Tell us a little bit about your background…

I grew up in South London with my mum – we lived on the outskirts of Croydon. I’m the first person in my family to have the opportunity to go to university and when I was young my mum was highly ambitions for me. She believed that education was the key to future success and so I strived at school. As well as being an avid reader, I was involved in all the clubs you can imagine: gymnastics, drama, recorder… My mum usually juggled two or three jobs at once, so these free clubs allowed her to work and also opened my eyes to new interests.

What led you to apply for a UK Summer School and what was your experience like?

Although I had developed a lot of interests through my extracurricular activities, my abiding interest from an early age was Egyptology – which is quite a niche interest for a small child to have!  So, when my mum brought home a leaflet about Sutton Trust Summer Schools, I decided to apply for a History Summer School at Oxford as that was the closest I could get to Egyptology.

My time on the Summer School was quite a formative experience for me as it gave me my first taste of university study.  After one lecture I chose to write an essay on witchcraft, and I remember feeling a bit nervous. How do I access the library? How do I find the books? How do I write this essay? It was a little scary, but it was a real privilege to get that real-life insight.  There was a nice sense of community on the programme too and after staying up a couple of nights with a group of girls I felt really encouraged.  I thought, they’re thinking about applying here and they are kind of like me, so… maybe I can do that as well!

How has your career developed after the programme?

After the programme I went to St. Hilda’s College in Oxford to study Egyptology. It was quite a self-directed course – there was a lot of searching for obscure books, which I’d find … only to then realise that they weren’t in English. This helped me develop the skill of being able to piece something together and make a sensible argument from it, which has served me well throughout my career.

After university, I was conscious that I needed to make a financial contribution at home and I was struggling to find paid work in museums, so I ended up finding a role at a genealogy company.  It was a research role, so it spoke to my historical interests while also building my commercial awareness. I then moved into headhunting, and after a few other pursuits like completing my Masters, I ended up getting headhunted to go back into headhunting.

In this job, no two days are the same.  I partner with universities and research institutions to support them on the appointment of senior leaders like deans of faculties and research leads. As a team we do an awful lot of research to identify people from around the world who might be right for a role but aren’t looking for those roles and we try to persuade them that they would like to do those roles.

What are your ambitions for the future?

A foundational ambition for me is to be able to give back to my family. To do things that my family didn’t have the opportunity to do and share that success with them.  Whatever I choose to do job-wise, it’s all about making sure that I can take care of my family.

Do you have any advice for future Sutton Trust students?

Things like interviews can all seem quite intimidating, but if you go in and be wholeheartedly yourself, whether you get the place you’re trying to get or not, you can be really proud of putting your best foot forward. Be bold and do you.