INSIDE: › Equality campaigner Lord Ouseley gives us his thoughts on making it and racism in football

› Boys of the military We talk to two young men about their future army career

› Those who can, teach We talk with two teachers, one at the beginning of his career and the other at the end

› Young entrepreneur We talk to a young single mother about how her creativity is bringing social change

Black role models showing the younger generation the way

MENTORING EDUCATION PARENTING LIFE SKILLS ROLE MODELS ... Special supplement › page 21 - 28

››››››REACH UPMAY 10 - 16, 2012

| THE VOICE MAY 10-16, 201222 REACH UP

After some 12 months of encouraging, mo-tivating and inspiring young people, espe-

cially black boys and young men, in small groups it was decided to engage much larger groups.

The Careers Conference, rolled out during the Easter break in April, was our big idea for achieving this.

Here are some memorable comments we received from young people, and their par-ents or carers:• My son liked it and there were people who spoke and en-couraged him; • This was just what I needed right now; • A fantastic day, very proud to be a part of it; • Lord Ouseley was an excel-lent guest speaker who provid-ed class and inspiration which

can only help young Black males; • It was an excellent, encour-aging, inspiring conference; • These workshops were in-spiring for teenagers allowing them to look at different op-

tions; • This conference should be held periodically and in local communities.

We were delighted to attract almost 400 young people, their parents and some teachers. Everyone gained the oppor-tunity to interact with around 30 professional men from the black community (whose skill-sets included engineers, busi-ness owners, doctors, lawyers, university lecturers, surveyors, HR experts, senior educators).

Visitors also took advantage of our unique, experiential

workshops, The Perfect 10, in which everyone obtained in-formation, advice and guid-ance for becoming successful socially and educationally; and were alerted to the advantage gained by young people when their parents are engaged in their development - hence our decision to found Smart Chil-dren Clubs, to involve parents in simple steps to improve their children’s life-chances

Visitors also interacted with several private sector firms such as Carnaby Erp and Learners Cloud (IT experts),

Rare Recruitment (experts in placing high achieving Black graduates), Altran Technolo-gies ( structural engineering experts); established mentor-ing groups ACES Youth Project and Black Boys Can Associa-tion; and Welbeck College and others.

We noted with delight that 90% of respondents rated our careers conference as good or very good, and many asked us to hold more.

I could not end without ex-pressing my thanks, on behalf of Reach Society, to those who

helped us to make the event truly extraordinary, such as our patron, Lord Ouseley, for his outstanding message to the young people.

I would also thank The Royal Navy for the use of their mag-nificent facilities, HMS Presi-dent, St Katherine’s Docks; and our strategic partner organi-sations - ACES Youth Project, Excell3 and Runnymede Trust. Our deepest thanks are due to the cohort of professional men and women, who volunteered time to encourage, motivate and inspire our young people.

Above all, Reach Society is grateful to The Voice for the huge interest and enthusiasm it has shown in our work to build viable connections to improve the future of our young people.

¢Dr Dwain Neil, Chairman of Reach Society

Introduction from the Chairman of Reach Society

PLAY TIME: A young boy rebuilds a model navy ship

INSPIRING THE YOUNG: Dr Dwain Neil

Reach Society is a social enterprise that started operations eighteen months ago. It is the brainchild of a small group of professional men who are passionate about reaching back into our community to inspire our young people.

Supplement Editor - Bart Chan Email: bart.chan@gvmedia.co.uk

23MAY 10-16, 2012 THE VOICE | REACH UP

By Bart Chan

When Lord Ouseley takes the stage everybody listens. The parliamentar-

ian tells the audience about how he got where he is, some-one from the crowd asks, “If there’s anyone piece of advice you could give, what would it be?” Ouseley barely hesitates in answering, “Work hard.”

After Ouseley has informed the audience about his origins and personal experiences in facing institutional racism, he talks to The Voice about the event. “Reach [Society] is do-

ing an important job, it pro-vides positive role models, and we hear a lot of negativity, so it’s good to hear about achiev-ers.” The racial equality and diversity campaigner says it is events like these that “help young people become con-fident, making communities stronger and British society healthier. It is a triumph over negativity.”

Ouseley, who began his ca-reer in local government, feels it is particularly important young black children are given the chances and opportunities other children enjoy; “All peo-ple need to feel a sense of self-worth, and young people need

to get as much encouragement as possible.”

