I didn't always want to come to university.
It seemed like quite a scary thing when I was at school.
You're away from friends and family.
Nobody in my family had gone to university so it was a bit of an unknown.
I was a bit nervous.
I thought I'm not going to know anyone, it's a different style of learning.
Even though I had the support to go to university, it was quite a daunting experience.
I wanted to go to university because I've always wanted to become a scientist, it's
always been a passion in my life.
So coming to university was the way for me to be able to get onto that career path.
I knew the prospects for the future prospects from going to university and obtaining a good
job, get some recognition.
I understood that in order to get the best job, university would be the best place to
go to.
All my life I always knew I wanted to go to university and then the moment I stepped through
the University of Birmingham grounds, I knew that this was the university I wanted to come
to.
I remember the first time I went to the University of Birmingham, it was a school visit and as
soon as I arrived I was impressed by the grandeur of all the buildings.
Because I live locally I didn't really realise what was on my doorstep, so when I came through
I couldn't believe that this was only 15, 20 minutes away from where I'd lived all my
life and walking through the grounds, the library and all the great buildings and everything,
it was brilliant.
I was like wow, this is a completely different scenario that I've been used to in college
and schools.
What I really remembered from that visit was how I just seemed to fit in.
We didn't stand out or weren't out of the ordinary, it just felt that I could be a part
of the university.
That's what the first pressure was, that I wanted to be part of that, I wanted to be
part of the students that were running around campus or sitting down and studying and going
to all the buildings.
I wanted that.
When I got my place here at the University of Birmingham, my family were over the moon.
My little brother kept patting me on the back.
We were expecting this really tense wait and then after a week I'd got a letter and I thought
oh no, it's going to be a rejection and we opened it and we couldn't believe it when
it was an offer.
So me and my mum both cried.
My family were really pleased when they found out I'd got into Medicine.
I was the first person in my family to go into the medical side of things and also my
school were really pleased.
So it was a really big achievement.
Of course they were happy for me but there was always that 'have you sorted out all of
your student finances?
How are you going to pay for it?'.
They didn't really know so there was a concern as much as there was the happiness.
But I was able to reassure them because A2B had given me lots of information which I was
able to say 'oh, I've sorted this all out and if I need to ask them anything, I can
just call this number and somebody will help me'.
A2B gave me an understanding about what university was, which I would never have obtained elsewhere.
The A2B scheme has instilled me with confidence.
I was really nervous applying to study medicine here at the University of Birmingham
But the A2B scheme allowed me to shadow a student.
And it was really great experiencing the daily life of a student and got rid of some of the
worries about what I would have to do when I arrived at university.
Access to Birmingham really helped motivate me and helped me push and drive for the results.
It gave me an incentive to come to the University of Birmingham.
Before, I'd have never considered that I'd be good enough, I never thought I'd get the
grades.
I was predicted BBB and through going on the Access to Birmingham scheme and having somebody
have the confidence in me and me really feeling that I needed to prove something to them and
give them something back, I managed to go out and pull through and get three As in the
end.
Through the tutors and through the support, through the outreach team as well, I realised
that I can be successful and be who I want to be.
The A2B module was very helpful because I got to write an essay over the summer related
to the degree programme I was doing.
That involves coming here to the University, meeting with an academic, discussing ideas
and then going to formulate your own essay.
So you do your own research.
So it simulates what you'll be doing here at university.
It gave me a chance to be able to see what university was like, to see what it was like
to study here.
The good thing about the A2B module is that you get a mock interview and that's with a
current student, so you can gain from their experiences and get a real feel for what medicine
is like here at Birmingham.
One of the things I really love about studying at the University of Birmingham is the campus.
The campus itself is kind of like a little community, a little town in itself.
Everyone is from all over the world.
Like on my course for example I've got people studying from Malaysia coming over here.
It's a great opportunity to interact with other people, different cultures.
Getting to know different people and kind of creating these friendships for life has
been really exciting for me.
The A2B scheme has helped me in a number of different ways.
For example, during my sixth form period it provided me with motivation to attain the
best results in order to attain the scholarship that the A2B scheme offers.
Applying through the A2B I was able to have another opportunity through a scholarship
with HSBC for my tuition fees, which I couldn't believe it when I got the scholarship.
One of the things about the scholarship, it helped me with the funding but not only that
it's meeting the scholarship donors.
Some great people with some great advice as they have been through university, they've
been there and done it and especially when you go to like the A2B networking events,
you hear a lot of great things from great people.
The Access to Birmingham scholarship has really really helped me because I have to travel
from home to get to university so it really contributed towards the travel costs.
Also it means that I can buy equipment to help me study as well.
Since I've been at university one of the most exciting things was I went to the House of
Lords and I gave a speech to all the scholarship donors and it was great, I was talking in
front of 200 people, I got to speak about how the A2B scheme had helped me, how the
scholarship's helped me and how the great support of the donors has helped me through
my academic career so far.
I work for the Highways Agency, an executive agency of the Government, who operate, maintain
and improve England's strategic road network.
I've attained a full time position at UBS upon completing my industrial placement.
I hope to work in the consumer goods industry, again as a chemical engineer where I can apply
all the theory that I've learnt at university in the real world.
I've been having lots of opportunities to do voluntary work to be able to become a teacher
in a few years.
I'm here at the University of Law, I'm currently studying the graduate diploma in Law which
is the conversation course that you do when you're entering the legal profession from
a non-legal background.
I've just had acceptance that I'll be completing a Master's course here so I'm going to complete
my further study and then hopefully after that I want to go on to do a PhD.
Hopefully do a Master's in International Development and then go back to Kenya and help with disadvantaged
communities.
This time next year I'll be graduating and then starting my foundation years in hospital,
hopefully around the West Midlands and hopefully in the QE.
Through the Access to Birmingham scheme I met a scholarship donor that offered me an
internship at the Deutsche Bank so that's how I'm going to spend my summer.
I would definitely recommend other students going through the Access to Birmingham scheme.
I'm really grateful for the A2B scheme, it's opened my eyes to a lot of new things and
opened my belief that I can be better in everything I do.
The A2B scheme gave me the opportunity to be able to go to university and be able to
do my dream.
The A2B has really really changed my life and it's opened up a world of opportunities
to me.
With everything that I'm doing here at the University of Birmingham, I know I wouldn't
be here and this confident in being here and enjoying myself as much as I am if it wasn't
for the A2B.
So I reckon, you know, go for it.
Definitely do it.