The Homertonian 2022 by Homerton College

HOMERTONIAN Number 26 | Summer 2022

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Homerton College Alumni Magazine

HOMERTON COLLEGE

HOMERTONIAN26 SUMMER 2022

Contents News 04 Kate Pretty Lecture 05 Philippa Pearce Lecture 06 Mary Dixon-Woods Receives Third Honorary Fellowship

07 Principal’s Memoir Published

Features 08 Interview With The Architects Of The New Dining Hall

11 Alumni Feature: Repurposing Plastic Waste

12 Fellow In Focus: Dr Alison Wood 15 Research Interview: Dr Stephen Burgess

16 Alumni Profile: Jo Browning Wroe

Welcome! What a complicated creature is a university. As the Vice-Chancellor told us in his Kate Pretty Lecture (page 4), universities these days are not just expected to teach and to research; they are required to be vehicles for social mobility, to embody society’s values, to conserve the past and to predict the future. They are expected to change never, and constantly; to be, simultaneously, cultural bellwethers and the last bastions of The Way Things Ought To Be Done. And their breadth is exceptional – even in the single academic area of healthcare there is room for social scientists (Mary Dixon-Woods, page 6) and mathematicians (Stephen Burgess, page 15), alongside the infinite variety of medics. A College, in Cambridge, shares much of this complexity but on a human scale. A Cambridge College puts a magical wrapper around everything the university does, and shrinks it, making it about people, learning from people, supporting people. I got all emotional at the final paragraph of the article (page 20) about Lisa Levytska, which tells of her gratitude that Homerton had helped her family, even though Lisa was so newly arrived. “They didn’t owe me anything”, she says – but that’s not the Homerton way. Once a Homertonian, always – and immediately – a Homertonian. Matthew Moss Director of External Relations and Development

18 A Day In The Life Of Shaun Fordham

20 Student Profile: Lisa Levytska

Updates

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 College website: www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/alumni-andsupporters/publications

10 Bursar’s Update 14 Mentoring Update: Matches Made At Homerton

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22 The Charter Choir 23 Our Donors

27 Alumni Reunion Weekend

18 20 2

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Thank you to all of our contributors and to 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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UPDATE

PRINCIPAL’S WELCOME Lord Woolley of Woodford

oming to the end of my first year at Homerton, one might expect that the novelty or exciting newness of the job would wear thin. But no, not a bit. In fact in the mornings, when I cross the lawn from my house to the Principal’s office and see the College waking up around me, or in the evenings after engaging with students and Fellows after a formal dinner in our beautiful new dining hall, the joy of being in the role just increases. Above all the interaction with students here at Homerton fills me hope. Some students, both black and white, have stopped me in my tracks to let me know just what my presence means to them, whether it’s seeing themselves in a role like this or hearing the mantra that we all belong. I am extremely grateful that the interest in my appointment has given me a platform to discuss why the vision and opportunities we offer at Homerton need to be open to all. Access and widening participation have also been hugely important to the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, and I was delighted that he chose to give the final speech of his tenure here, at Homerton, for my first Kate Pretty Lecture. This first year began with a flourish, with landmark visits from both the heir to the throne, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, and a personal hero of mine, The Rev’d Jesse Jackson. It has also contained more dinners than I was warned about, and certainly more meetings! But more importantly, the year has been made up of countless quiet opportunities to get to know people. To get to know the students who have worked so hard to get here and

for whom Homerton will play a crucial and transformative role in their lives. To get to know the Fellows and staff, in every department, who keep this amazing place going. And to get to know the alumni, whose stories make Homerton what it is, and whose generosity, as mentors, donors

and volunteers, will help take us into the future. Thank you to all of you for welcoming me to your home, now my home too. I’m hugely excited about being part of a great team that will take Homerton forward on the next wonderful stage of its story.

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NEWS The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, delivered the fifth annual Kate Pretty Lecture on 8 June, in Homerton’s Great Hall and to an international online audience. The lecture honours former Principal Dr Kate Pretty, who was in attendance,

KATE PRETTY LECTURE David Johnson

and who Professor Toope quoted with some emotion in a reference to “the centuries old process: the transference of wonder into knowledge – and knowledge into wonder.”

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he Principal introduced the ViceChancellor with gratitude for the welcome he had shown him last autumn, when Lord Woolley took up his post at Homerton, saying “he made me feel I belonged.” In what is likely to be his final formal speaking engagement before he steps down at the end of the summer, Professor Toope addressed the subject “University Matters? The University of Cambridge in an increasingly complex world”. He emphasised the University’s focus on an international outlook, expanding inclusivity and as a beacon for excellence, values which resonate strongly with Homerton’s own. Professor Toope explored the tumultuous global changes which have taken place in the five years since he took office, acknowledging that: “We are still reeling, collectively, from what I would characterise as truly paradigm-shifting events, the full consequences of which we have yet to understand.” Against that backdrop, he interrogated what he termed “three other areas of profound and accelerated change over the past five years”: public expectations of universities; the international landscape post-Brexit; and the surrounding culture. Unpacking the increasing tendency for universities to be expected to deliver ‘value for money’, Professor Toope said: “Of course students and their families care deeply about post-graduation prospects and opportunities, and it is right that we offer quality education. But a university education is not a transaction. A university education should be about preparing students for careers, and for contributing to society. A university

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Professor Stephen J Toope, Dr Kate Pretty and Lord Woolley

education should be about students’ engagement with established knowledge and with new ideas. A university education should be an enlarging and enriching experience, an opening of eyes and minds to the world’s complexity, to the world’s beauty, and even to the world’s horrors.” Reflecting on Cambridge’s global outlook, and the impact of Brexit on Britain’s participation in international research, the Vice-Chancellor said: “A time of global challenges is not the time to retreat into national pockets of academia. Instead, our universities should be doing what we do best - seeking solutions to vexing problems by working with partners around the globe.” Professor Toope also examined the effect of what he described as the “explosive” combination of the growth of identity politics in parallel with the advance of social media “What we have witnessed is the emergence of extremism of all stripes. And it has tainted public discourse, which is increasingly intemperate, and intolerant of others. As communities, we have become fragmented, fractious and frayed... It is the job of our universities to educate minds - our own, and those of the generations of students coming through -

to help us build our self-confidence and better navigate our ill-tempered times.” While Professor Toope did not shy away from the challenges and difficulties faced by Cambridge and the wider academic world over his tenure, he also stated that he was “incredibly gratified” by the achievements of the University over that period, from its response to climate change through the creation of Cambridge Zero, to the significant advances seen in widening access and participation. Describing himself as “an inveterate optimist...absolutely convinced that our collegiate University is a force for good in this world,” the Vice-Chancellor ended by saying: “Our collegiate University is always a work in progress - proud of its past but honouring its future. Never perfect, but always susceptible to improvement. Never finished, but always open to evolution. Because the world never stops changing. And as the world changes, so must Cambridge.” Lord Woolley thanked Professor Toope for “such a moving lecture, given with passion and from the heart,” and urged him to remain closely connected to the College and to Cambridge as he returns to Canada because “we know how much you care, and we need that valuable insight that helps guide us, as you said, in troubled times.”

The Philippa Pearce Lecture 2022 began with a welcome instruction to “imagine that it is still 2020. For the next couple of hours, you are licensed to indulge the welcome fantasy that the past two years simply haven’t happened,” said Homerton Vice-Principal Dr Louise Joy in her opening remarks.

he event was originally scheduled to take place in April 2020, marking Philippa Pearce’s centenary year. Its speaker, Geraldine McCaughrean, the double Carnegie Medal winning author of over 170 books including Peter Pan in Scarlet and Where the World Ends, was described by Dr Joy as: “One of the most prolific and expansive authors for children writing today. The sheer eclecticism of Geraldine’s works is breath-taking. It is hard to think of a genre she hasn’t written in. Her work encompasses both the comic and the serious; the historical and the contemporary and the futuristic; forms that are deliberately imitative and forms that push the envelope. Through them all runs a warmth; a restless intellectual curiosity; a love of language; a faith in humanity; masterful storytelling.” That theme of storytelling ran through an evening which celebrated and demonstrated the instinctive and enduring power of story. Geraldine McCaughrean opened her lecture with a list of the extraordinary range of authors who had been published in the year of Philippa Pearce’s birth, from L.M. Montgomery to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and said “having spent a lifetime doing what I Iove, and being allowed to call it work, I feel like celebrating.” She described the craving for storytelling as inherent to the human condition. “The human spirit shrinks from fear, boredom and sorrow, but the mind and soul go out in search of story. Who knows why?” However she also expressed concern that sensitivities around cultural appropriation could diminish imaginative output, with publishers

“THE MIND WILL ALWAYS LATCH ON TO STORY” nervous of writers stepping too far away from their own lived experience. “I remember being told as a child ‘write about what you know’, and thinking ‘why would I want to?’ And suddenly it’s back, as an injunction…I firmly believe that an interior world is the greatest resource there is in difficult times.” She rejected what she saw as a growing trend towards writers being expected to introduce children to concepts such as climate change, presenting them with a duty to solve existential crises which adults had failed to respond to. “Something inside me recoils at the idea of painting Armageddon on the inside of children’s skulls. When you’re an adult you can scrub it off…my beloved former editor used to say ‘the only difference between adult and children’s fiction is that you owe it to children to leave them in a safe universe at the end of it.’ Entertainment is a noble profession, and we don’t have to lay claim to anything more august.” Interspersed, without introduction, throughout her talk was a story, Anansi the Spiderman. As each section began, there was a palpable change of focus, as the audience of literary adults settled down, with the same trust and expectation as a class of pre-schoolers, preparing to be carried along by narrative force. She concluded with a simple explanation of this phenomenon. “I give you this story, in recompense for the time you have given me today, and to prove a point. It’s hard to listen for an hour to mere talk, but the mind will always latch on to story.” The power of story was also beautifully demonstrated by an addition to the programme in celebration of the

Stephen Bond

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NEWS

Geraldine McCaughrean

centenary year. A 20-minute play Inside Her Head by the award-winning playwright and personal friend of Philippa Pearce, Nick Warburton, combined a Pearce short story by the same title with references to her other stories and experiences. A two-hander by actors Jeremy Whitton Spriggs and Sandra Birnie, the play explored the boundaries between memory, imagination and invention, and involved the audience in a sense of collaboration as a story was constructed in front of them. Following an intellectual probing of why story continues to be so important, it was both fitting and hugely pleasurable to sit back and allow a story to be told, in Philippa Pearce’s own words.

