Miss Aniko Adam Dr Theresa Adenaike Mr Andrew Blackburn Miss Katherine Bluck Mr Thomas Dix Mrs Sophie Harrison Dr Joshua Jowitt Miss Afaf Nourallah Miss Chloe Orchin Mrs Dawn Pavey Mrs Lynne Richardson Mr Tom Robinson Mr Luke Shepherd Mr Azam Taiyeb Mrs Liza de Uphaugh 2007 Mrs Rhiannon Baxter Mrs Tracey Harjatanaya Mr Tom Horn Mr Joshua Jenkins Miss Teresa Li Mr Duncan Loweth Mr Michael Lynch Miss Nic Pollard Mr Matthew Thomas Miss Beth Wattleworth Dr Susan Wishart 2008 Mr Luke Clarke Mr Felix Danczak Mr Mike George Mr Matthew Linsell Mr James Lugton Miss Amy Munro-Faure Mr Ikenna Obiekwe Mr Gershwinder Rai

Mrs Emily Roberts Mr Like Robins Mrs Jessica Shingfield Mrs Sarah Talland Mrs Emma Turner Miss Rebecca West 2009 Mr Adarsh Bala Mr Daniel Beresford Ms Shruti Chaudhri Miss Danielle Eley Miss Alice Esuola-Grant Mr Jack Euesden Mrs Denise Heal Mr Gregory Hill Miss Christine James Mr John Keene Mr Christopher Morgan Mrs Sue Morley-Souter Mr Joseph Randall-Carrick Mrs Rebecca Rowe Miss Xiaoye Shan Mr Michael Thorp Miss Isabel Webb Ms Rhiannon Williams 2010 Miss Emma Bowell Mr Nahum Clements Miss Alexandra Courage Mr Vasilis Eliades Mr Gabrielius Glemza Mr Paul James Miss Sian Jones Miss Suzannah LangdonShreeve Dr Dirk Mersch Mr Rok Nezic Mrs Helen O’Hara Mr Stephen Pates Miss Heather Plumpton Miss Bella Radenovich Mrs Jessica Taylor Miss Megan Trimble Dr Wei Yang 2011 Mrs Cordelia Brown Mr James Chicken Mr Richard Fitton Mr Jack Hooper Mr George Jenkins Mr Laurence Pritchard Mr Thorben Schaefer Mr Alex Shellum 2012 Mr George Clarke Mr Radley Cunliffe Dr Caia Dominicus Miss Maureen Gisseleire Ms Louise Holyoak Mr Hansley Narasiah Mr Douglas Porter Miss Ruth Taylor Dr Samantha Spratley Mr Theepan Tharmarajah 2013 Mr Tristan Colaco Mr Daniel Dennis Mr Harry Draper

Mr Hachimi Maiga Mr Chris Wellings 2014 Mrs Alexandra Annett Miss Harrie Gooch Mr Nigel Ironside Mr Richard Jones Mrs Anna Nye 2015 Miss Olivia Buckland Mr Daniel Burdett Miss Sally Dickens Mr Adam Dobson Professor Vincent English Miss Emily Jones Mr Justin Maroy Miss Sarah WitkowskiBaker 2016 Miss Mille Fjelldal Mr Mitchell Hayden-Cook Mr Graham Robertson Mr George White 2017 Dr Neil Papworth Mr Joseph Saxby 2018 Miss Karen Castle Miss Melissa Green Mr Alexander Lister Mr Michael Sanchez 2021 Miss Imaan Bhaiji Dr Pavel Cejka Miss Georgina Quayle Friends of Homerton Mrs Hinna Azeem Mrs Jean Ball Mrs Frances Barrett Miss Patricia Cooper Mr Douglas Coombes MBE Mr Norman Donkin Mr Fabio Galantini Mr Roger Green Dr Lesley Hendy Dr Liz Hook Professor Chris Imafidon Dr Louise Joy Dr Anthony Metcalfe Mr Matthew Moss MVO Miss Amy Reeve Dr Peter Warner Mr Aaron Westfall Cavendish Circle Dr J Norman Bardsley Ms Victoria Brahm Mrs Annie Illingworth Mr Justin Maroy Macaulay Circle Mr Gordon Gaddes Mrs Coral Harrow Mrs Kate Ryder Mrs Dilys West

ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND UPDATE

FRIDAY 22 TO SUNDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2023 David Johnson

We are delighted to host our annual Alumni Reunion Weekend. The best way of booking is via our Alumni Events page on the College website.

Alternatively, please contact Sally Nott on alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk or by phone on 01223 747251.

You are free to attend as much or as little of the weekend as you like. We look forward to welcoming you back to Homerton!

PROGRAMME Friday, 22 September 6.15–7.30pm

Donor Reception (By invitation)

7.00 for 7.45pm

Drinks Reception followed by Dinner

Saturday, 23 September

CAN’T MAKE THE ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND? We have Drinks Receptions in London during the year and have recently launched the City Network for London-based alumni working in finance and related professions. Please email alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk for further details.

9–9.30am

Registration

9–9.45am

Coffee

9.45–10.30am

Welcome address by the Principal and the HUS President

10.45– 11.45am

Talk on the Changemakers Programme Tour of the College gardens Tour of student rooms

12–1.30pm

Lunch

1.45–2.45pm

Panel discussion: Overcoming Class Barriers at Cambridge

3–3.30pm

'Decades Out’ celebrations

3.45–4.45pm

The New School film and discussion

4.45–5.30pm

Performance by The Charter Choir

2–4pm

Tea & Cake

Sunday, 24 September Noon

Tour of The Fitzwilliam Museum

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UPDATE

ALUMNI BENEFITS As a lifelong member of Homerton and the University of Cambridge you are entitled to a number of benefits. You are very welcome to visit Homerton and use the College Library, Buttery and Bar, and to dine at Formal Hall. Subject to availability, you can also book overnight accommodation at preferential rates and book function rooms for private dinners and events.

For more information email alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk You can take advantage of great deals at a number of Cambridge hotels, bars, restaurants and retailers by using your CAMCard (issued by the University). You will also receive automatic membership to the University Centre and free entrance into most of the Cambridge Colleges. To request a CAMCard visit: www.alumni.cam. ac.uk/benefits/camcard

Will you help Homertonians to flourish?

Gifts from alumni directly impact our students, by helping them afford their degree, supporting them when times are tough – with provision ranging from funding to pastoral care and on-site counselling – and by ensuring they can grasp the amazing opportunities that being part of Homerton offers. We have come so far together, and with your support, we can continue shaping future generations of compassionate, responsible, diverse talents, no matter their background or circumstances.

Support a student’s future with a gift to one of our key funds here. We, and generations of current and future students, thank you.

Jane Leichty

www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/donate or phone Christopher Hallebro on 01223 747280

KEEPING IN TOUCH By email Have you been receiving our email newsletter? If you haven’t seen an e-newsletter recently, send us an email at alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk to make sure we have your current contact details.

Social Media – follow us for the latest College news

www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/alumni/benefitsandevents

HOMERTON COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF C AMBRIDGE Hills Road Cambridge CB2 8PH Tel: +44 (0)1223 747251 Email: alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk

Visit the College website for full details of our alumni events and benefits.

www.homerton.cam.ac.uk

You can read College publications online and update your contact details

Homerton College is a Registered Charity No. 1137497

when you move house or job.

HOMERTON COLLEGE

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