Page 73 - Future Leaders Magazine

AIM HIGHER
‘We Want More Like Us at Top Universities’

microcosm of society, so if I was to go and
graduate tomorrow and it was the same
situation, it would have bothered me even
more, so I thought: “Okay, why aren’t there
many Caribbeans here?”and “Why, when I
ask my friends in Oxford and Cambridge,
aren’t there barely any Caribbeans there?
This is a trend.”
So I spoke to my mum who is a
teacher and she told me the statistics
about Caribbean students and how the
expectations were much lower, particularly
with Caribbean boys.
I decided to start something that would
help this situation by helping these students
with their applications and with their
revision and give them someone to answer

“At A-level I was often
the only Caribbean
student getting
As and A*s…”

to (an educational mentor). These students
don’t have this in their homes or in the
education system so we need to be there.
I feel responsible for other Caribbean
students as I’ve never been a person who
will climb the ladder and pull it up behind
me. I don’t think anyone should be okay
with doing that, so that’s the core of why
CariConnect exists.
I really am hoping that people will see
what we are doing and support it in any way
that they can.
I am hoping that influential Caribbeans
will see that and want to get involved. I am
not first generation, as I was born in Jamaica
so my educational experiences are quite
different from the diaspora here.
I came here when I was eight years old
Mikai McDermott you were Nigerian”, or “I and I have been going back and forth
ever since. My mum has made it a very
didn’t realise that Caribbean
students did as well as you big thing to make me feel Jamaican as
ari Connect essentially came did”, so that kind of followed opposed to black British and I feel that’s
about because I currently attend me throughout my college why my educational attainment has
the University of Warwick and career. been so high.
C when I got there, it was a culture At A-level I was often I just want to help black British
shock for me. I studied in Newham, which the only Caribbean student students from Caribbean backgrounds to
is not the best neighbourhood. I had always getting As and A*s and this build that bridge.
seen black Caribbean students but it had didn’t really bother me until I We want to help you get to the
never occurred to me that our educational got to uni and realised: Russell Group universities such
attainment was much lower compared to “I can’t relate to as Warwick, Cambridge
black Africans and other ethnic groups. anyone here.” and Birmingham, so you
I had always gotten certain comments Obviously, can actually make an
from my teachers such as: “Oh, I thought university is a institutional difference. FL

2017-18 | FUTURE LEADERS 71