Today we celebrate our Windrush Generation pioneers.
Those amazing trailblazers that were invited to rebuild post-war Britain and through adversity and oppression built a legacy of excellence and culture that has shaped the fabric of our society. Mike and Dolly Amos were part of that generation. The Amos Bursary was born out of their belief in young people and the power of education to transform lives.
They understood the pernicious and sustained negative impact of discrimination and prejudice on young people and they fought it through instilling pride in and understanding of black history and culture and the desire to be the best.
They were strong, determined and unflinching in their pursuit of excellence. They believed in family and community and were generous and welcoming. The Amos Bursary is built on their values. We are successful because as students we acknowledge the challenges we face and are determined to overcome them. We are prepared to work hard and to give and receive support. We are a huge extended family.
Because they did what they did, we can do what we do.
Mike and Dolly Amos’ Legacy
Find out more about the Legacy of Mike and Dolly Amos by reading our latest Impact Report
Amos Bursary Alumnus and Ambassador, George Imafidon, is awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday List for services to young people and STEM sectors.
The honour recognises his outstanding achievements and service to the community which has had a long-term, significant impact.
Here To Serve
At age 26, George is CEO and co-founder of Motivez, an award-winning youth-led organisation founded in 2015, which empowers underserved young people aged 14 – 25 to access entry-level STEM jobs and become changemakers. They have inspired millions worldwide through their campaigns and directly supported over 9,000 young people in the UK over the past eight years through their grassroots, employability, and advocacy programmes where they develop local STEM changemakers transforming their communities. Their work has been highly commended and supported by the likes of the Royal Family, Sir Lewis Hamilton MBE, Idris Elba OBE and Beyonce.
Purpose Driven
In addition to his work as a social entrepreneur, George also holds the title of the Young Engineer of the Year 2022/23, awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. As an advocate for sustainable motorsport, he works as a Race Engineer with Sir Lewis Hamilton MBE’s X44 Vida Carbon Racing team. The electric off-road race team, competing as part of the Extreme E series, aims to break down the barriers to entry into the motorsport industry and create a more diverse and inclusive environment within the sport. X44 Vida Carbon also uses its platform to draw attention to environmental issues by racing in the world’s most remote locations affected by the climate crisis; and in 2022 won the Extreme E championship to conclude George’s second season with the team.
Better Together
As a diversity champion, George took a gap year from his degree studies and dedicated it to fundraising for the #AB1Million campaign, raising £1 million for the Amos Bursary to ensure other talented young people of African and Caribbean descent have the opportunities that have been afforded to him.
Colleen Amos OBE, CEO of The Amos Bursary said “This is such a well-deserved honour. The work George does with Motivez is an overflow of his passion for improving lives. As an Amos Bursary alumni, he continues to support Amos students. His passion for engineering and work with the Lewis Hamilton Foundation will impact positively on young people for years to come.”
Upon receiving the MBE, George shared “I’m honoured and grateful to receive the MBE for services to engineering, technology and young people. It’s been a privilege to use my voice over the last decade for so many of us who feel unseen, opening up trajectories in STEM for communities traditionally far removed from the industry. I really hope this recognition can open more doors for those that are underserved and goes some way to instilling hope on their journey.”
Achievements
2022: Young Engineer of the Year Award by Royal Academy of Engineering
2022: Extreme E World Champion by Extreme E
2022: Sir George MacFarlane Award by Royal Academy of Engineering
2021: Changing The Narrative Peer Award for Social Equity by The Amos Bursary
2021: Appointed as a Trustee of the Co-op Foundation
2020: The Powerlist Community Award by Powerful Media
2018: Diana Award by The Diana Award
2017: The UK’s Top Black Students by Rare Recruitment
The accolades just keep coming. We can’t wait to see what’s next for the Humanitarian Engineer.
The winners of the Coronation Generation Poster Design Challenge have been announced
Educational charity, Ideas Foundation invited schools, colleges and educators from across the UK to take part in a challenge to encourage young people to get involved in the Coronation of King Charles III by harnessing their creativity.
Throughout April, Ideas Foundation delivered in-person workshops with schools and colleges from across the UK, including Manchester, Scarborough, Belfast, Greenock, Newport and London.