One campaign that Lord Ouseley is closely associated with is ‘Kick It Out’, the anti-discrimination organisation of which he is chairman. Kick It Out, set up to tackle and ul-timately remove racism from football, has had to deal with the spotlight on racism in foot-ball recently – the Luis Suarez and John Terry incidents, not to mention the considerable Twitter controversies, all have shown an ugly side to the beautiful games still lingers.

“Clearly employers have a responsibility,” says Ouseley about football clubs disciplin-ing their players and oversee-ing their fans, “they have to have a moral code.” Kick It Out’s chairman is disappoint-ed by the new spate of rac-ism cases, “Action needs to be taken where the code has been breached. We think all the reg-ulations are in place, it’s just the application of these regula-tions which proves difficult.

“I welcome the findings of the Suarez and Evra case,” he

says, but is unwilling to com-ment on the alleged comments made by John Terry to Anton Ferdinand, as the case is ongo-ing. When weighing up free-dom of speech and people’s right to air their airs via social media, such as Twitter, Ouseley says the most important aspect is “consistency.” He says, “We have to understand the full cir-cumstances and all the factors, before we can say whether the punishment is very harsh or le-nient, but it doesn’t make sense if punishments are inconsist-ent.”

He remains resolute in the law dealing with abhorrent content when made public; “If abusive, racist, homophobic or sexist comments are made in the public domain, they need to be prosecuted.” Ouse-ley offers a warm handshake and big smile, then goes off to share his thoughts with the young black people attending the event, who live in a very different country to the one Ouseley grew up in, a change in which he has played a sig-nificant part.

“My IV listens when I talk. He helps me to be positive about my life. He’s always there and we have laugh.” (James, 15)James has come a long way since he was “matched” with a volunteer In-dependent Visitor through Action for Children. By the time we met him he had already been involved with the police and his reputation as a ‘trou-blemaker’ was spreading through his neighbourhood.

As a first step the project went to visit James; explained what he could get out of the scheme and spoke about the sort of mentor he might like. One of our volunteers, David, shared similar interests and could offer James the sort of support he needed, so we introduced them. That was over a year ago.

“James is a great young man. We started out just having fun, getting to know each other – going to the park, kicking a football around, going to the cinema, finding places to go and eat, simple stuff really, “ says David.

“There was never any pressure to talk about the ‘serious stuff’. We would just have fun and chat about all sorts – football, TV, anything really. But James knew that if he wanted to he could talk to me and I would be supportive.

James would often talk about be-ing let down by this person and that person and that it was really difficult for him to trust people. I never tried to ‘achieve’ that but just kept on being that reliable, consistent person that he

could have a laugh with. He’s a really bright lad and has a lot of ideas and plans about what he wants to be but just needed that bit of space to express them.

A year on I wouldn’t say that we’re totally there, but I feel proud and privi-leged that I have been there for him and have no intention of stopping now!”

The support IVs offer can range from just going out and having fun to more structured and targeted help – Each young person is an individual and it always depends on what that young person’s needs are. Children in care of-ten have to deal with regular change and a lack of stability, which is why it’s incredibly important that there is someone independent (hence the name) and consistent in their lives that can give that young person a chance to build a positive relationship with someone over a long period of time. Something that most of us take for granted.

And what do volunteers get out of it? David says, “I never went into this expecting to get a specific reward or gratification, but it’s been a thoroughly fun experience. The most amazing re-ward was to see the change in James and how he has grown as a person. To know I’ve played some part in help-ing to give him the space to find out what he wants in life, and to stay out of trouble is more than I could have hoped for.”

• The London Independent Visi-tors project supports children in care across London linking them with vol-unteer befrienders who aim to support a young person’s emotional wellbeing by developing a long term friendship with them whilst engaging with their interests/hobbies.

• Action for Children supports and speaks out for the most vulnerable and neglected children and young people, for as long as it takes to make a differ-ence in their lives.

• Action for Children works with the most vulnerable and neglected children and young people: whose families need support; are in care; who is disabled; who experience severe dif-ficulties in their lives.

• Children are at the centre of eve-rything Action for Children does. For more information on our work, please visit www.actionforchildren.org.uk.

The lord of race relations

Always there/Actions speak louder than words

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Lord Ouseley opens Reach Society’s careers conference at St. Katherine’s Dock, HMS President

Could you befriend a young person in care?

Young people in the care system need stable and positive role models

We’re particularly looking for men to volunteer to offer that support.

