"I am the first in my family to go to university and the recipient of a Reuben Scholarship. I am also the first person from my high school to go to Cambridge. I went to an ordinary comprehensive, and not long after I started there, we had a new headteacher. He was very inspirational: keen for us all to do well. He led the other teachers — who were great too — in encouraging all the students to find our dreams and follow them.

The Sutton Trust supported me in attending a summer school at Cambridge before I did my A-levels. It was the first time I visited Cambridge and I found the magnificence and the beauty of the buildings awe-inspiring. I was nervous, but I met a number of other school students from ordinary backgrounds at that summer school, which was brilliant because I saw that we had the potential to be accepted and that we had the capacity to belong and to thrive here. I also met some undergraduates already at Cambridge who were very helpful, and also not so different from me.

I discovered I loved psychology, so I knew what I wanted to study, and where. I was supported by fantastic teachers who helped me with the forms and talked me through mock interviews. I was so thrilled when I received notice of my place here, and I think my parents could not have been more proud. They had always taught me to believe in the power of education, and they absolutely believed I could do it. They were worried though, about their ability to support me through it.

It was nerve-wracking starting my first term, but I was secure in the knowledge that I didn’t have to worry about my living expenses, as my scholarship covers all of that, and also goes so far as to pay for extra-curricular activities. That’s very important because it means I can really belong here. I don’t have to miss out on things like sport or attending my College May Ball because I don’t have the money."