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NEWS On 21 April, Homerton Fellow Professor Mary Dixon-Woods became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, expanding an already impressive haul of honours.

PROFESSOR MARY DIXON-WOODS

A HAT-TRICK OF HONORARY FELLOWSHIPS

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n addition to her roles as Director of The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (THIS Institute) and Professorial Fellow at Homerton, Mary is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. She gave the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians in 2018, the 500th anniversary of the college’s founding. The breadth of this recognition reflects the widespread impact of THIS Institute, which was launched in January 2018 with a remit to improve healthcare through research. “Until relatively recently, there was a strong heritage-driven approach to medical

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care, with knowledge handed on through the generations in a kind of apprenticeship model,” Mary explains. “But over a 50 year period we saw the emergence of a social movement and an infrastructure to support the principle that treatments should be based on high quality evidence rather than personal opinion or preference. We can see the benefits of this every day, for example during the pandemic.“ It’s only more recently, Mary explains, “that there has been the dawning realisation that there also needs to be science behind how we organise and deliver care as much as for treatment, and that if we’re going to improve quality and safety of care then it needs an evidence base too.” In June 2016, just a month after Mary had arrived in Cambridge as the RAND Professor of Health Services Research, bids were sought by the Health Foundation for the development of a new research institute to fill this gap. She bid for it and following several rounds of a “very demanding process”, was successfully granted funding of £42.5 million in March 2017. THIS Institute was launched 10 months later in January 2018. It’s had a close affiliation with Homerton, where Mary had become a Fellow in 2016, from the beginning. “When (former Principal) Geoff Ward approached me about a fellowship I was thrilled – Homerton was top of my list,” she says. “I was so impressed by its vision and boldness and how it had stepped forward in this incredibly bold way. It remains the top College I would want to be associated

with. You can’t have an uninteresting conversation here!” THIS Institute works directly with patients and NHS staff, as well as with collaborators from many different organisations and disciplines, to produce scientifically rigorous evidence to support healthcare improvement. It funds a national research fellowship scheme that has made awards to 18 universities to date, supporting a new generation of people with the skills and capability to study improvement. A current project focusing on avoiding brain injury in childbirth was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care, in collaboration with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and the Royal College of Midwives. It brings together the perspectives of maternity services staff and maternity service users to improve detection of possible foetal deterioration during labour and to support management of an obstetric emergency known as impacted foetal head at caesarean section. “These new approaches are intended to make care safer, and because they have been co-designed with the people involved, we can be confident that they address the things that matter to them.” Mary grew up in Ireland and initially studied communications at Dublin City University and statistics at Trinity College Dublin. She spent four years working on energy policy as a civil servant, before moving to the UK to complete an MA in social policy at Oxford, which led to a DPhil in health research. Before her move to Cambridge, she spent 22 years at the University of Leicester. The Honorary Fellowship was conferred on 21 April, and reflects Mary’s commitment to improving obstetric care and women’s healthcare more broadly. “It’s a great honour,” she says. “I’m really thrilled.”

NEWS

Lord Woolley’s memoir, Soar, was published on Thursday 14 April, by Manilla Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books.

In a foreword to the book, the civil rights campaigner Rev. Jesse Jackson, who became an Honorary Fellow of Homerton at the end of last year, says: “Lord Simon Woolley is not finished yet, not by a long way. His role as the first Black man to head an Oxbridge college is a new and exciting chapter to encourage and inspire generations to believe, no matter

your race or your impoverished start in life you can and must succeed - dream beyond your circumstances.” The Principal discussed the book in conversation with Alex Clark as part of the Cambridge Literary Festival in April, and with human rights lawyer and the founder of Reprieve, Clive Stafford Smith, at the Charleston Festival in May.

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escribing his childhood, adopted by a white family on a Leicester council estate; his return to education at the age of 26; the dynamism and ambition he brought to Operation Black Vote over 25 years and his newfound establishment credentials as a member of the House of Lords and Principal of Homerton, the book is a personal account of an extraordinary journey.

PRINCIPAL’S MEMOIR PUBLISHED

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NEW DINING HALL FEATURE

INTERVIEW WITH THE ARCHITECTS Homerton’s beautiful new dining hall is open for business and, from the clusters of students revising in the Buttery, to the coffee drinkers on the external built-in benches, it has seamlessly become an integral part of College life. Architects Ed Fowles and Eleanor Hedley of Feilden Fowles, whose design won an open competition five years ago, describe how they responded to former Principal Professor Geoff Ward’s ambition for the building, and the thrill of seeing it in use.

What excited you about this project? Ed: When the competition was announced in 2016 it was a massive long shot for us. We’d never delivered a public building, or something on this scale, and most of our competitors were people we’d looked up to as students. But it’s such a rare opportunity: Cambridge Colleges usually already have a dining hall and in many cases they are hundreds of years old. We were also excited by Homerton’s unique and progressive character and

its beginnings in East London, which really resonated with me, as I’ve lived in Hackney for 15 years. Eleanor: The fact that Cambridge is where I studied, at Magdalene, meant that I understood the sense of ceremony that the dining hall has to carry. If someone had told me when I was a student that one day I’d design the Homerton dining hall, I’d have been thrilled! It was also very exciting to have a client with such high ambitions for what they wanted to achieve.

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Jim Stephenson

The new dining hall connects with and echoes the Ibberson building

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Jim Stephenson

How did you approach the design? Eleanor: Most of the key moves in the design you see today were developed at competition stage where we threw all the effort we could at it – it was such a unique opportunity! The team who worked on the design at the beginning saw it all the way through to completion. We knew as a practice that we could do it, but we did feel like the underdog in the competition as we were against some more established and excellent practices! Ed: It’s fairly unique in Cambridge to have such an open site with expansive landscaped gardens, so that was a very important influence, leading to a very porous design that opens up to its surroundings. We rotated the hall 90 degrees from the orientation of the Great Hall so that the longest elevation faces the mature trees and meadow to the south. Most halls are very solid and have heavy timber at the base, whereas here you walk in and are immediately met by the views out and lots of light filtering down from the high-level windows.

How did the practical requirements of the building affect the architecture? Eleanor: It needed to be able to feel domestic and welcoming in the daytime and suitably formal at night. Being able to use shutters to block off the daylight in the hall at ground level was one of the ways in which we achieved this. The hall can be light and open in the day yet intimate and low-lit in the evening.

Inside the new hall

detailing and Arts and Crafts spirit feed into the new hall. The Great Hall was also a key reference point – the colour and form of its spire acting as an early inspiration for the form of the faience. Eleanor: Stylistically, we all had the buildings of the existing College and the spirit of the Great Hall in mind while designing.

Ed: We had to balance the more poetic ambitions of the project with the pragmatic brief – the kitchen spaces being highly practical and functional. Paul Coleman, Rob Gamble and the catering team were very helpful throughout the design process. The existing kitchen was so dark, and I’d worked in kitchens as a teenager so I had a lot of sympathy for their need for better working space. The pot-washer now has one of the best views!

The faience is hugely distinctive. What made you choose it?

How important was the existing architecture of the site?

Eleanor: Faience was a material we had seen used elsewhere and the glazes can be so beautiful. It was very exciting to find an appropriate opportunity to use it. We worked hard with Darwen Terracotta to develop the glaze colour – the way the glazes work, you don’t always know how

Ed: Geoff had a nice line, that he wanted the building to be “referential but not deferential” in terms of its relationship with the other historic buildings. The Ibberson building was a great inspiration, and its brick

Ed: The faience was part of the design from very early on, and references the richness of the Arts and Crafts Ibberson building. Faience was historically used in Victorian public buildings but also adorns many pubs and tube stations. We wanted something which would change throughout the day – it reflects the trees around the building, and shimmers in the changing light.

they’re going to come out after firing. We have quite a number of samples in the office which didn’t work at all! It was also hard to represent or completely predict how the final façade might look from a distance, in different weathers and lights. We’re really happy with the final result.

How does it feel to see your concept rising from the ground, and now being used as part of the day-today life of the College? Ed: We made a lot of models, but nothing quite prepares you for the scale of it. It was a nail-biting moment when the scaffolding was removed! It’s really special to see it in action. Eleanor: I’ve been on maternity leave so hadn’t seen it for the final few months. When I was sent a video of the choir singing from the balcony after completion, just as we’d imagined they would, it was a hairs on the back of your neck moment. It’s a real privilege to be able to add something to the Cambridge experience for future students, and to be part of the magic. Colleges build with longevity in mind, so it’ll hopefully be part of the landscape for generations to come.

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UPDATE

BURSAR’S UPDATE This will be my last piece for the Homertonian as I am retiring after 10 years at the end of September. It has been full on, and never more so than the last two and half years. The last six months have been relatively normal although the completion and opening in April of the new buttery and dining hall, with the associated kitchens, servery and backof-house stretched everyone.

