Creative Futures: Achieving Your Potential

An innovative day helping young black pupils achieve their full potential - News

A Creative Futures Day encouraging children from black and minority ethnic backgrounds to think about science and higher education, was held at Imperial College on Wednesday 18 October.

Hosted by Imperial As One, the College’s black and minority ethnic race group, ‘Creative Futures: Achieving Your Potential’ was an interactive learning day for 11-12 year old pupils, their role models and mentors. The day focused on aspirations, collaboration, and team working with visitors having the opportunity to take part in a demonstration of a glass bridge construction. In addition, the pupils were invited to build clever structures, which were light but strong enough to withstand pressure through heavy loads.Dr Sunday Popo-Ola, Research and Teaching Fellow, in the Faculty of Engineering, hosted the day. He is the inaugural winner of the Equality Excellence Award made at the annual Rector’s Awards at the College.

A number of invited guests, including primary school teachers and pupils, the Mayor of Brent Councillor Bertha Joseph, Deputy Principal of the Faculty of Engineering, Chris Hankin, Mark Richards, an active member of Imperial as One and Sir Richard Sykes , Rector of the College, gave a series of inspirational speeches focussing on their own experiences.

The Mayor of Brent Councillor Joseph, spoke of her personal experiences as a child and her aspirations to go to university. In her message to the children she said: “Remember when you leave the College today, look back and say to yourself I will be back one day.”

“I had never been to a science university before. It has really inspired me and I really enjoyed the team work aspects and meeting new people,” said one child at the end of the day.

Speaking to the children, Sir Richard Sykes added: “Science is critically important in the world and many of you, if you work hard will end up studying at Imperial.”

Christine Yates, the College’s Diversity and Equal Opportunities Consultant, adds: “Our Widening Participation and Outreach Teams, and indeed many individual staff such as Sunday, proactively work to forge closer links with the wider communities. The aim of this particular event is to encourage young black pupils to aspire to higher education, and especially to pursue science and engineering at a university of their choice.”

Imperial as One, the organisers of the day, aims to assist the College in setting priorities and raising the profile of equality issues and ensure the experiences and views of staff at all levels are represented.