Professor Ramón Vilar is a Professor of Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry at Imperial and Vice Dean for Research in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ramón was instrumental in developing the earliest iterations of Imperial's summer schools. In fact, many of the activities he developed are still used to this day to engage young people with hands-on science.

For Ramón, outreach is something that has always interested him. “Even during my undergraduate studies in Mexico, and my PhD and early career in the UK, I have always felt it was important that what we do as scientists is communicated properly to wider society,” he says. “It not only helps people understand the world around us but fosters a deeper appreciation of how scientific discovery happens. I believe it is our duty to engage with the public, in particular young people and school students – it is important to get them excited about science and inspire them to study STEM.”

Before moving to the UK for his PhD at Imperial, Ramón had taught high school students in Mexico and helped develop a textbook for schools featuring classroom experiments that could be conducted with minimal equipment - ensuring accessibility for students in both urban and rural settings. This ethos for widening participation in science followed him to Imperial. Then working as a lecturer in 1999, he was asked by the Head of Chemistry, Professor David Phillips, if he would like to run one of Imperial’s first summer schools. “I jumped at the opportunity. It was something I was really keen to do,” he says.

The summer school saw 40-50 school pupils come to campus for four days, staying in Halls of Residence with their teachers. “My job was to design a short course in chemistry. It had to be hands-on and interactive,” says Ramón. “What was new for me was developing experiments that a 12-year-old could do safely in the lab!”

The experiments he designed included synthesising molecules that give fruit their essence, extracting essential oils from cloves, and isolating chlorophyll from spinach. Many of those activities are now considered classics to do in any outreach programme. “It is great to know that the work had a lasting impact beyond what I delivered,” he says.

The official name of the programme was The Imperial Summer School for Talented Students and it was designed for students with a particular interest in science who were from London schools with a high proportion of students on free school meals. Ramón ran the summer schools for three years and they were the first of hundreds of Summer Schools that Imperial has since delivered.

Today, the Outreach Summer Schools see over 400 students spending time on campus every summer and though the portfolio has expanded, the general idea is still the same today – the summer schools are an opportunity for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to get a sense of what life at university is like. Participants aged 14-17 do lab sessions, seminars and social activities and get advice and guidance on applying to university.

Beyond the summer schools

Ramón’s outreach efforts continued into the early 2000s when he and colleagues took chemistry demonstrations into schools, delivering interactive sessions that included visually striking experiments - such as one where a compound exploded at the slightest touch of a feather. “That one always got their attention,” he laughs.

But in recent years, his efforts have extended beyond traditional schools outreach. For a decade, he has led the FoNS-MAD (Faculty of Natural Sciences – Make A Difference) Competition, an initiative that supports Imperial undergraduates in developing ideas that have a positive societal impact. “It’s been incredible to see what students come up with. I’m always impressed,” he says. “The winners get funding for their idea, and some have even gone on to form companies based on their projects.”

Ramón has also worked to foster a positive mindset for societal engagement among his own research team. “Many of my PhD students have taken part in initiatives like the Great Exhibition Road Festival,” he says. “It’s great to see them engaging with the public and sharing their passion for science.”

“I really enjoyed doing the summer schools. I have always liked teaching and interacting with children. They are very sharp and enthusiastic and at the end of the day, that's what really matters. It was a lot of hard work, but I had great support from PhD students who helped deliver the summer schools. It was always a team effort.”

Ramón’s enthusiasm for outreach is deeply rooted in his belief that science should be accessible to all. And while he no longer has the time to lead summer schools himself, he continues to advocate for outreach within the scientific community and encourages young researchers to take part. “Outreach is a way of giving back,” he says. “It’s our responsibility to inspire and inform the next generation.”

Dr Kinan Wihba was a Student Ambassador on Imperial's summer school programmes between 2018 and 2024. He was, and remains, determined to help ensure young people from disadvantaged backgrounds have the support and access they need to succeed. As a refugee from Syria, he is only too familiar with some of the barriers to higher education. Aged just ten when war broke out, Kinan was inspired by the medics he saw during the conflict and eventually ended up at Imperial's School of Medicine. Now, against all odds, he has fulfilled his dream of becoming a doctor and is in his first year of practice in the NHS.

“We tried to stay in Syria,” Kinan says. “But after a few years of displacement, bombing and death, my family decided to flee and try making a better life elsewhere.”

Kinan’s journey to safety was not immediate or straightforward. His family had to split up, with his mother and older brother leaving first while he remained behind with his father and younger brother. After a year of being separated they were finally reunited in the UK. “At some point we lost contact with them,” he shares. “Those parts were challenging and quite sad.”