Deborah Griffin OBE

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students, and we are currently investing in a software package to make this easier. Even so, we sometimes get accused of running a conference centre rather than a College! This is clearly unfair and students are the main beneficiary of the trading business as it allows us to offer the lowest accommodation rents in Cambridge, and provide Hall food effectively at cost. It is also not a new phenomenon…. the University and Colleges have been attracting conference business for over 100 years. The effects of the pandemic will be with us for some time to come, especially as many of our students have had very disrupted school education. In the new academic year we are investing in more teaching staff and a wellbeing coordinator to spread the ever increasing workload on our existing staff. We are reconfiguring some of the large rooms on the ground

floor of Cavendish this summer to improve the office accommodation for our increasing Fellowship and staff. Many of the facilities and additional spaces we have provided over the past six years are intended to allow our students different spaces for work, rest and play. We value their participation in the many activities they contribute to across the University through the Representation Award. This year we awarded 73 awards of £200 each for students participating in University societies and groups as diverse as the Robotic Society and Women in Business. We were also able to resurrect the garden party in May Week on the Principal’s lawn, to which Lord Woolley provided a lively soundtrack. It was a great event to show our students that we value their extra-curricular activities alongside their academic achievements. Jim Stephenson

he reward for the hard work of all the staff is seeing the students enjoying the spaces. In the first week when a student sat in one of the wide window sills with their laptop propped on their knees, I had to thank them for using the space as we envisaged! It has also been well-received by the architectural press and we are hoping it might be nominated for an award or two. Watch this space! As we work out how to use the new spaces and our existing meeting rooms, our Events team, rebranded from the Conference team, are busy launching and selling space to new and old clients. We also now have North Wing, a light and airy 120-seater auditorium with the ability to stream and film presentations, together with 18 hotel-quality guest rooms which we completed in June 2020. We have also refurbished Bamford and Skillicorn and installed AV capable of hosting effective hybrid meetings. Of course our gardens and the highly regarded Homerton BBQs are in great demand as everyone catches up on celebrations and socialising! As you will appreciate, our Events business has been decimated over the last two years by the pandemic and the College has made significant losses. The income from external business is a vital pillar in the College’s financial sustainability, and even more so with the inflationary increases across all our costs which we will incur in 2022-23. Increases in energy costs and payroll alone are budgeted to add £1m to our cost base. We try to manage the Events business to minimise any impact on the College especially during term time. A dedicated staff member oversees internal events bookings made by staff and

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FEATURE

ALUMNI IN ACTION

REPURPOSING PLASTIC WASTE Creating new uses for plastic waste is a central aspect of an increasing focus on sustainability. For Pratik Dalmia (BA Land Economy, 2005–8), it is the purpose of a family business which has expanded over the past 15 years.

ounded by Pratik’s father Aditya Dalmia in 2006, Dalmia Polypro produces high quality recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), as well as flakes and granules of Polypropylene and Polyethylene, serving clients in sectors ranging from fashion to industrial packaging.

“We focus on catering to quality conscious applications,” says Pratik, Executive Director of the company. “We make the raw materials and then sell them on, for example as yarn for companies that make active wear, or to renowned consumer brands, who use our materials in their packaging.” The company uses waste materials such as drinks bottles which, in India, are often reused multiple times before they are disposed of. “The nature of plastic waste is very different in India,” Pratik explains. “Bottles are lighter and are used much more frequently than they are in the west.” Once thrown away, the bottles are collected by informal workers, who gather waste materials of value and sell them on. “The informal workers then sell the waste products to a neighbourhood trader, who will sort the materials and sell them on to material specific aggregators, who work with recyclers like us.” In the decade and a half of the company’s existence, its scale and ambition have grown beyond recognition. It now repurposes over 1 billion plastic bottles each year. Pratik’s own career saw him spend a few years working in investment banking in London, as well as in luxury retail in India, before joining the family firm. As he sees it, the company is meeting a need which is growing ever more urgent. “Dalmia Polypro is fortunate to have the opportunity to tackle the challenge of plastic pollution. Over the next decade we hope to recover and recycle over 50 billion plastic bottles.”

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FEATURE

FELLOW IN FOCUS Dr Alison Wood’s career encompassed music, medicine, English, divinity and history, before she brought them all together to lead Homerton’s unique Changemakers programme. She tells us why she loves seeing how different disciplines collide, and how Changemakers works to inspire students.

Dr Alison Wood You’ve had an extraordinarily wideranging career! How does it all fit together? I find it hard to fit myself into a 150-word bio. My career has had many turns that look unconventional, but in hindsight there have been two consistent threads. I’ve always been inter-disciplinary, thinking about how different disciplines work together, where the edges are, and how they can collide. And I’ve always been interested in institution-building: how we build better structures to enable even better thinking and action.

and organise, and they wanted someone who wasn’t necessarily from a medical background, but who could think creatively and build organisational structure. We built a network of 100+ researchers from across the University, won a second round of operating costs, and won several large research grants as a result of that crossdisciplinary cooperation. It was superbly interesting, and I learned so much about how institutional power operates, and how different disciplines can speak to each other.

What brought you to the UK? What was your starting point?

Alison explained the Changemakers programme to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales on his visit last November

I studied English and History at the University of Adelaide, before working as a musician for ten years, teaching piano and singing, and playing professionally, while also undertaking further studies in music. Then, while I was writing my Research MA in English on libretti, I also worked in medicine, co-ordinating a multi-disciplinary Healthy Aging Research Cluster at the University of Adelaide. I could talk, write

I had a yearning to come to the UK to study. King’s College London was offering its first programmes in literature and medicine, and I was initially planning to write on 19th century Jewish texts, a plan which fell apart when my supervisor asked “how’s your Yiddish?” Instead, I looked into TRR Stebbing, an English evangelical Christian who read Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, converted to Darwinism, and became one

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David Johnson

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of the world’s leading taxonomists of small crustacea. He also founded natural history societies around the country and advocated for thoughtful science for everyone. My PhD was on how ideas - in this case evolutionary theory – become normal and how intellectual institutions contribute to that process.

You’ve now been in the UK over a decade… Yes! I only intended to stay four years, but I was constantly building things, from research seminars and networks to programmes to help graduate students think about the richness of their skillset and how that could be intelligently applied within universities and beyond. I was frustrated by the narrowness of some academic structures, which seemed utterly inadequate renderings of what universities really do and can do. A postdoc position came up at Cambridge spanning Divinity and English, exploring the relationship between the roots of Cambridge University and ideas of the modern research university. The experience confirmed my deep interest in how universities function. It also showed me I loved being in Cambridge for the possibilities it offered – the questions I could ask and the resources I could use to answer them. CRASSH (The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities) then advertised an interdisciplinary Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, described at the time as one of the most prestigious fellowships in Cambridge. I pitched a project on existential doubt in English 19th century thought, and then realised I really wanted to continue thinking about universities. And I became very interested in the ways researchers felt they were being funnelled into paths that seemed restrictive. As a postdoc at that time you were neither staff nor student. Postdocs have so much potential and yet they’re often told that they’ve failed unless they get to the next academic stage. I joined University committees agitating for rethinking our mission on how we see researchers and how they see themselves. I wanted postdocs to feel poised to do extraordinary things. I also became even more interested in how public discourse around universities has changed, and at the same time aware of my discontent that universities no longer seemed to be seedhouses for social

transformation in a way they (sometimes) were historically.

You joined Homerton in 2018 to run the brand-new Changemakers programme. How much of it was already formed, and how much did you create from scratch? I was at a CRASSH for five years, including two maternity leaves, and then found myself in a wonderful, random conversation about a programme taking root at Homerton, a College I confess I knew nothing about. At that stage Changemakers was a two-page document, and Homerton was looking for someone to turn it into a living entity. I gave a 10-minute presentation, in which I found myself weaving in everything from doubt to whole system thriving and learning what not to change! I had become more and more committed to the idea of holistic living, bringing together the pleasures of the arts and concerns about the climate crisis for example – it seemed wrong that we were separating out all the elements of being human, and I felt that it was breaking us. The idea of Changemakers was already formed, as an extra-curricular programme based on Leadership, Resilience, Enterprise and Responsibility, but it needed to be built. I spent a year living with the idea and working out what would best engage students. The first residential in 2018 was a baptism of fire, with 60 students taking part over a full week.

How has the concept evolved since then? We were hugely fortunate to be able to bring Dr Soraya Jones onto the team, who’s contributed to everything from the intellectual vision to stuffing envelopes. And we have an amazing Steering Group comprised of mostly Homerton Fellows. In four years, a network of almost 200 champions and mentors has also grown, and we’re hugely grateful for the time and energy they give. During the pandemic we did a lot of pivoting, from creating our ‘Mentoring in Pandemic Times’ programme to hosting virtual residentials and teaching everything online. Changemakers is a bit like me – it can be hard to define in 150 words. It’s a programme equipping students to be wise agents of change in a complex world. It’s

modular and co-curricular, sitting alongside a student’s degree, and open to anyone at Homerton. When our students engage with it, they tell us it’s transformative. It taps into a longing we all have to answer the question “what is my purpose in my life?”. It touches on very large existential questions, but also very pragmatic things: being a lever for change; starting a social innovation; ethical leadership; creating sustainable systems. It pushes people to see that the rules aren’t set in stone. It’s starting to be recognised globally as a new way of thinking about education. It’s also become central to Homerton. Changemakers was a significant element of the College’s distinctiveness the candidates for Principal picked up on, and in the last round of Junior Research Fellowships most applicants mentioned it. Every fresher now encounters Changemakers as part of their earliest introduction to the College. It’s shaping Homerton culture.

To what extent do you think Changemakers could only have happened at Homerton? We’re the only Oxbridge College to run a programme like this at this scale. Homerton has a progressive, socially-minded strand of its DNA, and was willing to invest in it. The College environment is ready-made for inter-disciplinary encounters, and I love working with people from other disciplines and building something meaningful together. We’re all the product of endless decisions and encounters. Changemakers can embody fit-forpurpose education and inspire beyond our current parameters. It’s genuinely exciting beyond universities – it’s capturing a global movement which says that the old ways of doing things are not enough and that we must evolve. I find it intoxicating. Changemakers has given me a new voice. It doesn’t tell students what a better world could be, but uses advanced pedagogy to help them work out their own answers. I feel extremely lucky that my life path is the perfect background for this. I’ve worked in eight different disciplines, and on the surface that looks a bit diffuse and disconnected. But I’ve always been engaged in creating new formats for brilliant people to think together more effectively. It’s an extraordinary privilege to be doing this at Homerton.