This allowed students to work alongside professional photographers and creatives including Canon Ambassador, Photographer and filmmaker – Clive Booth, Creative and Design lead, Hannah Wood from Wood & Co, Ayo Olubode, Poet and Amos Bursary Alumnus, Jags Singh, Cannon Ambassador, Nigel Stafford from Clear Channel and Robin Wight, founder of Ideas Foundation to develop and hone their skills and build confidence. The judges’ favourite design was created at a workshop hosted by Advertising Agency McCann London.
The Amos Bursary students’ creative process at McCann London for the Coronation Generation Poster Design Challenge
The judge’s favourite design, ‘#KingdomUnited’, was created by students from The Amos Bursary
The design was chosen by the judges because of its ability to do so much by saying very little. Head judge Sir John Hegarty, co-founder of Bartle Bogle Hearty and The Garage Soho, commented, “I wish I had thought of it myself. It’s a brilliant image. It shows how one idea can unite all issues and I love the fact they’ve just inverted Kingdom and United.”
Judges selected a group of ‘winning’ posters, which will be displayed on digital billboards at sites across the UK including Ealing, Liverpool and Glasgow, donated by Clear Channel UK. Alongside Sir John Hegarty The posters were judged by a panel of leading figures from the UK creative and education sectors, which included Kulvinder Johal, regional mentor for London and the South East for the Primary Science Teaching Trust, Simeon Quarrie, pioneering storyteller and technologist and Ben Conway copywriter at McCann London and Ideas Foundation Alumni.
Talent of the future
Conway was inspired by the levels of creativity from all the young people taking part, “To see how the young people have engaged with the Coronation Generation project has been so enlightening, their perspectives as they come of age in the King’s reign, it’s a sign of the times that the United Kingdom is ushering in a new era of hope and vision that we haven’t seen before. These posters they’ve created will be a starting point of King Charles’s history as King, and I’m so happy we’ve been given the platform to validate and uplift the voices of the young people to be a part of that history.”
Heather MacRae, Chief Executive at Ideas Foundation, the award-winning educational charity which champions bringing creativity into the classroom, said “We have all been blown away by the standard of entries and the enthusiasm of schools, having received over 1,000 signups. For many, The King’s Coronation will be the first celebration of this type they will have ever seen. We wanted to ensure young people could share what the occasion means to them. The winning posters give a real insight into how the younger generations view the Monarchy and reveal the yet untapped talent of the future of the UK creative industries.”
Reactions to the win
Colleen Amos OBE, CEO of The Amos Bursary an educational charity that partner with schools to empower British young people of African and Caribbean heritage to excel in education, commented “The Coronation Generation Poster Design Challenge was an amazing opportunity for our students to explore their creativity alongside industry experts. Their design will be displayed to mark this historic event making the whole experience more memorable for all of us. The Coronation values of community, diversity, sustainability, and youth are integral to all that The Amos Bursary does.”
Students involved in the winning poster said:
“I am grateful to have been part of commemorating such an important event in history” – Divine
“I feel honoured to have won as this is such a prestigious event.” – Rebecca
I think it’s nice to have been selected; the feeling that I’ve gone above and beyond in the creative field is something that I’m unlikely to forget.” – Vanessa
“This was a great learning experience for me and fun to do. It’s exciting that our design was chosen by the judges as the winner.” – Erykah
Creativity Wins
Although there can only be one overall ‘judges’ favourite’ design, the real winner is the opportunity itself. Highlighting the importance of creativity and its positive impact on everyone who rolls up their sleeves, embraces the unknown and “gives it a go”.
For more about the Coronation Generation Poster Design Challenge and to see all of the “winning” designs visit Ideas Foundation.
Involved in concept and delivery: Divine Agumba Rebecca Gouro Vanessa Okeke Erykah Worburton Jags Singh – Cannon Ambassador and Photography Tutor for Ideas Foundation
Tonight we marked International Women’s Day by celebrating our very own committee member, Juliet Alexander, at the British Film Institute (BFI). There’s so much more to say about this wonderful evening but it was not lost on us that the title of this 120-minute documentary brilliantly sums up the position of the women of the Amos Bursary.