Kinan lived in conflict for six years during which time his schooling was heavily affected. Damage to infrastructure meant that there were times when neither pupils or teachers could get to school. Attacks on schools by the Assad regime meant classrooms were unsafe, and Kinan remembers multiple occasions when he and his classmates had to run for their lives in the middle of a lesson. The ever-present risk of destruction, along with the constant loss of homes and lives greatly affected children’s education in Syria. However, it was in this complex and harrowing environment that Kinan learned he wanted to become a doctor.

“I saw how doctors were treated in the conflict,” he says. “Some of them were targeted by the regime but they still always tried to help. So by the time I got to the UK, I already knew I wanted to study medicine.”

Getting into Medicine

Kinan’s family were hosted by a benevolent family in the basement of their large home in Brighton and Kinan got a place at a local school for his A-levels. It was here that he learned just how challenging it would be to get into medicine. Not only does it require top grades; evidence of extracurricular activities, work experience and volunteering is often also needed to strengthen an application. For Kinan, this was a daunting realisation.

He was advised by his teachers not to apply but, undeterred, he pushed ahead. “It was an overwhelming time,” he says. “I didn’t speak much English so I was learning a new language whilst doing my A-Levels, and I needed to do my Maths and English GCSE as well to be able to apply to universities. My teachers were concerned I was taking on too much so I had to try really hard to convince them that I could do it. I knew I had the ability.”

This was where Kinan encountered systemic barriers. As a refugee, he lacked the social capital and connections that many of his peers had. Furthermore, attempts to access outreach and widening participation programmes often ended in frustration. Many schemes used postcode-based eligibility criteria and, as his family was housed in a relatively affluent area, he was deemed ineligible.

It also transpired that he was unable to apply to many of Britain’s medical schools. He learned that only five would consider his application. “As someone who's escaped conflict, it’s not possible for me to evidence my previous grades in the way some medical schools wanted. Imperial was one of the ones that was quite open-minded. I just needed to sit the BMAT [the Biomedical Admissions Test which is no longer used] and if I scored well, I would be invited to interview which could then result in an offer. For once, it felt like a level playing field. It felt like an opportunity to prove myself. It was within my control,” he says.

“I couldn’t fit into the standard medicine school assessment process," Kinan reflects. "Extracurricular achievements weren’t always an option for me - but I’d been given this chance to be in the UK and to have an education, so I had to make the most of it. We can't just have the one stereotype of people that study medicine. It just doesn't help anyone.”

Kinan got offers from all the universities he applied to but ultimately chose Imperial drawn by the combination of early clinical contact, its strong emphasis on research and the sector-leading bursary support .

Changing the game

Having experienced first-hand the challenges of accessing higher education, Kinan was determined to support others on similar journeys. From his first year at Imperial, he became deeply involved in Imperial's Outreach initiatives, primarily working on the summer schools as a Student Ambassador, and joining student societies focused on widening participation.

Through these roles, Kinan sought to demystify the university experience. “I wanted to show people that if I could do it, they could too,” he says. He took particular pride in mentoring students from refugee backgrounds, recognising the unique struggles they faced.

“I really enjoyed the summer schools. I felt good about the work that we were doing. It felt meaningful and it felt like we were making a difference,” he says. “I worked a lot and I'll be honest, it was good money. People don't really like to talk about money, perhaps because at university it’s assumed that most people have financial support from their families. But as someone whose parents couldn't support me, earning my own income was important. That said, it was never just a job for the money, you can see the difference you’re making."

Kinan was particularly inspired by the number of his fellow Student Ambassadors who had themselves been on the programme. “Those success stories always made me smile - there was always a moment where a mentor would do a shout out and say ‘I was on this programme before and now I'm a student here’. It was really nice and it's affirming for everyone. Even some of the more senior people, some of the managers, were once participants on outreach programmes. It’s really heartwarming that people generally don't want to leave. There are people who’ve graduated and gone on to do big jobs, but they still come back every once in a while. And that's why, even now I've graduated and started working as a doctor, I want to come back and do things. There are always ways you can help people.”

Even though Kinan didn’t take part in outreach programmes, he knew he would find a way to give back when he could. “I always thought, if I can’t do it as a participant, I will do it as a mentor. At the end of the day, if more people from marginalised backgrounds are involved - people who understand the problems with the system - maybe changes can be made.”

Now a qualified doctor, Kinan understands the power of representation and the importance of diverse voices in healthcare. While his journey was filled with obstacles, he hopes that through continued efforts in outreach and policy change, future students from underrepresented backgrounds will face fewer barriers.

Since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Kinan has felt more comfortable speaking out about his story and hopes one day to visit his home country again. Looking back, Kinan acknowledges that his resilience was both a necessity and a burden. “People who come from hardship should not always have to be exceptional to succeed,” he reflects. His hope is that by changing the system from within, more students will be able to access opportunities without having to fight so hard for them.