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UPDATE While rolling lockdowns spelled an end to many College activities, for our Mentoring programme they proved an unlikely springboard. With internships and work placement opportunities curtailed, students had an increased need for advice and guidance on their entry to the world of work. And alumni, trapped at home, proved touchingly grateful for the opportunity to be of practical support.

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anaged as a joint initiative by Homerton Changemakers and the Development Office, ‘Mentoring for Pandemic Times’ matches current students to mentors for a commitment of three to five online meetings over six months. Between July 2020 and June 2022, 165 mentors have been matched with mentees, and the framework, initially devised as a response to the pandemic, has continued unchanged. “We’re still operating virtually, as it’s easier for both the mentor and the mentee, and it allows it to be global,” says Dr Soraya Jones, Senior Programme Lead for Homerton Changemakers, who describes herself as “the matchmaker”. “It has also been a pleasure working with (Alumni Relations Manager) Sally Nott, my ‘partner in crime’ who helps to recruit most of the mentors. I couldn’t do it without her.” Some mentees are seeking specific advice for a job application or on entering a particular industry, while other mentoring relationships evolve into a much broader source of support. “It’s so important to be able to be open and honest with someone outside the College,” explains Soraya. “The mentors are not counsellors, but everything they hear is confidential. It’s not just careers, it’s life guidance from someone the students can trust.” Following the first round of the programme, 94% of mentors said that they would be willing to participate again. Mentoring has attracted particular interest from younger alumni, with recent memories of the challenges of the job market, who are keen to pass on their knowledge. “It was lovely to connect with my mentee, and to feel that I was able to help them discover new perspectives on their past experiences, that will support them into the future,” said one.

HOMERTONIAN

MATCHES MADE AT HOMERTON CASE STUDY After completing her BA in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Gonville and Caius, Yuwei Zhang began an MPhil in Education at Homerton last autumn. She signed up to the mentorship programme in the Michaelmas term, and was matched with Sarah Bird (PGCE 1981). Having initially intended to use the opportunity to ask for advice on job applications, Yuwei was offered a role in management consulting before her first mentoring session, so the focus became more general. “I felt that I had quite weak leadership skills, and sometimes struggled with motivation,” says Yuwei. “East Asians tend to be to be brought up to be modest, but it’s really helped to have someone to acknowledge my achievements. At networking events, particularly as someone who looked a bit different, I could be a bit introverted and I’d struggle. Sarah told me: ‘Don’t compare your inside with other people’s outside,’ and that’s really stuck with me. I’ve internalised it. One major improvement is that I’ve become more assertive and self-confident.” Sarah has taught for 39 years, and is currently Assistant Head of a large comprehensive school in Dorset. Having recently gone part-time she had more time available, and jumped at Homerton’s request for mentors. “I’ve always worked with trainees and young people, so when I saw the call for mentors I really wanted to do it. I’m responsible for staff wellbeing, and have done lots of work on positive mindsets and helping young people be the best they can be.” As the mother of two adult children in their 20s, Sarah was particularly struck by Yuwei’s isolation from her own support networks, while studying in the UK. “Yuwei is just a joy. She’s a young woman in this country with no family here, and she’s obviously exceptionally bright, but even though she’d got a job offer she was worried. I gave her some techniques to boost her confidence, and we explored all sorts of things. I’m so touched that she found it so valuable.” Yuwei and Sarah are now in regular email contact, and met in person for the first time at the Changemakers Mentoring Dinner in May, reconnecting over breakfast the following day. “I’d love to do more,” says Sarah. “My PGCE year at Homerton was such a magical time. The course was inspirational, I absolutely loved it, and it fired me up. So I really wanted to help someone from Homerton, which has such a special place in my heart.”

If you’d like to mentor a current student, please contact Sally Nott on alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk

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FEATURE

RESEARCH INTERVIEW

DR STEPHEN BURGESS Do vitamin D supplements benefit all people equally? What is the impact of body fat on an individual’s risk of developing digestive cancer? How does mask-wearing affect viral exposure?

omerton Fellow Dr Stephen Burgess has addressed all of these issues over the past 18 months. But he’s not a doctor or a biologist. Instead, he’s a mathematician. In a career straddling the Medical Research Council’s Biostatistics Unit and the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit (both at the University of Cambridge), Stephen uses statistical data on genetics and medical biomarkers to investigate patterns in diseases. “The fundamental question is why do some people get sick and others don’t. If we just looked at genetics in isolation that would be quite fatalistic; instead we look at what they tell us about modifiable risk factors.” Stephen can still remember the element of his undergraduate Maths degree which sparked his interest in his future focus. “In the third year we looked at the BSE crisis, and the fact that the human form of BSE was disproportionately seen in young males, who are also the demographic most likely to be eating low quality beef. We also looked at correlations between suicide rates and IQ level, both of the individual concerned and of their parents. Thanks to national service, Sweden had several generations worth of data, including IQ levels across generations of the same family. It was fascinating to see what questions that data could be used to answer.” The discovery of the real-world applications statistics could be put to reignited Stephen’s interest in maths, and he completed a Masters with the same focus. “People have been doing maths for thousands of years – maths research is hard because people have been doing it for so long! Statistics is newer, and driven by data and computation. The Sherlock Holmes side of it fascinates me; working out what the problem is as well as how to answer it.”

Following his Masters, Stephen worked with a Christian NGO in Russia, based with a Russian-led team in St Petersburg. That experience of the world beyond Cambridge and academia was crucial in establishing his career path. “If I’d stepped straight from a BA to an MA to PhD, I don’t think I’d be as settled as I am.” Stephen now specialises in Mendelian Randomisation, the use of genetic variants to understand the relationship between potential risk factors and particular disease outcomes. His work varies between projects which seek out the data to investigate specific questions, and those which make use of existing studies in order to explore something new. “The disadvantage of the serendipitous approach is that you never quite answer the question you want to answer, you answer the one you’re able to. But often the data are more broadly applicable, so if we’ve done all the work for one disease, why not apply it to another disease?” The availability of electronic health records has transformed the potential for investigations of this kind, with databases such as UK Biobank providing detailed information which can be applied to multiple queries.

During the past two years, the pandemic has led to multiple instances of biostatistics supplying valuable insights. “We could see that there were questions that needed to be answered, and areas where we could help – for example by validating drug development. The use of (the immunosuppressive drug) Tocilizumab was one of these cases. Some people have a particular genetic variant which mimics the effect of the drug, and people with this variant have a lower risk of becoming ill with Covid-19. This finding was confirmed in randomised trials, and now the drug is licensed for use in Covid patients.” As a mathematician whose work is so immersed in the medical world, Stephen laughs that he is always the person who knows either least or most about medicine in the room. But the inter-disciplinary nature of his work is a huge part of its appeal. “Epidemiology straddles social sciences and hard science; human behaviour and biology. The use of face masks was a case in point – people’s behaviour changes when they are wearing them, which has an impact on studies into their efficacy. Genetics can’t be faked or mis-reported, but creativity is needed to find ways to use this information to answer relevant questions about how our choices affect our health.”

HOMERTON COLLEGE

FEATURE

ALUMNI PROFILE

“YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE EVERYONE MATTERS.” Her first novel, A Terrible Kindness, was published to widespread acclaim at the start of this year and thrust her abruptly into a world of books signings, interviews and television deals. Jo Browning Wroe describes how a book which intertwines choral singing, the intricacies of embalming and the horrors of Aberfan came into being – and explains the unexpected benefits

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of a childhood in a crematorium.

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or some authors, research can be a little more intense than for others. Jo Browning Wroe (BEd 1981–85) recalls the moment when she realised that, in order to accurately represent the work of her central character, embalmer William Lavery, she was going to have to witness an embalming herself. “I am a fainter, so I was worried. But then I decided that, if I did faint, I would be able to use it in the writing,” she says. “They provided a big leather armchair, just in case. But as soon they made the incision in the woman’s neck I was able to relax. Because you prepare yourself for blood, and when there wasn’t any, I realised it was different. The embalmer talked to the lady he was working on throughout, and was so gentle and respectful. At the end, when she was in the coffin, fully embalmed, I found myself saying to her “It’s all over now Margery.” The embalmer looked at me and we had a moment of connection. To do that job, you have to believe everyone matters.” The experience was part of Jo’s preparation for her novel, A Terrible Kindness, which was published in January and immediately became a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller. Told through flashbacks, it explores the impact on a young embalmer, William Lavery, of the work he does to embalm and prepare for identification the bodies of children killed in the disaster at Aberfan in October 1966. The book grew out of an accidental encounter with the records of the volunteer embalmers who had carried out that work, after heavy rain caused mining debris to bury the village school, killing 116 children and 28 adults. “I was in the (Cambridge) University Library, reading conference papers of the Institute of Embalmers for a different project I was working on. I came across an account by an embalmer, Billy Doggett, of volunteering at Aberfan, and quickly had to leave the library in tears.”