On Her Shoulders: Black Women in Broadcast Journalism, it screams. And yes whilst the words after the colon give this film more context about Juliet’s personal career, On “Her” Shoulders brilliantly describes where The Amos Bursary began. And by “her” we mean Colleen Amos, by “her”, we mean Baroness Valerie Amos but more than this, by “her” we mean all of the women who since 2009 have been promoting excellence and changing the narrative for young men of African and Caribbean heritage.
But it’s International Women’s Day and we can’t say we were not excited when three years ago young black women were also invited to stand #onhershoulders and The Amos Bursary began shaping futures for the next generation of Black Women in Broadcast Journalism, the next generation of Black Women in STEM, the next generation of Black Women in Law, the next generation of Black Women in __ (fill in the blank!)
So we thought it only right to end the night by celebrating some of the shoulders we stand on, and we mean this is only some, and some of us doing the standing (and strengthening our own shoulders for the future of course). Happy International Women’s Day!
The Amos Bursary launches AMOS Connect, a new professional communications platform providing a significant set of digital features and benefits for our students.
The AMOS Connect platform which was officially launched in July 2022, has been designed to provide every Amos Bursary scholar with a fully hosted website on the ‘.amosbursary.com’ domain. Scholars will have access to their own corner of the internet where they can sell creations, blog their thoughts, showcase a portfolio, share their unique digital CV, or express themselves creatively in some other way. Students have already been developing their sites which are showing great promise. From budding social enterprises like https://ifealabi.amosbursary.com/ to education support services https://nikeajijola.amosbursary.com/ , it is indeed growing into a space for promoting excellence.
This unique offering was made possible by the generosity of Peter Jean-Pean, founder of the IT and digital services platform, WizzyWyp Media. Peter sees this personal gift of his time and expertise as his contribution to changing the narrative for these talented students. “The Amos Bursary gives fantastic support and transforms the lives of young people from African and Caribbean backgrounds. I hope the digital platform that we have developed opens a new chapter for the charity, adding value for the Amos Bursary students and beyond.”
Dowshan Humzah, an Independent Board Director and Strategic Advisor initiated the website project. In his capacity as an advisor to The Amos Bursary, Dowshan remarked from the outset, “This benefit for the Amos Bursary’s students is unique versus any other programme targeting underestimated students or advancing ‘levelling up’ and social mobility in the UK. We have seen how digitisation has advanced during the pandemic and this donation from Peter takes advantage of that. It also serves the growing desire from students to have a digital presence promoting themselves, their interests, passions, business or recreational pursuits.”
The Amos Bursary Co-founder and CEO, Colleen Amos OBE noted, “Our students spend five years on one of our triple track programmes as Scholars, Associates or Progressives. We currently have over 350 students who have the opportunity to benefit from this offer which is value at approximately £1700 per student. We are extremely thankful to Mr Jean-Pean for his generous gift that provides such a relevant proposition for our students and excited to see the successful digital ventures they launch on the platform.”
Phase two of the project is currently in Beta testing and is set to deliver even more communication-enhancing features to The Amos Bursary community.
We are so proud to announce that Extreme-E racing pioneer, social mobility advocate and Amos Alumni Ambassador George Imafidon has received two of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s highest accolades – Young Engineer of the Year and the Sir George Macfarlane Medal.
The award and medal, recognise the potential of engineers working in the UK who have demonstrated excellence in the early stage of their career. George received the medal – named after wartime radar pioneer Sir George Macfarlane – at the Academy Awards Dinner in London on Tuesday 12 July 2022.
George Imafidon is a Performance Engineer working with Sir Lewis Hamilton HonFREng’s Team X44 electric racing team to design Extreme-E race cars. The motorsport team, founded in September 2020, aims to draw attention to environmental issues by racing in remote locations affected by the climate crisis.
George’s fascination with mechanics stems from his formative years spent fixing bikes for his friends in South East London, a pastime that would eventually lead him to graduate from University College London with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.
In addition to his E-racing career, George is also CEO and co-founder of Motivez, an app designed to help young people from underrepresented backgrounds access personalised opportunities, particularly within science, technology, engineering and maths.
