Believe2Achieve: dream big, follow your passion, follow your heart
The Attorney-General Mr Dominic Grieve, QC MP led a panel of high profile guests who gave up their time to encourage students at St Matthew Academy to aim as high as they can, at an evening of inspiration entitled Believe 2 Achieve last night.
Joining Dominic Grieve on stage to share their experiences of life were American media guru Bob Schukai, multi award winning entrepreneurs Nathaniel Peat, Jordan Kensington and Ronke Lawal plus Olympian Stephanie Douglas.
Students were bowled over by what they heard from the speakers, many of whom had overcome difficult upbringings and other hurdles to become successful – such as Nathaniel Peat, who left school with four GCSEs, but went on to get an MSC in systems engineering, become a commercial pilot and now runs a successful business. His message was: “Reach as high as you can, try as hard as you can, knock on the door without stopping, never stop looking and eventually you will break through!”
“All the speakers were inspiring,” says year 11 student Michael Maquieira, “but it was amazing meeting Mr Grieve. I want to be lawyer in the future and he really encouraged me to follow my dreams and work hard.”
“We were very fortunate to get such high profile and inspirational figures all with a similar message of hard work and endeavour. Our GSCE results in 2011 place us as one of the most improved in the whole of the country, bucking the trend of underachievement amongst students from the black inner-city community, where a large proportion of our intake comes from, ” says Deputy Principal and event organiser Martin Nirsimloo
“The youngsters have been given the opportunity to see that the speakers come from normal backgrounds but have invested their talents and are now leaders in their respective fields. Events like this have helped to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship and desire to achieve amongst our students whom we aim to create a new generation of enterprising citizens.”
"Once again St Matthew leads the way in illustrating exactly how you inspire and excite school aged children on their journey into adulthood about all the possibilities of life and a career. This insight into the worlds of these key figures is priceless," says Jessica Huie of Color Blind Cards who sponsored the event. " The exceptional calibre and diversity of the line-up is unquestionable, and I left the event as inspired as the students!"
"Once again St Matthew leads the way in illustrating exactly how you inspire and excite school aged children on their journey into adulthood about all the possibilities of life and a career. This insight into the worlds of these key figures is priceless," says Jessica Huie of Color Blind Cards who sponsored the event. " The exceptional calibre and diversity of the line-up is unquestionable, and I left the event as inspired as the students!"
The event was in association withThe Department of Business Innovation & Skill, INSPIRE>ASPIRE London 2012, Urban Synergy, Color Blind cards and the Twenty Ten Club.