If you have experience of being in care yourself we’d like to hear from you but if you haven’t – and you’re commited about mentoring a young person – give us a call.

Full training and support will be provided. Training to start Summer 2012

To find out more contact The London Independent Visitors Project

Email: LondonIV@actionforchildren.org.uk Tel: 020 7254 9408

| THE VOICE MAY 10-16, 201224 REACH UP

By Bart Chan

Many youngsters do not know what kind of career they want in later life, but not

Ben Bolton and Roberto Thom-as. The two 17 year-olds know exactly what they want to be, and their education is provid-ing them with a precise skills set for them to excel in their fu-ture professions. They are set to become engineers in the army, and are preparing for it by studying at Welbeck College, a sixth form military school. “I wanted to join Welbeck and then the army because it will

be an adventure,” says Bolton. Thomas agrees, “I want to trav-el around the world, and in the army it’s possible.”

They both have already seen much of the world, this year Bolton has been skiing in Aus-tria and diving in Egypt. Their decision to sign up to the army is based on lifestyle, and “op-portunities,” says Thomas.

This summer they are sched-uled to visit Germany and spend a week with the Royal Engineers, and will get a taste of what they could be doing in a few years. The boys’ faces beam with excitement at the prospect, clearly they are pur-suing what they want, and no-

body can stop them.

BENEFITThe future engineers, smartly

dressed in uniform, have been promoting their college at the event, trying to show other young people how they too can benefit from a military ca-reer. They have their immedi-ate paths mapped out; Bolton aims to study at Southampton, while Thomas would like to go to university in Northumbria or Loughborough.

One thing they will not be getting lectures on at univer-sity is the art of killing. Being able to end the life of another human is something anyone

joining the armed forces must contemplate, and both boys have thought about it.

“You need control, disci-pline, and be able to follow commands,” says Thomas, “as an officer you set your own boundaries.” Bolton looks for-ward to the prospect of combat situations, “I want to be in bat-tles, I want to be in a position to test myself and see how I would react,” he says.

They will become officers in the army, meaning they will be issuing orders to other men. Though not quite out of boy-hood, they have been primed for leadership, a role that re-quires maturity, responsibility and independent thinking they say. “To get to point B from point A, it’s your choice,” says Thomas on the way to lead. “You need to make the deci-sions with your men; it has to be a two-way trust.”

Thomas’ family has backed his choice of career from the very start, “My mum said she was behind me if this was what I wanted to do,” he says. His family are familiar with the army; he has two older broth-

ers serving in uniform. With Bolton the situation is dif-ferent, “My mum is only just coming round to the idea of

me being in the army,” says the engineering hopeful. Yet he re-alises it is normal for mothers to worry about their sons, and going into the army is not ex-actly being out of harm’s way.

For the time being, the boys are enjoying their time at

Welbeck. “It’s like living with your mates,” says Bolton of the boarding school environ-ment. Plus there are girls at the school too, which is “definitely a good thing,” thinks Thomas, though the ratio is only three to one. The girls must be spoilt for choice at school discos. Being Welbeck students has enabled Bolton and Thomas to expe-rience things they might not otherwise done, particularly Bolton, who has developed a taste for extreme sports, such as climbing and kayaking.

Their thoughts once again turn to the future, perhaps one day they could become elite soldiers in the SAS or Roy-al Marines. “I won’t lie, I’ve thought about it,” says Thom-as, “those units raise standards for officers. They expect more, officers have to be at the front of the pack.” Leading from the front is what both these soon to be men have been trained to do. Ambitious, dedicated and bright, you would expect them to go far, making their mums proud, even though they may be putting their lives on the line.

An adventure - preparing for life as an engineer in the army

“I wanted to join

Welbeck and then the

army because it will be an

adventure”

3Ben Bolton (left) and Roberto Thomas, both 17, students at Wel-beck College

Below: The Welbeck College stand at the Reach Society event 6

25MAY 10-16, 2012 THE VOICE | REACH UP

WELBECK DEFENCE SIXTH FORM COLLEGE

WHERE LEARNINGMEETS ADVENTURE

AND ENGINEERSMEET THEIR FUTURE.

Welbeck is the Defence Sixth Form College – and it’s one of the best A-level colleges in the country.

For potential engineers with drive, ambition and ability, Welbeck is where potential turns into bright futures as Officers in the Armed Forces or Civil Service. The combination of state of the art facilities, excellent teaching and a constant drive for improvement, creates an environment that prepares young people for success in whatever role they take in their professional lives.

