Student Applications are Open: Boys & Girls can apply…

The Amos Bursary will be accepting applications from young women and men to join the programme from the 17th of November 2020, from academically able, British students of African and Caribbean descent who attend state schools and colleges in London, and are in Year 12.

Applications for The Amos Bursary 2021 are open now for year 12 students.

 Apply here https://www.amosbursary.org.uk/students/

The Amos Bursary will be accepting applications to join the programme from the 17th of November 2020, from academically able, British students of African and Caribbean descent who attend state schools and colleges in London, and are in Year 12. 

Since 2009, The Amos Bursary has been helping Britain’s talented young men of African and Caribbean heritage, who attend state schools from challenging environments, fulfil their academic potential, attend top universities, secure good professional jobs and give back to society.

We are pleased to announce that for the first time the programme will be increasing its intake and accepting young women. The programme will mirror that currently offered to the young men, with some sessions specifically tailored for your women in the 21st century.

We are looking for applicants studying all disciplines including the Humanities, the Arts and STEM subjects. 

We are also looking to increase our support for some students who are unsuccessful in the competitive selection process for the full programme.

Read more:

Why apply? 

We provide them with social skills, and networks to help them achieve their career ambitions. The programme empowers the students to understand their true worth and develop the skills to help them make informed choices for their futures. We work in partnership with Universities looking to recruit and retain high calibre young men and employees looking to diversify their workforce.

In our 11 years of operation, 100% of our graduates have embarked on postgraduate study one year after graduation or are currently employed at leading organisations such as JP Morgan, Google, Google Deepmind, KPMG Goldman Sachs, Atkins Global, Baringa Global, , Linklaters LLP, The Home Office, The NHS, Unilever – among others. Some graduates have further embarked on entrepreneurial journeys, starting their own businesses.

We look forward to Promoting Excellence, Shaping Futures and  changing  the narrative for young people of African and Caribbean descent in the UK today.

After participating in the programme we expect our students to graduate and:

  • complete their degree courses graduating with Firsts/2:1
  • are educated, mentored and ready to become the UK’s next generation of quality employees in any career of their choice
  • have unparalleled access to unique and life changing activities and experiences
  • have accessed an increased their range of experiential and networking opportunities
  • have accessed Internship/work experience required for robust CV’s
  • nurtured and developed the skills, confidence, and resolve required for access to the workplace 
  • have had unparalleled global and commercial awareness with the opportunity to participate in overseas educational and work experiences
  • have assistance and support to secure scholarships and secure financial assistance while at University.  

For more information on our application criteria and to apply please go to https://www.amosbursary.org.uk/students/

Happy AMOS students

Kenny Behind BBC £10 million over 10 years

Kenny is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of ClearView Research Ltd, which specialises in research focussing on young people and underrepresented communities. The only black person on the board, In July he was instrumental in securing £10 million over 10 years making a difference to improve the lives of young black people in the UK. He said “I am excited about this new fund and I truly believe that this is the beginning of greater things to come as we continue on our mission to support children and young people most in need and create a greater focus on the challenges faced by young black people in the UK.”

In addition to his role on BBC Children in Need’s Board of Trustees, Kenny is a Trustee of several other charities, a member of the advisory board of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust and co-founder of a prison programme called ‘My Brother’s Keeper’.

Unilever summer study programme

The Amos Bursary had the pleasure of partaking in a three-week, six session, virtual program, led by Unilever, geared towards understanding more about the FMCG market, the different functions within Unilever itself and a few sessions oriented around improving employability, self-development and wellbeing in the workplace.

One session allowed an in depth look into the departments at Unilever and how they operate. Students were given the opportunity to ask questions to gauge a team they’d suit best.

“I especially enjoyed learning about how Unilever is navigating the environmental impact of its products. The programme has definitely deepened my interest in entering the FMCG industry.” – Kojo Osei Kofi (2018 cohort)

“Unilever gave us advice on how to also improve our soft skills in the workplace, with sessions catering to improve health and wellbeing, as well as personality types and feedback. The experience was truly beneficial and every session was just a window (of opportunity) to learn something new!” – Samuel Olajugba (2019 cohort)

My personal takeaways come from the final three sessions, learning to analyse the components of my personality and better adapt my workstyle, understanding the correct environment to give constructive feedback and to better tailor my CV to the role I apply for.

