Our alumni support students following in their footsteps 

Here, we look back at this year of success, and highlight the different ways our alumni and friends choose to support our students. 

Alumni Ambassadors

The last 12 months have been a record-breaking year for volunteering at the University of London, not least because an additional 48 alumni have joined our Alumni Ambassador programme, giving their time to support those students who are following in their footsteps. 

Relaunched in 2020, our Alumni Ambassador programme has had incredible support from our alumni. Our dedicated Alumni Ambassadors offer so much to the University; along with helping prospective and current students, these alumni have also donated their time to participate in other University projects, including webinars, talks, podcasts, and panel discussions. 

Careers events 

We are fortunate to have a global community of alumni who are truly experts in their fields, and who are also prepared to support our students by speaking at events. In June 2022, three alumni took part in our UOL Alumni Voice: Law careers webinar.

Elias Ghanem’s insight and expertise in his field was an invaluable addition to this event for students. Having forged a successful career in law and founded his own law firm in 1997, he delivered world-class perspectives on a number of fascinating topics that were of great interest to the students in attendance. Jordy Lai Fu Hsuan added his knowledge on intellectual property to the discussion, and Caroline King shared her insightful focus on human rights law, criminology and legal theory. 

Our alumni have so much to offer our current students, and their advice and guidance is an invaluable resource that allows our students to flourish. We are so grateful to all those who have lent their time to support students through the Alumni Ambassador programme, or by speaking at one of our events. 

Sharing successes 

We are honoured to be able to feature the careers and achievements of our alumni through our website and publications, spreading awareness of what can be accomplished with a University of London degree (and a lot of hard work!) 

UoL alumnae Branishka Lewis and Dr Tsitsi Monera-Penduka have both used their experience, and the knowledge gained through their degrees, to work in the field of AIDS treatment and research. They have dedicated their professional lives to combatting not only the illness, but the stigma attached to the illness too. 

We were delighted to showcase their work in two interviews for the University’s website, to mark World AIDS Day on 1 December 2021. In the articles, Branishka spoke about her work as Acting Director of Bahamas’ National AIDS/HIV Centre, and Tsitsi discussed her innovative work in researching the link between herbal and traditional medicines when treating AIDS patients. It was especially inspiring to hear about their advocacy on behalf of their patients, as well as their optimism, despite the inherent challenges of their field. You can read more at: bit.ly/Branishka-Lewis and bit.ly/Tsitsi-Monera-Penduka 

So many of our alumni have inspirational stories to tell, and featuring them in our publications and other communications can inspire others to change their lives and careers. Thank you to all those who have supported the University this year by sharing their story.

Alumni Groups

The University of London is grateful to our Alumni Groups around the world, who provide important advice and perspectives to inform much of the work that we do. We are especially proud of the activities of our USA, Singapore and Hong Kong groups, who have been invaluable in our efforts to create an engaged alumni community. 

In January 2022, we were delighted to collaborate with the Hong Kong group to create a virtual event titled Resilience and Optimism: Cross-Boundary Collaboration for a Sustainable Future. The event was attended by alumni living in Hong Kong, as well as those based in Singapore and Malaysia, and it can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Many of the individual committee members of our Alumni Groups go above and beyond by volunteering for the University in other capacities too. For example, USA Alumni Group committee member Ruwan Fonseka gives his time as an Alumni Ambassador and has contributed a podcast for our Careers Service, while fellow committee members Tanzie Turel and Michael Young provided atricles for a recent edition of the University’s WC1E magazine.

Another USA Alumni Group committee member, Jesse Cantrill, has been a significant source of knowledge due to his experience in fundraising, and serves as the University’s representative to the British Schools and Universities Foundation.

This year, we were thrilled to host our first cross-continent meeting between our Singapore and USA alumni groups, and we hope to be able to build on this as our groups develop.

Thank you to all those alumni and friends who so generously give their time to support the University in this way.