The subject of death, and those who work with the dead, was one with which Jo was deeply familiar. Her childhood was spent at a crematorium in Birmingham, where her father was the superintendent, a job which came with a house in the grounds. But it wasn’t until she was studying for a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, in 2000, that she recognised the creative gift this upbringing represented. “I had never thought of growing up in a crematorium as material. But I was taught by the writer WG Sebald, in the last term before he died. He was fascinated by death, and suggested my upbringing would have given me an interesting perspective from which to write.” At Homerton in the 1980s, where she met her husband, fellow BEd student John Wroe, Jo was startled by the world some of her contemporaries had come from. “I was sort of lower middle class I suppose – but I didn’t know that sort of wealth and privilege existed. I remember a lecturer asking everyone to put up their hand if their parents had paid for their education, and I was astounded by what a tiny minority I belonged to. I felt that these people had such interesting families and experiences. It was a long time before I realised that my own background was interesting too.” After Homerton, Jo and John spent two years as youth workers in the United States, before returning to the UK and settling in Cambridge, where they have lived ever since. Jo taught in Royston before quickly pivoting to educational publishing. “It allowed me to still be in schools, but with much more flexibility – I really struggled with having every minute of my day scheduled in teaching. I’ll never forget, in my first week in publishing, my boss got me a cup of tea and a biscuit, (it wasn’t even breaktime!), and told me my job on a Friday was to read the Times Ed and the Bookseller

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to see if there was anything we should know about. I was in heaven!” She has written over 25 educational and reading books, many in collaboration with psychotherapist and lecturer at the Faculty of Education Dr Carol Holliday, and for the past eight years has been Creative Writing Supervisor at Lucy Cavendish College. “Until very recently Lucy Cavendish only accepted women students over the age of 21, so by definition everyone had a story,” she says. But the story which propelled Jo into the bestseller lists, with reviews and profiles in every broadsheet newspaper and an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, was not based on her own background. Instead it was the story sparked by that serendipitous discovery in the library. After reading the account, she contacted the Institute of Embalmers to find out whether any of the people who had volunteered at Aberfan were still alive and willing to speak to her. She flew to Belfast to meet one of them, and spent the next four hours reliving the experience with him in the airport lounge.

“At the beginning he said he wasn’t sure it was a good idea to talk about any of this, and by the end he said ‘perhaps this story could be told’.” The opening chapters of the book, which describe William’s experiences in Aberfan, are devastatingly raw although written with beautiful sensitivity. They are a difficult read but, Jo says, were “strangely unemotional” to write. “Listening to the embalmers talking about it was almost unbearably emotional, but when it came to writing it, I was so concentrating on trying to accurately convey the essence of what they’d told me, there was for a while a sense of emotional detachment. In fact, the use of the present tense throughout the book came from the need to represent the immediacy of their account.” The novel moves around in time between William’s training in the build-up to the tragedy, his life afterwards as he struggles to acknowledge its effects, and his childhood in Sutton Coldfield and as a chorister in Cambridge. We come to realise that earlier events, including the death of his father, an estrangement from his mother, and his choral life, have caused

psychological scars which long predate Aberfan. The scenes in Cambridge reflect Jo’s lifelong love of the city, and include familiar haunts from Fitzbillies to the Copper Kettle, and the perils of the open gutters on Trumpington Street. Though Aberfan was the novel’s starting point, it is as much concerned with family, friendship, the power of music and the inability of people to accept support from those who love them, as the specifics of the disaster. “I never had the intention of telling Aberfan’s story, and I wouldn’t presume to do that. I was interested in the impact of it on an outsider, and the enormous asks some professions make of people. I was also fascinated by how we turn away from help, by William’s self-jeopardy.” Aberfan returned to public attention in 2019 through a searing episode of The Crown, directed by Homerton alumnus Benjamin Caron (BEd 1995–99). Jo admits that this has been an unexpected help, through the awareness it has brought to readers who might otherwise have been unfamiliar with the disaster. Television audiences will soon be granted a different perspective, and the novel’s gorgeous choral soundtrack, as A Terrible Kindness is itself being adapted for the small screen. “They did ask me if I’d like to write the script, but it’s taken me long enough to write a novel, so I passed on that one!” Jo laughs. “I’m an Executive Producer though, and so I get to approve each episode’s script and have some say over casting.” The novel has been translated into five languages, leading to some unexpected culture clashes. “The Dutch translator rang me up and said “we’re not experts at beating children in the Netherlands – you’ll have to explain to me how this works” and I was horrified to find myself listing the possible materials for canes in 1960s boarding schools.” Her schedule is now packed with readings, literary festivals and book signings, as well as finding time to work on the next novel and anticipating the imminent arrival of her first grandchild. The response to A Terrible Kindness affirms Jo’s instinctive reaction when she first came across those papers. “I just had a visceral sense that this was a story worth telling.”

HOMERTON COLLEGE

HOMERTONIAN

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FFI’S NICHE IS CLEAR The consultants were 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.”

cuts, he takes us through a typical day. buildings to responding to leaks and power Homerton ticking. From fitting out new oversees the team responsible for keeping As Building Services Manager, Shaun Fordham

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF … SHAUN FORDHAM FEATURE

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7–9am I usually arrive in College at 7 in the morning, and we meet as a team over a coffee before the shift starts at 7.30. I manage a team of seven, and they’re the ones that make my job possible. First thing we look at the emails that have come in overnight and share out the jobs. There are usually about half a dozen overnight requests, ranging from lightbulbs that need replacing to leaky taps and blocked sinks and showers, right through to massive issues like ceilings coming down because the bathroom above has flooded!

8–10am We have up to 30 reactive jobs a day, which we can’t plan for. Any request comes into the Estates email address for me or Sarah (Culhane, Estates Secretary) to pick up. We then allocate jobs to the team through their phones – they get an alert. They do a live risk assessment when they get to the job; just a quick checklist of yes or no questions but the moment you flag a no it sends an alert so we can check what the problem is. I brought in the new risk assessment system when I joined three years ago, alongside an alarm system to protect people working alone. There are 26 acres of College grounds, and we have plant rooms underground and in loft spaces. One of the team had a heart attack in a plant room, and it was sheer luck someone found him. Everyone now has a man down alarm: basically a tracker with a panic button which allows you to alert the switchboard if you need help. There were some grumbles when we first brought it in – ‘oh you’re keeping track of me’ – but it’s not that, it’s just taking responsibility for people’s safety.

10am–12pm Alongside the reactive jobs, we have maintenance schedules for the bigger equipment. We maintain all the boilers and heating systems around the site, and the plumber checks them all each day. We’re also responsible for all the lighting – there are over 2000 emergency lights that have to be tested monthly – and we do a quarterly deep clean of over 1000 showerheads. There’s a 10-year plan to refurbish all 750 bedrooms. I joined Homerton in November 2019, so was still new when the pandemic hit. The College is massive, so I was still learning how everything worked. We used the absence of students and staff to do a lot of big projects

The maintenance team

which would otherwise have been much more complicated, such as refurbishing the top floor of the ABC rooms. Also the North Wing was just being completed, so it gave us time to get that sorted. We maintained the full team throughout the pandemic, acting as one bubble for most of it, and in two teams working half days when Covid was at its peak, to avoid the whole team having to isolate. We’ve got two electricians, two multi-skilled team members, one plumber and another who can do most of the plumbing jobs, and Raj who covers for me and is also the carpenter/joiner, so we’re nicely split to be able to work as two groups when we have to.

12–1pm The team always eat together, and if I’m around I’ll eat with them too, or with other staff. My office is always open to anyone. We do much more internal work ourselves now than we used to, such as refurbs and bigger projects. There’ll always be a certain amount that you have to outsource, as there are only eight of us, but you get more out of the job if there’s something substantial we can look at and say “we’ve done that”. A trained electrician with 30 years’ experience doesn’t want to be spending all day changing lightbulbs. The guys all have their own skillsets, so with ongoing projects, such as a bathroom refit, they all work together.

1–2pm Since the new sports facilities opened on Long Road, two of the team will go over there on a Monday afternoon to check everything’s working. The new dining hall

took all our labour for a month when it first opened, sorting any teething problems – everything from making sure the lighting and alarms were working to fitting all the toilet roll holders.

2–3pm I can do a little bit of everything but I’m more of a manager than a trade. That took a bit of getting used to for the team when I first started, but I think they now realise they needed a manager rather than another pair of hands. I can deflect a lot of stuff that would otherwise come their way, so they can get on with the job. It’s all about the team; they’re very behind the scenes and they don’t always get the recognition they deserve. People tend to think we come in in the morning and flick a switch and everything works. John, the plumber, has piped pretty much the whole College on his own. He’s been here for years and when he retires we won’t know how anything works! It’s not an easy feat to replace someone who’s been here that long. We need to bring in someone younger now, so John can empty his head into theirs.

4pm We finish at 4pm, depending on the day. Obviously if I’m in a meeting I’m in a meeting, but generally that’s the end of the working day. Before coming here I was a construction manager on the railways. It was 100 miles an hour job, working nights, Christmases, always away. I’ve got five kids, aged 17 down to six, so it’s good to be around a bit more. Weekends are all about the kids, and football!

HOMERTON COLLEGE

FEATURE

STUDENT PROFILE

LISA LEVYTSKA First-year MML student Lisa Levytska had been at Homerton for a term and half when, overnight, her country became a warzone. She describes how focusing on student life has helped her to cope with the news from home, and how her family have all become honorary Homertonians.

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came to the UK aged 12, seven years ago, to go to boarding school in Yorkshire. My family live in Odessa, south-west Ukraine, right on the sea. It’s a very international city, and has always been somewhere that people have gone for their holidays. But suddenly being on the coast is a disadvantage – there’s no direct escape. When I first started at Cambridge, last October, my main reaction was shock that I was suddenly allowed out! After seven years at boarding school, I found myself thinking I was going to be told off every time I went out at night, and telling the Porters where I was going if I went to London for the weekend. The situation in Ukraine has been very unpredictable for the whole time I’ve been in the UK. In fact the threat of Russian aggression was part of the reason why my sisters and I came to school here in the first place. My mum had always wanted us to study in England and my dad wasn’t sure, but agreed we would be safer here. People got used to micro-aggressions from Russia, but we didn’t think it would escalate. The invasion in February was a sudden slap in the face. I’m the type of person who doesn’t keep up with the news, so it took me a little while to realise what had happened.

