The Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre (QMLAC) hosted the annual Insight Day at Queen Mary University on 27th April, bringing together Future Leaders UK and Queen Mary student mentors for a day of talks and interactive workshops on campus.
The QMLAC Community Mentoring scheme pairs pupils from Future Leaders UK East London Hub with a current undergraduate QM students. This year, 70 first-year university students from Queen Mary have taken on this mentoring role as part of the programme. These students are undertaking a wide range of university degrees, including: Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Law, Economics, Film Studies, English, Physics, Modern Languages and Chemistry. Having a wide range of subjects allows for students to be paired with pupils who might have an interest in pursuing a similar subject at university themselves, tailoring the mentoring experience further.
As in previous years, as part of the Future Leaders Programme, we at Queen Mary host an Insight Day for the programme pupils. The day provides them further insight, through talks and interactive sessions, into what studying at university is like. There are also opportunities to catch up with their mentors, and to explore our university campus here at Mile End.
The day consisted of three sessions:
Student Panel, chaired by Anthony Taylor (Client Coordinator, QMLAC): Ivor (QMUL Chemistry graduate), Isobel (QMUL Medical student) and Zuhur (QMUL Law student) gave insights into their experiences of applying for and getting into university and answered audience questions .
Interactive Workshop – Should it be a Crime?: The QMLAC Public Legal Education and Street Law Coordinators facilitated interactive sessions which asked the pupils and mentors to come together to question their morality and beliefs on what should constitute a crime.
Admissions Talk: Professor Alan Dignam: Professor Alan Dignam (KC) run an informative session, ‘Why go to University’ which explored reasons for continuing in Higher Education, student finance and the preparing for Year 13.
We were very pleased to welcome over 120 Future Leaders to campus on the day. The success of the Insight Day would not have been possible without the collaboration of the teams at the Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre, the Queen Mary Student Mentors and the Future Leaders Programme.
Thank you to: Faheem Khan, Halima Shakoor and Naheed Manzoor from the Future Leaders Programme; Meghan Mizen, Eve Haynes, Daisy Keter, Anthony Taylor and Zehra Sonerman from the QMLAC; Professor Alan Dignam; our Panel members Ivor Crooks, Isobel Godfrey and Zuhur Weheliye; and to Niveditha Sree Shanmugam, Lida Shemun, Caitlin Taylor, Khushi Kaushal, and all our other student mentors for your help on the day!