My name is Peter and I was here at St
John's College with some other students
here at Cambridge University starting
the campaign #BlackMenofCambridgeUniversity.
I just wanted to be part of a
campaign that really challenges the
stereotype of what a Cambridge
University student looks like because
essentially perception is key to what
happens in real life if you do not see
people like yourself at such an
institution then you won't apply to it,
it's quite simple a lot of the time. I
mean I applied to this University
because I saw people who looked like
myself on access programmes and I feel
that in this day and age a lot of
positions of power are still firmly reliant
on the institutions and backgrounds you
came from, whether that's academic
institutions or employment-based
institutions, so we need more people like
myself and other people from diverse
backgrounds to fill these institutions,
if they want to, so we can essentially
change how society looks like
we can structurally change the face
of society today. It's also important
that people understand the fact that at
Cambridge you can study what you enjoy
you don't essentially, particularly in
this country, need for your degree and
profession to match, we don't necessarily
need to do that. I'm at Cambridge
University reading Theology, Religion and
Philosophy and if I had one pound for
every time someone asked me, 'do you want
to be the first black Archbishop of Canterbury?'
Then I'd be a millionaire literally.
Hi I'm Bez, I'm an HSPS student doing
Politics and Anthropology and I do a
lot of fashion and sports on the side.
I was just really shocked like really aghast
and I'm just like loads of people,
like Stormzy (supported us) and
like I was going on Channel 4 and BBC and
loads my friends from other universities
were messaging me being like,
'Oh I just saw you on BBC, I just saw you on this.'
It was just really crazy, I was just really shocked
and surprised, it was really hard
for it to fully sink in.
I got like spotted on the street
twice and I was just like:
'I'm a celeb, this is the life.'
This year I finished running a fashion show in
Cambridge, it was a charity fashion show.
We had various designers like Dolce &
Gabbana and designers in Central Saint Martins.
There's different people
come down to attend the event and
we had the international editor of Vogue come down,
press like CNN and also local news, press
come down, it's a really amazing thing to do.
Organising the whole process was really, really fun
and just seeing everything
come together and the whole creative
aspect and different creative contributions
 from various members of the University.
To be at Cambridge for me,
I feel like it's a massive honour,
I still feel sometimes when I come
back, I'm driving back to Cambridge for term,
I still feel kinda shocked as to the fact
that I'm studying in Cambridge and
there's still some supervisions where I'm
just having discussions with like
renowned academics and the access to
such a high-quality education is
something I just never take for granted really.
Hi, my name is Ore and I took the
#BlackManofCambridgeUniversity photos.
Aside from doing my degree,
I've just finished being President of
the African-Caribbean Society which has
taken up most of my past year.
I've absolutely loved it.
After the picture we released an access plan of action
where we basically said all
the plans the ACS had in terms
of improving access for black students
to University. So we launched our
inaugural access conference and we had
60 high-achieving black students
all get together, we ran subject-intensive workshops.
We had Director of Admissions,
Dr Sam Lucy, come and speak to them,
it was an incredible day.
We had our mentoring scheme
which ran, started in July and basically ran
up until interview season where
students from the society were mentoring
prospective students. I think it's also
kind of led to everyone else wants to
show what the situation is
like at their universities as well.
Oxford did one, we've had one of King's, lots
of London universities, Harrow School did one
and again I think there is this
sense of everyone wanted to join in
because it was kind of like the euphoria
but it was also a sense of well if
you're gonna highlight how much
of a diversity issue there is
then actually have this conversation
properly, it's not just a Cambridge
problem, it's something that we're seeing
at top institutions across the country.
So I think there's a sense of we've
built something really, really important here
The society's developed and
grown so much, that obviously passing
that on there is kind of a sense of nervousness
of how that legacy is going to survive you
but I am excited, I'm hopeful
that the next committee here have got
it covered and I think the fact that I
still get to be involved
is really nice to help that continuity.