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I had a BBC notification on my phone, and then suddenly everyone posted on my Instagram feed. I woke up to 50 notifications. I’d had a couple of classes cancelled due to Covid, so I went to the gym, and then rang my dad. I wasn’t sure how to approach the invasion with my parents. We never talk about the bad stuff. My dad brought it up, and I was crying in the gym – I kept trying to change the conversation and he kept shifting it back. I became very withdrawn from the issue. I felt as though if I thought about it, it would become so all-consuming that I’d end up dropping out of Cambridge. That’s partly why I signed up as a student caller for the Homerton Telethon. I wanted to engage with things that would take up my time, so I wouldn’t have to engage with what was going on at home. My mum and my sister were reaching out to my grandparents and friends back home, getting testimonials on what was going on, and I couldn’t do that. I blocked it off. My little sister turned 11 on 25 February, and my mum brought her to London to see my other sisters for halfterm. Then the invasion started and they realised they couldn’t go home. They’d spent their holiday money, and my dad couldn’t transfer money to them because

the banks were freezing international transfers. The hotel they were staying in gave them another week for free, and then another. My sisters are in Sixth Form at two different schools, and they didn’t charge them for this term, and one of the schools took my youngest sister into Year 6 for free. I spoke to the College about my finances, and Dhiru (Karia, the Finance Officer) was extremely helpful. He opened a hardship fund, which meant I could stay in College over Easter for free, and preloaded my student card so I could buy food each day. My Tutor, John-Mark Winstanley and Dhiru both separately applied for a hardship grant for me from the University before I’d even got round to applying for it myself. John-Mark’s been there for me at all times. After two weeks, the hotel where my mum was staying gently made it clear that they couldn’t continue to put her up for free. At that point Homerton stepped in. Penny Barton, the Senior Tutor, offered her accommodation in a flat sometimes used by Fellows, and she’s been there ever since. My sisters come and stay with her there in the holidays – Homerton has become home to all of us. My dad’s still at home in Odessa. He’s in his 40s, so he can’t leave Ukraine,

there – I don’t know when I’ll next see any of them. My friends have been fantastic. I can’t talk about it all too much, and they understand that I’m not going to talk it out, but they help in other ways. I think I had survivor’s guilt for a while. I withdrew a bit from societies and my hobbies, and even gave up dancing which, as I used to dance professionally, was tough. But when I went out and had fun I’d come back and feel guilty.

Working on the Telephone Campaign allowed me to communicate with people about their lives rather than about what was going on in Ukraine, and showed me that I needed to get back out there and live my own life. I need to stay clear-headed for the sake of my education. I really appreciate what the College has done for me and my family. I only came here in October – nobody owes me anything. They’ve been amazing.

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but he hasn’t yet had to fight. He loves his job, running a construction company building swimming pools and fountains, but he can’t work at the moment – there’s no work for him to do, because of the war. He’s trying to find different ways of helping, paying his taxes ahead of time, donating equipment and money. He’s still out and about every day, whereas my grandmother has been living in her basement since the invasion. My grandparents, aunt and cousin are all still

HOMERTON COLLEGE

UPDATE

THE CHARTER CHOIR A return to ‘normality’ (or something close to it) brings with it the opportunities that we all missed: not only regular singing, but the chance to perform at special events in College and, of course, to tour abroad. While Covid has not disappeared, we have been fortunate to be able to carry on without significant disruption – something that seems to have been true across the College, much to everyone’s relief. MAZ Photography

The Charter Choir on tour in Gibraltar

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f Covid hasn’t been our major challenge this year, then keeping the choir operating during exam season has been more trying. It’s worth remembering that every student sitting exams this year has experienced exam-related disruption for the past two summers, and there was therefore an unusual degree of trepidation around these assessments. However, hopefully coming to choir during this time felt like a break rather than a burden! Everything fell into place for the end of term, when we were able to sing a spectacular final Evensong of the year in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, featuring Charles Hubert Parry’s anthem I Was Glad, long associated with Royal events. The choir also made an appearance at the first Charter Dinner in over two years, in the presence of many esteemed guests including former Prime Minister Theresa May. In February the Charter Choir sang Evensong at Ely Cathedral for the first time in 10 years, leading one of their lay readers

Forthcoming key dates:

HOMERTONIAN

to comment that we were ‘one of the very best visiting choirs’ he had heard in his long association with the cathedral. This year we have said farewell to more than one third of the Charter Choir, most of whom have been singing with us for several years. However, there is a healthy intake of Freshers on the horizon, and many members of the tenor and bass sections are hoping to stay on in Cambridge after graduation, so the choir’s future is bright. We are hoping for at least one London-based performance next year, so watch this space. The end of the academic year would not be complete without a tour. Alas, our planned trip to Italy fell through, as an indirect casualty of the pandemic, so we were forced to think creatively and quickly as to an alternative destination. Gibraltar came out on top of our very short shortlist, and Shanna Hart, Assistant Organist, got to work organising. Our six-day tour took us to the King’s Chapel, the Garrison Library, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Mary the

Saturday 24 September: Alumni Reunion Concert Sunday 27 November, 6pm: Advent Carol Service Tuesday 29 November, 6.30pm: Homerton Carol Service

Crowned, and two Sunday services in the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (who hosted us for a barbecue in between). Although it is a small place, Gibraltar is not short of hills that require climbing, which is never popular when wearing concert gear. However, this was more than made up for by the truly humbling hospitality of the Gibraltarians, including a letter of thanks from the Governor of Gibraltar, and the opportunity to see dolphins up close swimming in the Mediterranean. I am also grateful to Shanna and to our Organ Scholar Lorenzo Bennett for their excellent accompanying of the choir this academic year. We continue to have an anomaly at Homerton of appointing organists but not having an organ. The Great Hall has recently been freed up as a performance space following the completion of the new Dining Hall, and if and when it is possible to install a pipe organ in the Great Hall gallery, the choir will eventually have a ‘home’ within Homerton. In the meantime, we are ever grateful to the Rev’d James Shakespeare and the Church of St John the Evangelist, Hills Road, for their continual support in providing a place for us to rehearse and perform. Patricia Maude, our Honorary Lay Chaplain, also puts in a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure a continued smooth relationship between the church and Homerton, and our various singing teachers have a huge role to play in developing the voices of individual choir members. Alumni are always welcome at Charter Choir services and concerts. The Charter Choir website (www.homerton. cam.ac.uk/charter-choir) contains full details of sung services as well as clips of the choir performing. The website also contains biographies, and details of tours and recordings. Alumni are also encouraged to follow the Charter Choir on its Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/ homcharterchoir. Dr Daniel Trocmé-Latter Director of Music

22_0301 H2A Homertonian Newsletter(5119) 2022/08/10 17:44:31

UPDATE

OUR DONORS

Mrs Janet Mayo Mrs Erica Rigg Mrs Jill Taylor

1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022

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

Alumni 1942 Mrs Kathleen Hayward* 1943 Miss Margaret Rishbeth 1947 Professor Joan Chandler Mrs Irene Cole Mrs Brenda Elliott 1948 Mrs Mary Dowse Mrs Coral Harrow Miss Elizabeth Rainsbury 1949 Mrs Wendy Cannon 1952 Mrs Shirley Haslam Dr Alison Littlefair 1953 Mrs Pamela Cooksey Mrs Pauline Curtis Mrs Sheila Mackenzie Mrs Penny Marshall Mrs Margaret Sharman Mrs Ruth Orr Mrs Elizabeth Tunnicliffe 1954 Mrs Gwenda Ackroyd Mrs Christine Grainge Mrs Rachel Lewington Mrs Sheila Pearce 1955 Mrs Elizabeth Benning Mrs Maureen Champion Mrs Marguerite and Mr Norman Donkin

Mrs Gillian Hewin Mrs Doreen Hobbs Mrs Wendy Oakley

1956 Mrs Julia Davis Mrs Gillian Figures Mr Gordon Gaddes in memory of Mrs Pamela Gaddes Mrs Shena Jones Mrs Eilidh Scott Mrs Alice Severs Mrs Rosemary Viner Mrs Jennifer Wilson 1957 Mrs Jill Hicks Mrs Vivien Ivell Mrs Beryl Izzard Mrs Wanda Kielbinska Mrs Christine Lincoln Mrs Rachel Macdonald Mrs Judy Manson Mrs Patricia Stott Mrs Josephine Sutton 1958 Mrs Dora Beeteson Mrs Carole Evans Mrs Diana Hadaway Mrs Ann Hardie Mrs Ruth Jerram Mrs Diana Lucas Mrs Annmarie Mackay Miss Gill Rogers 1959 Mrs Jean Clarke Mrs Clare Clouston Mrs Sue Dickinson Mrs Jenifer Freeman Mrs Jill Fuller Mrs Rosemary Hill Mrs Val Johnson

Mrs Jennifer McKay Mrs Rosemary Rees Mrs Janet Valentine Mrs Hillary Young*

1960 Mrs Katie Abbott Mrs Rosemary Allan Dr J. Norman Bardsley in memory of Mrs Jacqueline Bardsley Mrs Patsy and Mr John Blythe Mrs Jan Campbell Mrs Marilyn Clare Mrs Anne Hulse Mrs Joy Kohn Mrs Susan Lovett Mrs Sue McFarland Mrs Jacqueline Swegen Mrs Caroline Sykes 1961 Mrs Adrianne Ashcroft Mrs Diana Dalton Mrs Lynn Dowson Mrs Marion Foley Mrs Carole Girdler Mrs Carole Nolan Miss Esme Partridge Mrs Jane Rivers Ms Claire Stableford Mrs Jean Thorman Mrs Gwendolyn Williams 1962 Mrs Carol Bowen The Revd Dr Anthea Cannell Mrs Christine Macpherson Mrs Kate Ryder 1963 Mrs Jean Addison-Fitch Mrs Andrea Caish

