A high-flying former Holmfirth High School pupil has been selected for a mentoring scheme to encourage students from less privileged backgrounds to apply for one of the world’s best universities.
Tom Beaven, 18, of Holmfirth, didn’t know anyone who had gone to Cambridge University when he was considering higher education, and he doubted that he would fit the image of a stereotypical Cambridge student.
But his mind changed when Cambridge admissions staff visited his school.
Tom is now a first year at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he studies history.
Now Tom, who went to Greenhead College, is helping prospective new students as part of a shadowing scheme organised by Cambridge University Student Union.
The scheme allows young people who might not otherwise have considered applying to Cambridge to be partnered with a current undergraduate and experience what student life is really like over the course of three days.
During their visit to Cambridge, shadowing students get to go to lectures and social events while living and eating in a university college.
Tom said: “The scheme is important and decisive in encouraging people to apply to Cambridge.
“Many people where I come from see Cambridge as very far away, probably inordinately expensive, and socially exclusive.
“The shadowing scheme shows that in reality people from all sorts of backgrounds come here to live and study.”
