I’m Aaron and I am from Mountain Ash in South Wales.

I heard about the Summer School from the head of sixth form in my school. She recommended that I take a look at the Sutton Trust website and think about applying to one of their programmes.

I applied to the Summer School because I was undecided about what I wanted to take at University. I thought that a Summer School would give me a helping hand in making a decision, which it eventually did!!

A typical day at the University of Nottingham Summer School would start at around 9am and consist of academic sessions from your chosen strand with a break in between followed by lunch. Afterwards, there would be a session about anything from how to write personal statements to budgeting which was unbelievably helpful. Then you head back to the halls for dinner.

After a hard day’s work, the evenings at Summer school got….well, eventful. They put on activities such as samba drumming, a formal night, a quiz night and disco, circus skills (I can now juggle) and a night involving the students dressing up as characters from “Super Mario” that will stick with me until the day I die.

I have to say that my most memorable experience form the Summer School was the formal night. We were all granted awards from the week and afterwards we had a disco which was absolutely amazing. I had a great night with people I’d only known for a just a week but felt like I’d only known for a lifetime.

In only one week, I was completely inspired by the pure passion of the tutors for their subject areas. I was also inspired by the mentors who proved to you that you have what it takes to go to university…It was just one amazing week.

It’s safe to say that, thanks to the Summer School, I now know that I want to take a theology course at University which was the strand I took. It was also what I won the Summer School award for!!

All in all, you’d be a fool to miss out on this opportunity. The friends you make last, and the tips you get stick with you. Each university is obviously different but you can’t go wrong with the Sutton Trust.

One last note if you got to the University of Nottingham Summer School: be prepared to live your life for “the pony game”.