1964 Dr Tricia Cusack Mrs Wendy Dunnett Mrs Maggie Meredith Mrs Sue Rescorla Ms Marjorie Thorley Mrs Dilys West Mrs Jane Woodford 1965 Mrs Sue Bennett Mrs Bryony Carter Mrs Margaret Funnell Mrs Annie Illingworth Mrs Sue Pinner Mrs Jill Russell Mrs Cheryl Trafford Mrs Janet Webb Mrs Jan Wilkinson 1966 Mrs Jean and Mr Win Carnall Lady (Marilyn) Fersht Mrs Marion Pogson Mrs Judith Queripel Mrs Margaret Robbie Mrs Netti Smallbone Mrs Linda West Miss Lorraine Welch 1967 Mrs Marjorie Caie Mrs Miriam France Mrs Avril Growcott Mrs Valerie Hart Mrs Robyn Mitchell Mrs Anne Rogers Mrs Pat Saxton 1968 Mrs Patricia Colyer Mrs Tricia Coombes Mrs Lynn Lemar Mrs Lesley Marriott Dr Anne Martin Mrs Lynne Parsons Mrs Pemma SpencerChapman Mrs Marilyn Stansfield 1969 Dr Joan Fraser Mrs Cynthia Garvey Dr Vicky McNeile Ms Anne Reyersbach Ms Tessa Robinson in memory of Miss Bridget Robinson Dr Roz Sendorek Ms Hilary Stokes Mrs Sarah Taylor Mrs Helen Wood

1970 Mrs Patrica Bradley Ms Fiona Cook The Revd Sheila Crowther Mrs Denise Few The Revd Claire Heald Ms Janette MacDonald Mrs Mary McCosh Mrs Mal Reid Mrs Rachel Salmon Mrs Denise Shakespeare Mrs Sue Smith Mrs Lois Whittaker Mrs Mary Wyatt

1971 Ms Catherine Beavis Dr Jane Clements MBE Mrs Patty Darke Mrs Helen Malcolm Mrs Annie Ryder Ms Helen Sandle-Baker Ms Anne Sparrowhawk 1972 Mrs Ros Allwood Mrs Sarah Flynn Ms Margaret Howell Ms Anne Kennedy Ms Jane Lewin Smith Mrs Sheila Martin Mrs Caroline Melrose Mrs Valerie Mills Mrs Penny Riley Mrs Angela Swindell Mrs Marilyn Thomas Mrs Jan Thomson Mrs Maureen Weston 1973 Miss Stephanie Beardsworth Mrs Jane McLean Mrs Anne Mellor Mrs Dilys Murch Mrs Sue Rodford Mrs Elizabeth Rose Mrs Heather Wilkinson 1974 Mrs Helen Shanks Mrs Vera Sklaar 1975 Mrs Alyson Baker Mrs Gillian Dirks 1976 Mrs Judy Clarke Mrs Joan Gibson Ms Jill Grimshaw Miss Amanda James Mrs Ann Kirkby Mr Tony Little Mrs Ann Muston

HOMERTON COLLEGE

OUR DONORS cont... Mrs Jo Newman Mrs Zena Tinsley

1977 Miss Sheila Berry Mrs Jane Bishop Mrs Lalli Draper Ms Jane Edwards Mrs Ann Jackman Ms Brenda Meek Mrs Helen Mitchell Mrs Louise Mursell Mrs Clare Myers Mrs Carol Onley-Gregson 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 Susan Dinnage Miss Jo Manisier Mrs Mary Powles 1979 Mrs Oyinkan Ade-Ajayi 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

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1981 Miss Anna Chapple Ms Liz Clifford Mrs Cordelia Myers Ms Sara Wolfson 1982 Lady Katharine Bryan 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 Mrs Frances Surridge

HOMERTONIAN

1984 Ms Cathy Graham Ms Alison Mesher Mr Peter Ventrella

Mrs Anna McClure Ms Trudi Miles Mrs Diane Rawlins Miss Wendy Smith

1985 Dr Kirsty Byrne Mrs Karen Coombs Mrs Sally Jaspars Dr Mark Mullins Mrs Anna Williams

1993 Dr Steven Chapman Miss Helen Diggle Mrs Helen Morgan

1986 Mrs Keren Cooke Ms Nansi Ellis Mrs Alison Judd Miss Samantha Taylor Mrs Yvonne Wiggall 1987 Mrs Kim Chaplin Mrs Michaela Khatib Mrs Keeley Rayner Mr James Thomson 1988 Mrs Tamsin Austoni Mr Phil Coldicott Mrs Katie Mayne Ms Phillipa Rushby Mr Giles Storch Miss Jen Svrcek 1989 Mr Tarquin Bennett-Coles Miss Lucy Bradley Dr John Dodsworth Mrs Helen Duffy Ms Fran Harrison Mr Carl Howarth Mrs Charlotte Irving Mrs Penny Lee Mr Simon Ray The Revd Wendy Wale 1990 Mrs Naomi Baynes Mrs Karen George Mrs Fiona Gruneberg Mr Ian Hodgson Mrs Sharon Holloway Mrs Sarah McWhinnie Mrs Beccy Millward Dr Susi Pinkus Dr Helen Price

1994 Mrs Claire Brooks Mrs Carol Carlsson Browne Mrs Jenni Trafford Mrs Torie True Mrs Emma Vyvyan 1995 Ms Nicola Abery Ms Sally Overy Miss Cornelia Swain 1996 Mr Ian Bettison Miss Jo Cullen Mr Ian Frith Mrs Audrey Hinnells Mr Christopher Shephard Mrs Louise Tomlinson Mr Martin Wigg 1997 Mr Matt Buck Ms Sadeka Choudhuri Miss Max Cure-Freeman Mrs Lindsey Davey Miss Emily Jones Mrs Amy McDonnell Mrs Victoria McLafferty Mrs Barbara Sims 1998 Miss Rebecca Bauckham Mr Alastair Chipp Mrs Victoria Harvey Mrs Emma Holt Mrs Daisy Lewis-Guinness Mr John Moore Ms Julie Seplaki

1991 Mrs Joy Bensley Mr David Chapman Miss Claire Corkran Mrs Elizabeth Sartain Miss Lisa Tiplady

1999 Miss Dawn Alderson Ms Dora Callington Miss Martha Court Dr Neil Hennessy Mr Paul Jones Mr Richard Marshall Mrs Denise Mieszkowski Mrs Laura Penrose Dr Louisa Tipler Mrs Zoe Yeomans

1992 Dr Simon Camby Mrs Sarah Haines

2000 Mrs Sue Aldred Mrs Angela Clark

Mrs Abby Deeks Mr Richard De Orfe Dr Tom Kitchen Mr Devin-Paul O’Brien Mrs Annabelle Payne Mrs Cheryl Smith

2001 Mr Laurence Ball Miss Emma Cosby Mrs Lesley Crooks Miss Lidia Fesshazion Mrs Amy Fleming Mr James Frecknall Mr Andrew Jenner Mrs Catherine Kitchen Mrs Nadine Lloyd Mrs Kimberley Rayson Miss Ellen Richardson Mr Jonathan Ross Mrs Sarah South Mrs Sandra Stapleton Miss Emily Tattoo Mrs Mandy WarnerBradshaw 2002 Mr Chris Adams Mr Ali Azeem Mrs Katy Coles Mr Raymond Cilia Dr James Croft Mr Sam Farmer Mr Sutherland Forsyth Mrs Carys Gladdish Mrs Anne Howell Mr Chris Kellaway Mr David Lawrence Miss Sian Mawditt Mr Remi Moynihan Miss Krista Pullan Ms Henni Saarela Mr Tim Scott Dr Lisa Sessions Mrs Sharron Shackell Mrs Stephanie Shelmerdine Mrs Helen Smith Mrs Angela Woodruffe Mrs Rhiannon WynneLord 2003 Ms Susanna Bellino Dr Keith Boyle Mr Louis Budworth Miss Katherine Bluck Dr Jamie Castell Mr Philip Chapman Mrs Pauline Hickey Mr Gregoire Hodder Mr Jonathan Levine Dr Feilong Liu Mrs Elizabeth Mansfield Mr Daniel Roberts Mr Tim Rothwell

Dr Tovah Shaw Mr Jean-Paul Skoczylas Mr Tristan Stone Miss Stephanie Tillotson Mr John White

2004 Mrs Caroline Barker Mrs Rhiannon Baxter Mr Nicholas Bebb Mr Nick Clark Mrs Leah Crimes Mrs Emily Davies Mr Colin Ferguson Miss Natasha Gray Mr Richard Hopkins Mr Ravi Raichura Dr Jeptepkeny Ronoh Mrs Sian Shaw Miss Jennifer Sneyd Professor Harald Stoffels Ms Verity Worthington 2005 Dr Enyi Anosike Mrs Lisa Beacom Mr Andy Gard Mrs Mona Nemer Mrs Rebekah Perry Dr Oliver Rupar Mrs Liz Sharp Mrs Jessica Shingfield Ms Nadia Syed Mr Han Tu Mrs Emma Turner 2006 Miss Aniko Adam Dr Theresa Adenaike Mr Andrew Blackburn Mr Thomas Dix Mrs Sophie Harrison Dr Joshua Jowitt Mrs Chrissie Kelby Miss Elizabeth Meehan 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 Miss Elizabeth Wadsworth Dr Susan Wishart 2007 Miss Isabella Akinseye Mrs Tracey Harjatanaya Mr Tom Horn Mr Joshua Jenkins Mr John Keene Miss Teresa Li Mr Duncan Loweth Mr Michael Lynch

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Dr George Mak Miss Nic Pollard Mr Jonathan Prestwich Mr Joseph RandallCarrick Mr Matthew Thomas Miss Beth Wattleworth

