Old Elizabethans are taking a flexible approach to help pupils prepare for their futures at university and beyond in the current unprecedented circumstances.
Several alumni have been hosting online events providing careers and higher education guidance. The School has played its part in faciltating discussions by opening up the QE Connect alumni platform to boys in Year 11 and above.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This programme of OE support has created terrific resources for our senior boys, who are inevitably missing out on some of the opportunities that would normally have been available to them in School, such as lunchtime talks and our Year 12 Universities Convention, which we had to cancel. Most of these sessions have been conducted live over Zoom or MS Teams, enabling full interaction between the participants and the OEs.
“It is a very direct example of the wider Elizabethan community being engaged to help current pupils, and I am very grateful indeed to the alumni who have gone the extra mile to provide advice and support.
“Through QE Connect, older pupils can now seek out mentoring and guidance from OEs with relevant experience. I would urge as many of our current students, including Year 13 leavers, as possible to sign up, not just for their own benefit now, but also because in doing so they are taking the first steps towards providing similar support to the generation that follows them.”
Binu Perera, a 2019 leaver now in his first year of reading Medicine at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, held a Zoom meeting for more than 20 aspiring medics, which was facilitated by Assistant Head (Pupil Development) Michael Feven. During the video call, he covered areas including Oxbridge application procedures and entrance tests, UCAS statements and university interviews.
Another of last year’s leavers, Rohan Shah, recorded a ‘vtalk’ for boys interesting in reading Economics at university – the subject Rohan is currently studying at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He covered both the preparations he undertook to secure his university place and how he has found his first year there. Concluding his 21-minute talk, he wished the boys: “Good luck with your preparation and hopefully I will be seeing you at Cambridge in a couple of years.”
Karan Dewnani (OE 2006–2013), who has forged a successful career as a civil engineer since graduating with a Master’s degree in Civil and Structural Engineering from Sheffield in 2017, recorded a fully illustrated talk on Civil Engineering as a Career. Karan, who currently works for global engineering consultancy Arcadis, featured examples of projects he has worked on, including the HS2 railway line.
Recordings of Binu’s, Rohan’s and Karan’s contributions have been uploaded to QE Connect’s main feed.
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Other OEs taking part in similar activity to support current pupils recently include:
- Jonathan Hollingsworth (OE 2006-2013), who works as an Investment Analyst for Rathbones, ran a discussion-led session with a group of Year 12 boys on his unconventional route into finance, during which he covered the pros and cons of his decision not to take Economics or Mathematics at A-level, and his decision to read Law at university.
- Nicholas Stern (OE 1997-2004) spoke to Year 12s about his career as a Vice President at Barclays International and, before that, at Morgan Stanley, where he had been an intern. He gave the boys his own insights into how the financial sector will be affected by the current crisis.
- Kiran Modi (OE 2007-2014), a Business Analyst with McKinsey, and Aum Thacker (2008–2015), an Analyst with ThirdWay Africa, delivered a session developing boys’ critical thinking skills, in the context of interview preparation, personal statement advice, and preparation for Oxbridge Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) papers. Kiran also recently promoted the McKinsey Leadership Academy to senior boys at QE. Subsequently, four Year 13 pupils – Deeps Gandhi, Aryan Jain, Rishi Shah and Kevin Van der Geest – were accepted on to the programme.