George’s commitment to platforming underrepresented voices was further evidenced by his appointment in September 2020 to the Board of Commissioners for Sir Lewis Hamilton’s Commission set up jointly with the Royal Academy of Engineering to address the underrepresentation of Black people in UK motorsport. As a young Black engineer, George was able to advise and guide the Commission’s work, introduce the research team to key stakeholders and young engineers for interviews and steer the final report that enabled the Commission to achieve high public profile and political attention for this issue.
George took a gap year during his university studies to fundraise for the #AB1Million campaign, raising £1 million for the Amos Bursary to ensure talented young people of African and Caribbean descent have the opportunity to excel in education and beyond.
George has received many prestigious awards and accolades including a Princess Diana Award, Accenture Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, Top 10 Future Leaders Award, UK Top 10 Black Students award and features in the 2021 Powerlist. He is also featured in the 2021 series of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s This is Engineering videos, designed to encourage young people from all backgrounds to follow what they love doing into a career in engineering.
Colleen Amos OBE, CEO and co-founder of the Amos Bursary, says “George is passionate about building products that improve lives and communities and over the past five years, he has worked across engineering, technology, consulting, and finance with firms such as Google, Rolls-Royce, J.P Morgan, BCG and now with Team X44. He is a firm believer in creating opportunities where people see obstacles and ensuring everywhere he goes is better than he found it.”
Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE FREng, Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Committee, says: “Our Young Engineers of the Year are pushing back the boundaries of modern engineering and creating genuinely new economic opportunities in the process. They are also fantastic role models for any young person considering whether to join the engineering profession. I congratulate them all.”
George speaks about receiving the award on ITV News 3rd Aug 2022
Suvera has secured £5 million in its first public seed extension financing round led by Morningside Ventures, allowing them to reach thousands more patients. As stated by the startup “The investment will allow the company to continue to invest in our people, and technology to reach more patients and partners across the UK”.
Born from an idea by Amos Alumnus and Ambassador Dr Ivan Beckley, to tackle the lack of information on medication instructions in 2016, to developing a virtual care platform contracted by GPs surgeries across the country, Suvera is making its mark in the liminal space of medicine and technology.
Suvera is a unique virtual care platform. They help general practitioners virtually manage patients with hypertension and diabetes, using a dedicated remote care team and its in-house technology, resulting in 20,000 patients from across 40 GPs being supported.
This announcement brings the total backing for the company to £7 million, with previous support from Google’s Black Founders Fund, Calm/Storm Ventures, Ascension Ventures and Angel Investors including; Stephen Bourke, Matthew Miller, Chris Kelly, Colin Salmon and others.
At the Bursary, we are proud of the way our alumni are bringing solutions to the world’s problems and leading the way for change. With the mission Suvera has set out on, the sentiment for leading change remains true, as it continues to pursue a world where managing your health conditions is no longer burdensome.
We are pleased to announce the launch of AMOS News Network in partnership with CNBC International.
This is a new, year-long development and educational programme, continuing the long-term collaboration between our two organisations. The programme will offer Amos students the opportunity to get an inside look at how the news is made and gain first-hand knowledge of journalism and financial news from experts in the field at CNBC International.
CNBC is the leading global network of live business and financial news, information, and analysis, reporting directly from the major financial markets around the globe. In addition to the global TV network, its award-winning content is available on a host of digital platforms and services, including CNBC.com, CNBC PRO and across social channels.
The focus of the programme is aimed at providing students with a range of media-based skills including editorial, production, copywriting, editing, social media and marketing. Additionally, CNBC employees will provide mentorship and guidance tailored to the students’ needs and interests.
Six students with a special interest in media have been selected from across The Bursary. Moyin Babalola, Becklyna Gyampoh, Maame Oppong-Agyare, Eden Ehioghae, Kwaku Boateng and Kwabena Osei will create content in a format of their choice, with the support of AMOS Alumni Max Auer, Xavier Hamilton and a team of CNBC employees and resources. The content will be shared through our social pages and the students will be able to use this content to build their editorial portfolios.
John Casey, President and Managing Director of CNBC International, said: ‘I have been involved with The Amos Bursary for a number of years and having mentored some of the talented pupils of the Bursary, it became clear that a career in media was not something that many aspired to. The team and I at CNBC wanted to create an aspirational programme where students can learn about news reporting and publishing, and the different career tracks available within the media sector.’