• 98% of students from Welbeck were offered a place at university in 2011• Tuition funded by the MoD• En-suite accommodation• Annual technical bursary of £4,000 at University

If you’d like to turn your engineering or technical potential into a promisingcareer, come and visit us at one of our Open Days.For more information visit www.dsfc.ac.uk or follow us on

| THE VOICE MAY 10-16, 201226 REACH UP

By Bart Chan

Leondre Douglas ushers his school pupils around the event. He does not let them out of his sight as they share jokes

and laughs with each other. Douglas, who’s 23 but looks not much older than his pupils, exudes a quiet confi-dence. He recently qualified as a reli-gious studies teacher, a profession he aspired to follow because of how he was taught. “I had a really good rela-tionship with my teachers,” he says, “I saw how hard they worked.” Respect was obviously a mutual feeling be-tween Douglas and his teachers, and it is how he remembers his time being taught which guides how he wants to teach; “The way they made me feel, I want to make my pupils feel.”

Apart from teaching, Douglas is also a youth leader in his local church. He grew up in a Christian home, but it was when he was 16 that he found his

own faith, attending a religious youth conference. “Preaching and teaching made me see what was important in life.” The usual pursuits of boys his age weren’t of interest, “Clothes, money, girls – they didn’t seem im-portant anymore.” Faith, he says, “Gave me a new focus.”

Douglas looks back over his stu-dents, casting a watchful eye over them while they explore the event, taking in the possibilities of what they could do in the future. Their teacher, whose grandparents are Ja-maican, says he had role models that have inspired him; “Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Barack Obama, but also my good friends and family,” he says.

Douglas, who enjoys cricket and football – he’s Manchester United fan, is arguably a role model himself. “I have a lot of friends who are in pris-on or don’t do anything, I wanted to stop that by going into teaching.” The young teacher from Ladbroke Grove, West London, simply wants to make a difference like those who helped him define where his life would go. “I find young black guys lean towards me, because I look like them, they can see someone doing something positive.”

By Bart Chan

She is only 20 years old, but Chavanese Wint has done more than enough to sug-

gest she is older than her ten-der age. At 15 Wint founded her company, Voice of Young People, an outfit that aims to get young people away from criminality through perfor-mance arts.

“I want to speak for young people who can’t speak for themselves,” says Wint, deter-mination running through her voice. “I want to give people a way out of gang culture and knife crime. I grew up in Stock-well [South London] and saw a lot of crime; it made me want to do something.”

That something has been re-alised through the performing arts, a medium she discovered in school and went on to study. “Doing drama, acting and writ-ing inspired me to do my own thing and set up my own com-pany,” she says.

“One of the main reasons why I have set up this com-pany is because as a young person myself I see the world just like other young person. I understand their main reasons as to why they are involved in gun and knife crime, and I know how hard it can be to get out of it. As a single mother, gang crime has made me want to protect other mothers whose children could be affected by gang violence.”

Her inspirational journey has been aided by her father, who

encouraged her with more than just words. “My dad helped me out with my funding. He paid for me to put on performances in theatres and showed me how to apply for grants, such as the

Prince’s Trust.”Wint must be making her

dad proud, for apart from com-bating youth crime, she finds time to write poetry and plays. “I’ve published a book of po-etry, it’s called ‘Life is what you make it’, and it’s got 50 poems in it.” All the poems are written by her – she is a prolific writer, she has another 200 or so un-published poems up her sleeve.

Wint likes to write about life. What she sees, she puts into words, poetry or drama. “I also write songs, they are R&B love songs. My plays are about the challenges in life: crime; teenage pregnancy; and those kinds of things.

Wint harnesses her own ex-periences in her writing; she has recently written a play which is to be put on at the National Theatre and will be performed by professional ac-tors. It bears the same title as her book of poetry and is about

a young single mother strug-gling through life.

In reality, the father of Wint’s own baby daughter left them, leaving her to raise a child by herself. She is creating art out of her own struggles, constructing drama which mir-rors her own life story. Writ-ing also provides a release for her, a way of coping. “If I see a young person die on the TV

or in the news, I have to write about it to forget about it.”

Her sensitivity to the outside world and issues that do not directly affect her is remark-able. Apart from writing about it, what does she do when she sees death? “I sit down and cry for hours,” she says.