2008 Mr Luke Clarke Mr Felix Danczak Mrs Kim Dorsett Mr Mike George Mr Matthew Linsell Mr James Lugton Mrs Susan McGregor Mrs Sue Morley-Souter Miss Amy Munro-Faure Mr Ikenna Obiekwe Mr Gershwinder Rai Miss Xiaoye Shan Mr Michael Stephenson Mrs Sarah Talland Miss Rebecca West 2009 Mr Adarsh Bala Mr Daniel Beresford Dr Jun Chen Mr Richard Craven Miss Danielle Eley Miss Alice Esuola Mr Jack Euesden Mrs Denise Heal Mr James Henderson Miss Christine James Mr Christopher Morgan Miss Rebecca Phillips Dr Syed Rizvi Mr Michael Thorp Miss Isabel Webb Ms Rhiannon Williams 2010 Dr Tareq Al-Ansari Mr Jordan Boddy Miss Emma Bowell Mr Nahum Clements Miss Alexandra Courage Mr Vasilis Eliades Dr Kayla Friedman Mr Gabrielius Glemza Mr Paul James Miss Sian Jones Mr Johann Kamper Miss Suzannah LangdonShreeve Dr Dirk Mersch Mr Rok Nezic Mrs Helen O’Hara Mr Richard Peach Mr Peter Phillipson Miss Bella Radenovich Mrs Jessica Taylor Miss Megan Trimble Dr Wei Yang

2011 Mrs Cordelia Brown Mr James Chicken Mr Richard Fitton Miss Katherine Gazzard Mr Jack Hooper Mr George Jenkins Miss Helen Lyttle Dr Nikolas Pontikos Mr Laurence Pritchard Mr Thorben Schaefer Mr Alex Shellum Mr Thomas Spooner Miss Angela Stevens 2012 Mr George Clarke Dr Caia Dominicus Miss Maureen Gisseleire Ms Louise Holyoak Mr Tim Hubener Mr Thomas Oxenham Mr Douglas Porter Miss Ruth Taylor Mr Theepan Tharmarajah 2013 Mr Daniel Dennis Dr Clare Harvey Mr Nigel Ironside Mr Hachimi Maiga Mr Alistair McMaster Mr Chris Wellings Miss Yiran Zhao 2014 Mrs Alexandra Annett Mr Joshua Atkins Mr William Bidwell Mr Adam Dobson Miss Harrie Gooch Mr Richard Jones Mr Pooya Kamvari Mr Alexander Schubert 2015 Mr Daniel Burdett Miss Sally Dickens Professor Vincent English Miss Emily Jones Mr Justin Maroy Mr Graham Robertson Miss Jacqueline VyrnwyPierce Miss Sarah WitkowskiBaker 2016 Mlle Cloe Dugrillon Miss Mille Fjelldal Mr Mitchell Hayden-Cook 2017 Ms Roselin Mgbezeh Mr Mark Nightingale Dr Neil Papworth

2018 Mr Abdirahim Ahmed Mr Alexander Lister Mr Michael Sanchez Friends of Homerton Dr Graham Arnold Mrs Hinna Azeem Mrs Frances Barrett Miss Patricia Cooper Professor Clive Carter Mr Timothy Edwards Mr Fabio Galantini Professor J M Gray Mr Roger Green Dr Stephen Hart Dr Lesley Hendy Mr Greg Hill Dr Liz Hook Dr Louise Joy Mrs Leslie Lemonick Dr Anthony Metcalfe Mr Matthew Moss MVO Miss Amy Reeve Dr Tracy Wang Dr Peter Warner Mr Aaron Westfall Professor Stephen Weis

1768 Society Miss Aniko Adam Mrs Vicki Addey Dr Theresa Adenaike Miss Dawn Alderson Mrs Rosemary Allan Dr Enyi Anosike Mrs Theresa Atal Dr Norman Bardsley Ms Catherine Beavis Miss Sheila Berry Mr Ian Bettison Mr Andrew Blackburn Mrs Patrica Bradley Miss Lucy Bradley Ms Victoria Brahm Mr Matt Buck Mrs Sandra Burmicz Dr Kirsty Byrne Mrs Marjorie Caie Dr Simon Camby Mrs Jan Campbell Mrs Kim Chaplin Dr Steven Chapman Miss Shruti Chaudhri Mr Nick Clark Mr Nahum Clements Mr Phil Coldicott Mrs Katy Coles Mrs Patricia Colyer Miss Pat Cooper Mr Richard Craven Miss Max Cure-Freeman Mrs Pauline Curtis Mrs Diana Dalton Mrs Clare Danielian Mrs Patty Darke

Mrs Emily Davies Mrs Susan Dinnage Mr Norman Donkin Mrs Lynn Dowson Mrs Wendy Dunnett Mr Timothy Edwards Professor Vincent English Miss Mille Fjelldal Mr Sutherland Forsyth Mrs Miriam France Mrs Jill Fuller Mrs Karen George Mrs Carole Girdler Mr Gabrielius Glemza Mrs Christine Grainge Miss Natasha Gray Mr Roger Green Mrs Fiona Gruneberg Mr Mark Hanley-Browne Dr Neil Hennessy Mrs Jill Hicks Mr Gregoire Hodder Mr Ian Hodgson Ms Louise Holyoak Mr Richard Hopkins Mr Tom Horn Mr Brian Howarth Mr Carl Howarth Mrs Anne Howell Mr Tim Hubener Mrs Annie Illingworth Mrs Ann Jackman Mr Paul James Mr Joshua Jenkins Miss Sian Jones Dr Joshua Jowitt Dr Louise Joy Mr John Keene Mrs Catherine Kitchen Mr David Lawrence Mr Jonathan Levine Ms Jane Lewin Smith Mr Matthew Linsell Mr Tony Little Mrs Susan Lovett Mrs Diana Lucas Mr Michael Lynch Mrs Sheila Mackenzie Mrs Christine Macpherson Mr Hachimi Maiga Mrs Judy Manson Mr Justin Maroy Mrs Lesley Marriott Mrs Sheila Martin Dr Vicky McNeile Mrs Sarah McWhinnie Mrs Caroline Melrose Mrs Maggie Meredith Dr Anthony Metcalfe Mrs Karen Miranthis Mr John Moore Mr Chris Morgan Mrs Sue Morley-Souter Mr Matthew Moss MVO Mr Remi Moynihan

Mrs Ann Muston Mr Ikenna Obiekwe Mrs Ruth Orr Mrs Rebekah Perry Miss Nic Pollard Mr Douglas Porter Mr Gershwinder Rai Mr Ravi Raichura Mrs Diane Rawlins Miss Margaret Rishbeth Mr Graham Robertson Mr Tom Robinson Miss Gill Rogers Mrs Elizabeth Rose Mr Tim Rothwell Mrs Kate Ryder Mr Alexander Schubert Mrs Denise Shakespeare Miss Xiaoye Shan Mrs Sian Shaw Mr Luke Shepherd Mrs Netti Smallbone Mrs Cheryl Smith Mrs Helen Smith Mr Tristan Stone Mrs Sarah Talland Miss Emily Tattoo Mrs Jessica Taylor Mrs Lesley Thomas Mrs Brenda Thompson Mr James Thomson Ms Marjorie Thorley Mr Michael Thorp Mr Han Tu Mr John Turner Mrs Janet Valentine Mrs Mandy WarnerBradshaw Miss Beth Wattleworth Mrs Janet Webb Mrs Dilys West Mr John White Ms Rhiannon Williams Mrs Helen Wood Dr Wei Yang

Cavendish Circle Dr J Norman Bardsley Ms Victoria Brahm Mrs Annie Illingworth

Macaulay Circle Mr Gordon Gaddes Mrs Coral Harrow Mrs Kate Ryder Mrs Dilys West

HOMERTON COLLEGE

ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND UPDATE

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FRIDAY 23 TO SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2022

HOMERTONIAN

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We are delighted to be able to host Alumni Reunion Weekend in person for the first time since 2019. 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 747 251. 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, 23 September 6.30–7.30pm

Donor Reception (By invitation)

7.30 for 8.15pm Drinks Reception followed by Dinner

Saturday, 24 September 9–9.30am

Registration

9.45–10.30am

Welcome address by the Principal and the HUS President

10.45– 11.45am Poetry Workshop with Dr Mariah Whelan Tour of the College Gardens Viewing of ‘The Lost Film’ 12–1.30pm

Lunch

1.45–2.45pm

Discussion on Diversity and the Student Experience

3–3.30pm

Tour of the Dining Hall Viewing of ‘The Lost Film’

3–4pm

Anniversary Group meetings

4–4.45pm

Charter Choir performance

5–6pm

Afternoon Tea

7 for 7.30pm

Drinks Reception followed by Dinner

CAN’T MAKE THE ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND? Join us for informal Alumni Drinks in London in October. Details will be available on the College website nearer the time. HOMERTON COLLEGE

22_0301 H2A Homertonian Newsletter(5119) 2022/08/10 17:44:32

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 https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/benefits/camcard

KEEPING IN TOUCH http://www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/alumni/benefitsandevents Visit the College website for full details of our alumni events and benefits. You can read College publications online and update your contact details when you move house or job. You can also read about the College’s current fundraising priorities and make a donation to Homerton online.

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.

HOMERTON COLLEGE UNIVERSITY OF C AMBRIDGE

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Hills Road Cambridge CB2 8PH

Tel: +44 (0)1223 747251 Email: alumni@homerton.cam.ac.uk

We are on Instagram. Check us out @homertoncollege You can also connect with Homerton on LinkedIn. Simply search for ‘Homerton College’

www.homerton.cam.ac.uk Homerton College is a Registered Charity No. 1137497

HOMERTON COLLEGE

The Homertonian 2022

Articles inside

Our Donors

A Day In The Life Of Shaun Fordham

Student Profile: Lisa Levytska

The Charter Choir

Research Interview Dr Stephen Burgess

Mentoring Update Matches Made At Homerton

Interview With The Architects Of The New Dining Hall

Kate Pretty Lecture

Fellow In Focus: Dr Alison Wood

Alumni Feature Repurposing Plastic Waste

Mary Dixon-Woods Receives Third Honorary Fellowship

Philippa Pearce Lecture

Principal’s Memoir Published

Bursar’s Update