Colleen Amos, Co-founder and CEO of The Amos Bursary, added: “Having the AMOS News Network in partnership with CNBC offers our young people an opportunity that will transform their lives. In such a competitive field, the chance to work and learn from professionals in close proximity is priceless.”
The programme will run until the spring of 2023 and culminate with a closing event.
Today marks the second anniversary of the passing of George Floyd and we take a moment to reflect on his untimely murder in a police attack.
In case there is anyone who does not know, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was apprehended for an alleged offence in Minneapolis, USA. Following his apprehension, four police officers took a series of actions that not only violated his rights but lead to his neck being pinned against the ground, whilst he pleaded for his life, for eight minutes and forty-six seconds until he eventually passed away.
It took little under nine minutes for a police officer, Derick Chauvin to take his life. Nine minutes that should have been used to make the rational and moral decision to drive Mr Floyd to the police station for further questioning, yet instead they were spent murdering and allowing his murder, despite bystanders crying and screaming for them to stop.
There is no denying that the treatment Mr Floyd received was unjust; regardless of whatever crime he may have been accused of committing there is no excuse to murder anyone, let alone due to racial stereotypes associated with the colour of their skin.
While this day signposts an untimely and melancholic event, it also reinforces the mission of charities such as The Amos Bursary. Our mission seeks to help change the negative narrative associated with being young and Black. To help others see that we are so much more than a code like ‘IC3’ or a statistic in the number of people not going into higher education. That we can make our dreams a reality and not feel like we have to be held down by the clichés associated with being black.
The AMOS Bursary community that has been formed over the past 13 years facilitates and champions the success of ambitious Black British men and women from underprivileged backgrounds. It offers us empowerment and the ability to develop confidence in ourselves and our skill sets through workshops, networking events and so much more. Being part of The Bursary and its excellence program has made us increasingly confident in our abilities by the minute.
It has often been said that Mahatma Gandhi famously said “Be the change you want to see in the world”. In fact what he said was “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.” As AMOS Bursary scholars we can say with confidence, that the skills and mindset that are being developed in us are helping us to become pioneers of change within our community. We’re not waiting to see what others do. We’re moving and we’re shaping futures that transform stereotypes about young black people and that allow students and professionals of African and Caribbean heritage to have the same opportunities as their white counterparts.
Article by Oluwabukunmi Oloyede and Daniel Bateren
Discover how The AMOS Bursary students and alumni have been inspired to change the narrative.
Yesterday four AMOS brothers were part of a round table discussion at University College, Oxford hosted by Baroness Amos of Brondesbury with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales as the guest of honour.
Amos alumni and ambassador Isaiah Wellington-Lynn, alongside current Amos scholars Wayne Gouro, Kwabena Osei and Leon Gidigbi discussed key issues surrounding access to Oxford and Cambridge for underrepresented groups and shared their own personal journeys of applying to and being at Oxford. The Prince took great interest in understanding their varied perspectives and the challenges they faced which included everything from misconceptions of Oxford, to lack of guidance and encouragement.
They also reflected on critical things that have helped them on their journeys such as the UNIQ Oxford program and The AMOS Bursary, and they explored ideas of what could be done to improve access further.
Isaiah’s PhD research paper “The anthropology of belonging, meritocracy and privilege” was of particular interest as Prince Charles is currently thinking a lot about how to leverage his network to better support young people pre, during and post-university, and those who take alternative paths. Isaiah said of the visit, “He was very inquisitive and managed to get me to talk about a lot of different things from basketball, my £64,000 crowdfunding campaign and my upbringing to the London Interdisciplinary School, the challenges of siloed education, and a university’s duty to validate contemporary jobs and career paths.”
Yesterday these young men left the residence of Baroness Amos feeling privileged to have had a seat at such an influential table alongside the future monarch. Today they got their heads back down and continued the necessary work to build the tables that they can invite their younger AMOS brothers and sisters to sit at in the future.
When future kings meet the future king great things can happen!
Get insight into what drives our amazing co-founder and patron Baroness Valerie Amos in her Becoming X interview
