Students at Bassingbourn Village College heard just how important changing your mind can be when a Cambridge professor visited the school as part of the Speakers4Schools initiative.
The charity scheme provides state schools with free talks from the UK’s leading figures to inspire and empower the next generation and saw Principal of Newnham College at the University of Cambridge – professor Dame Carol Black – head to Bassingbourn for a tell-all session about her life as a scientist, academic and Government advisor to more than 130 students.
They were surprised to learn that Dame Carol originally started out studying history, swapping to medicine in her mid-20s once she realised she had made a mistake.
Encouraging students ‘to grab every opportunity they got’, Dame Carol urged students to consider all their options from apprenticeships through to university places. She said the sky’s the limit as far as university applications are concerned, reminding students that as far as applications to Oxbridge colleges are concerned, state school students are no longer in the minority.
For more on the education charity go to www.speakers4schools.org.
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