Ayo Olubode, University of Warwick

AB Alumni joins Lewis Hamilton to grow diversity in engineering and F1

George Imafidon, Co-founder of Motivez, and Royal Academy of Engineering Scholar said: “I’m excited about The Hamilton Commission and I truly believe that this is the beginning of greater things to come, as we continue on our mission to support more young people into engineering. Inclusion and excellence go hand in hand. Lewis Hamilton has used his platform as the first driver of colour and six-Time Formula One World Champion to advocate for greater diversity in motorsport and I’m very pleased to be working with him to make this a reality.”

Official Website: https://www.hamiltoncommission.org

 

FIRST CLASS SUCCESS FOR AMOS BURSARY STUDENTS – 2020

It has been another incredible year for The Amos Bursary (AB) with 100% of students  achieving a first or upper second class degree, of which 50% achieved a first class honours degree and one student qualified as a medical doctor.

At a time when Government figures show serious disparities in academic attainment between white and black students, with only 56 per cent of black students achieving a First or 2:1, compared to 80 per cent of their white peers* the impact of the Bursary in nurturing talent and  promoting excellence, has never been clearer. Nationally, the percentage of students achieving a first class honours in 2018/19 was 28%.

Amos Bursary graduating students have secured places on graduate schemes at Barings and Barclays,  one is already practicing at a London Hospital, two are currently on internships with Goldman Sachs and Tech Consultancy Sparta Global and three  students will  spend the next year working on their startups, before taking up graduate positions in 2021.

Currently Black male graduates in London are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as their white counterparts and their are concerns that this figure will rise given the challenges to the economy of the coronavirus pandemic.

Colleen Amos OBE, and CEO/Founder of the Amos Bursary  said “This is truly outstanding.  I am proud of the achievements of our graduates, young men who have demonstrated that the Amos Bursary approach works and should be supported. Through a targeted approach focused on skills development, supportive mentorship and networking we have not only narrowed the attainment gap at university, we have surpassed it and opened up employment opportunities on graduation. “

Our young men  have worked hard giving up their weekends and  holidays to participate in the  five-year programme. Our focus is on aspiration and talent aimed at addressing and overcoming the discrimination and inequality they face on a daily basis. We encourage them to grasp the   opportunities  while they are at university and  expect them to continue to contribute to the Bursary and the wider society as they grow and develop. Sharing their knowledge and experience with younger students is a key element of our approach.  They are leaders and role models to younger students, members of AB committees, and facilitators on our personal and professional  development programmes. Their success is well deserved.”

Colleen Amos awarded an OBE

There is no-one more noteworthy in this year’s list, who has transformed the lives of hundreds of young men of British African Caribbean heritage who have the academic ability to attend university but are held back by other factors, than Colleen Amos.

Awarded an OBE, Colleen is a member of the Windrush generation who turned her passion for education and tackling underachievement by founding the Amos Bursary. Through her expert skills of bringing together elite universities and our leading international firms, providing internships and personal development programmes, she has transformed the live of countless young men to secure professional careers and by developing them into our country’s future leaders.

Ivan at Google Deepmind

Around this exact time last year, I shared the most amazing news. DeepMind Health had offered to sponsor my MSc studies, with an accompanying offer to join the company as an intern once my studies had finished. One year later, MSc completed and internship complete, it feels only fitting to complete this chapter as it started — with a blog post. This time, though, I’ll be sharing a brief reflection on my experiences from this year, from analysing complex health data for the first time to understanding how DeepMind functions from the inside. 

Stratford To Harvard

Isaiah Wellington Lynn, who was brought up in a lone parent family in east London, graduated this summer and has now been selected from 31,000 applicants to be one of just 140 interns on a prestigious Silicon Valley scheme aimed at creating tech entrepreneurs of the future.

He was forced to crowdfund the fees for the elite and highly-selective year-long Harvard visiting undergraduate programme after a charity scholarship fell through last summer when he was in the second year of his anthropology degree at University College London (UCL).

After an intensive four-month selection process to win the place at Harvard, he refused to accept defeat and set up a website, #StratfordtoHarvard, and YouTube channel. He raised the £65,000 in a month from 700 donors across the UK, USA, Spain, Canada, Jamaica and Uganda.