Both the Trust and UEA have been working together to deliver a Scholars Programme in Norfolk that empowers “bright students to improve their academic and personal skills, attainment, aspirations and confidence, thereby enabling them to succeed in life.” Without giving too much away, the programme targets high achieving students from Year 10 onwards who are from backgrounds that are perhaps less likely to attend university. The aim of this is to help improve the social mobility of those particular groups and to encourage young people from these backgrounds to continue onto higher education.
The speakers for this workshop will be four women who are wonderfully dedicated to helping young people realise their academic potential.
The first of which will be the Programme Director, Jo Gurvidi, who joined Villiers Park back in September 2016. Jo has responsibility for supporting various Scholars Programmes across the country, as well as supporting the Villiers Park INVOLVE programme, where students drive forward improvement through outreach in their own schools and colleges.
The workshop will also hear from Laura Anderson, who is the Programme Manager based at UEA. With 8 years of experience promoting UEA and higher education whilst working in the Recruitment and Outreach department, Laura has a passion for widening the aspirations of students who are traditionally less likely to go to university.
This will be followed by Zoë Mitchell, one of the Learning Mentors in the Scholars Programme. Zoë also joined the programme back in the autumn of 2016 after graduating from UEA with both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree and has a wealth of experience in mentoring young people at all stages of education.
Finally, we will hear from Cerian Lye-Owens who is the INVOLVE Facilitator at the Trust. Cerian started working with the Swindon Scholars Programme in 2015 as a Learning Mentor but now works with students on the programme to assist them in setting up projects within their own schools that will directly benefit other students as well as develop skills that will benefit their future prospects.
We will be releasing information every week for each workshop, so keep an eye out for our posts. If you haven’t already, then you can buy your tickets here.