Growing up in inner-city London, Kyrillos Sidarous was naturally gifted in science and maths, though he never particularly enjoyed school. However, an opportunity in Year 8 changed everything when one of his teachers suggested he apply to a summer school at Imperial.

“I almost didn’t apply. I didn’t really understand what it was. I remember I just left the application form lying around when I got home from school and my mum saw it. She encouraged me to apply so I did. It’s amazing how small choices like that can impact your future,” Kyrillos reflects.

Kyrillos was accepted onto the programme in 2006 and spent the best part of a week over the summer holidays at Imperial. “The whole week was all about robotics and in a group we had to build a lunar rover. It was run as a competition, and our group dominated. I was hooked. I had the best time.”

Kyrillos enjoyed his time so much, he returned the following year where his team won the robot competition again. But the summer school wasn’t just where he discovered his passion and competitive edge, it is where Kyrillos met Neil Monteiro who was a Student Ambassador at Imperial. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to study,” Kyrillos says. “Neil was my mentor so I would ask him loads of questions about university and he’d answer them really honestly. I was nervous about the idea of leaving home if I didn’t go to a London university and talking it through really helped. I really looked up to Neil and he is ultimately the reason why I chose to study medical engineering.”

After his second successful summer school, Kyrillos playfully teased the programme manager by stating that he’d be back to win again. Identifying Kyrillos’s passion, the manager instead countered and asked Kyrillos to come back as a volunteer. And so, at 15, Kyrillos found himself volunteering his time to support the robotics summer schools. He became deeply involved in the maintenance of the robotics kits and supported the participants with troubleshooting problems, using the skills he learnt from his time on the summer school as well as his innate problem-solving nature. Sometimes he even stepping in for absent Student Ambassadors – all despite being younger than some of the students he was helping.

At the time, the programme was run by an external company – Exscitec – before all summer schools moved in-house to Imperial a number of years later. By this point, Kyrillos was a well-established part of the Outreach team and so he officially became a Student Ambassador before even starting university.

A lifelong committment

Kyrillos applied to Imperial, and although he didn’t initially get in, he returned years later for his Master’s at Imperial Business School. For his undergraduate degree he went to Swansea University to study Medical Engineering.

“I’m not sure I would have considered Swansea had it not been for the summer schools,” he reflects. He goes on to explain that Imperial used to have an agricultural campus in Wye, Kent which is where one of Kyrillos’ summer schools took place. “It was my first time away from the big city – we had proper country food like custard and there was a massive field where we could enjoy the outdoors, playing frisbee and stargazing at night. Swansea was similar in a way, in that it’s so different to London and there’s so much open space. It’s literally on the beach!”

Despite attending Swansea University, Kyrillos remained committed to Imperial’s summer schools. He has returned every year to mentor young people on the programme, not just throughout university but throughout his professional career. He also supported other outreach initiatives, doing school visits and helping develop content for the Outreach team’s Makerspace in White City. “I do it for selfish reasons really,” he says. “It’s so rewarding for me. You really feel like you’re changing people’s lives.”

One of his most memorable moments came when a Black participant confided in him. “She said ‘People like me don’t go to university.’ I asked her what she wanted to study. She said ‘Civil Engineering.’” he shares. “And I said, ‘The Head of Civil Engineering at Imperial – one of the best engineering schools in the world - is Black.’ She was shocked.” Kyrillos was then able to arrange a meeting between her and Professor Washington Ochieng who helped change her perception. She later applied to Imperial and was accepted.

The impact the summer schools had on Kyrillos cannot be overstated but his impact on the programme, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, was also transformational. He Kyrillos played a pivotal role working with the Outreach team in designing and launching Imperial’s first virtual summer school, the Year 11 Online STEM Challenge which is now a permanent fixture in Imperial’s outreach calendar and allows 40 young people from across the country to take part every year

The online programme is designed to give participants the opportunity to apply their STEM knowledge to solve real-world problems. Focused on how different STEM subjects interlink, and working collaboratively in groups, participants creatively develop innovative solutions to STEM-based problems, supported by industry and subject matter experts. Examples include designing a new Royal Navy vessel for humanitarian aid and creating the fuel station of the future, focusing on sustainability.

Despite his deep passion for outreach, Kyrillos pursued a career in engineering and business. He earned a master’s in International Health Management from Imperial in 2018, later working in nuclear energy, defence engineering and healthcare before transitioning into consulting, working for Accenture and McKinsey. However, he remains committed to outreach and continues to return to Imperial each summer. “I see myself working in outreach full-time one day,” he says. “For now, I’ll keep giving back however I can.”