A review about the Scholars Programme by Nicole 10C.
Recently, a select group of 14 students from Year 10 were given an incredible opportunity to take part in the Scholars Programme, led and presented to us by the charity- The Brilliant Club. This award winning charity focuses on increasing the number of less advantaged students accessing the most competitive universities and reaching grades beyond they and others ever imagined. Not only this but I think they really do an amazing job at providing teens in secondary school insight on life in the near future, and the opportunities available to us that we too often overlook mostly due to the negativity and lack of self-confidence around the topic of higher education.
What exactly did we do during the programme? Along the course of a few months we attended 7 university style tutorials in person with a world class PhD researcher, an expert in their subject who taught us everything we needed to know. We were given the topic of “Child rights, and where do they come from?” The programme culminated in a challenging final assignment where we showed all our knowledge gathered from the tutorials in a 2000 word essay, marked and graded using university standards.
The 14 of us were split into 2 groups of 7 for our tutorials in, and in these tutorials we engaged in activities such as debates, watching interesting videos on our subject and giving presentations, later on in the tutorials we switched to 1 on 1 sessions with our PhD tutor, who I believe helped me to engage more personally with the topic and what our assignments were- receiving an abundance of help from Anna (our tutor). After these tutorials we were given assignments- essays often around 500 words based on what we had studied. This homework, though challenging, I think really helped me and I’m sure many others with not only our final essay but our overall work ethic and experience with writing essays.
Personally, I believe that this programme has been one of the best opportunities and experiences I’ve had and I very much enjoyed all the events and activities that we took part in, it’s an incredible opportunity that I really do believe all students should want to partake in, given the opportunity. I gained so many skills throughout the programme and after receiving my final mark and grade, I have developed a new found confidence in my writing ability–that I previously wasn’t so sure about. Subjects such as RE, History and English I usually strayed from due to their essay and long analysing nature but now I can confidently say that I no longer dread but rather actually enjoy writing on things I am passionate about usually after researching- such as the matter of child rights.
The best part of the programme was our final trip to Keble College, Oxford University on 13th May where we got to experience university life at one of the top most prestigious and competitive universities worldwide. The experience was truly unreal, touring the astonishing campus and looking into what we were made to realise is a one in a lifetime opportunity but yet not so out of reach if motivated and driven enough to achieve the grades and requirements needed to attend university. At the end of that day a graduation ceremony was held at Oxford Town Hall for all the scholars from schools around England who also participated in the programme where we received our certificates and some students gave short speeches. At the beginning of the programme our lovely, inspiring tutor- Anna Maniatopoulou informed us that one essay would be chosen for publishing by the Brilliant Club which we will soon get the results for. However, I don’t believe that the grade and results should be the main focus and aspect we take away from the programme but also the skills we developed and inspiration for our future. After attending this programme we are still able to stay in touch with the Brilliant Club as alumni and can receive information regarding anything academic. Overall all of us can say it was a wonderful experience to have taken part in.
