On July 1 we celebrated the General Admission Graduation of our 2023 students.
Principal Lord Woolley commented:
"I’m still on a high from Saturday's very special day. The culmination of 3/4/5 years of study for nearly 200 Homerton students. I have no doubt that these young men and women will do extraordinary things in the world, not just for themselves but also, and more importantly, for wider society."
We talked to some of the students about their experiences at Homerton College:
Sasha Grantham graduated in Education with English and Drama
Having dreamt of following in his father’s footsteps to Oxford, Sasha’s plans changed, and he took two years out teaching at his old school instead. At Homerton Sasha threw himself into student life and is the recipient of the 2023 Westall Award for the student who has contributed most to student life.
“When I finally arrived at Homerton I was older than most other students. There seems to be a bit of a stigma against gap years, but I think the more experiences you have that you can bring to Cambridge, the better.”
Football
“My sport is football. Unfortunately (as anyone who has ever seen me on a football pitch will know), I can’t play, but I like to think that I am quite adept at managing, coaching and administration. Homerton is a very strong sporting College and we have three three men’s football teams and a women and non-binary team."
In Sasha’s second year, he worked with the men’s third team – affectionally known as ‘the Homerton Fourths’ who had been languishing in the 6th division for some time. He thought they could be a little more ambitious, so began managing them creating a sense of momentum, team spirit and community. He would turn up to matches each week in a three-piece suit and stand on the sidelines. He got fans down to support at matches, and at the end of the season the Fourths were promoted to Division 5 for the first time in student memory.
Sasha was also instrumental in setting up HCFC, a unified club for the College.
“One of the first things HCFC did, and the social achievement I am proudest of in my time here, was to field a Women’s and Non-Binary College team (only the second one to exist at the University of Cambridge).” Sasha, (a lifelong Arsenal supporter) reported on university football matches for Varsity and interviewed his sporting hero Tony Adams.
Mental Health
One of Sasha’s other important achievements at Homerton was setting up Let’s Get Men Talking in 2022 having noticed a lack of awareness of men’s mental health issues.
“Mental health issues in young men can often go undetected, and in a place like Cambridge, which can be very pressured, and isolating, awareness is so important. We reflected that it was not just up to the College to facilitate support, but as friends, we also needed to be able to offer support student to student.”
Let’s Get Men Talking began as an informal event; a safe space where students could talk to others about how they were feeling, but only if they wanted to. It has gone from strength to strength and the University wellbeing team have asked us to create a blueprint for other Colleges to use
What’s next?
In an ideal world I would like to pursue a career in sports management, in representation or as an agent - that’s the dream.