Wint is on a mission. What she is trying to do is admira-ble, and you would think she

knows some good ways to “engage young people and keep them off the streets.” Her chosen method is performance arts, but if she donned a mask and cape you would be tempt-ed to call her a super hero.

¢To find out more and con-tact Voice of Young People, email Chavanese Wint: voyp_mmp@yahoo.com

Teacher of faith - the life of a young religious studies teacher

Chavanese Wint brings social change through the arts

TEACHER: Leondre Douglas

CREATIVITY AND INSPIRATION : VOYP Rehersal group

FOUNDER AND MANAGER OF VOYP: Chavanese Wint

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“I had a really good relationship with my teachers”

27MAY 10-16, 2012 THE VOICE | REACH UP

By Joseph Ogbonna

Time and again I see evidence that we can achieve more than we thought possible by

looking beyond what our phys-ical senses perceive, to what our minds can see.

Sometimes, it is an act of faith, other times an act of will and sometimes simply imagi-nation. Steve Jobs’ ability to create a ‘reality distortion field’ to achieve results that initially appeared impossible is likely to be studied by business students. He seems to have the ability to sow a seed of optimism in those around him, so strong that despite many flaws in his behaviour, his Apple folk stuck by him.

There are other anecdotal accounts of people who envi-sioned a lofty future and who have arrived there and realised that many seeming impossible goals have been achieved.

As a story in the Word for Today (UCB. 21 April 2012) put it, the young son of a ship captain said that he was calm when the boat was caught in a storm because he could see his father and knew his father had come through worse.

Research has shown that the

human brain can cre-ate an experience by imagination. “It can-not tell the difference between an “actual” experience and an experience imagined vividly and in great detail,” according to Michael Michalko (2012) in Psychology Today. So why both-er? My personal experi-ence is that creating a detailed picture of your ideal future, in-cluding feelings, smell, sound and environment, is a powerful source of motivation and en-ergy. This is especially power-ful when this picture captures personal core values – those things that are most important

t o u s ,

like love, in-fluence, family, spirituality, to mention a few. Whilst the re-sulting achievement may some-times seem magical, it really is clarity of vision which boosts self-confidence, and commu-nicated to others both verbally and non-verbally, gives rise to more opportunities.

At the same time the individ-ual’s senses are heightened to passing opportunities that are aligned to the vision. With no mental barriers, the person can apply concerted effort to gather resources needed and make the best of these opportunities.

Turning a future imagined into reality

“A lofty future and who have arrived at the future time ”

Creating a vision for yourself is your best chance of achieving success

By Joseph Ogbonna

So how do young chil-dren develop a positive vision of their future? Through their parents

and grand parents of course! Studies have found that older generations transmit a variety of positive and negative as-pects of life to younger ones, ranging from cognitive abil-ity, social status, divorce, child abuse, and religion. A par-ent’s words, the company they keep influences their children in the books they read, mov-ies they watch, developing the first blocks of a child’s vision. More specifically, women are believed to be more active than men in maintaining this intergenerational transmission (Rossi 1993; Kamo & Zhou 1994). Rather than leaving them to it, this natural strength in the community wants to be valued, supported and em-boldened if a community is serious about transferring a vision from one generation to

the next.Transmitting a vision often

gets more difficult as a child turns into an adult and starts to create their own personal vi-sion of the future. It was inter-esting to read Bengson & Kyu-pers (1971) finding that whilst the older generation strives for continuity, the children want

independence and so focus on the difference between the generations. I guess the fast-paced change in street slang is testament to this. At this stage, the parent can best serve the young one by helping to gather the resources needed to achieve the vision and to help them create a positive energy in their environment.

The effort is worth the posi-tive results that could accrue in African – Caribbean commu-nities in the United Kingdom. The Mexican Oportunidades programme takes this ‘whole community’ approach based on the idea that poor families do not invest in human capital and so are locked into a cycle of intergenerational transfer of poverty.

In an effort to break the cycle, the programme pays parents whose children re-main in school to keep them there. When more families in a community are consistently holding a positive vision for younger people, giant leaps of success will be made over time.

The heritage of vision - passing down experience

“holding a positive vision

for younger people”

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| THE VOICE MAY 10-16, 201228

By Bart Chan

We are here pass-ing on our expe-riences to young people,” says

Keith Davidson. Having spent his career as a teacher and educator, Davidson is well positioned to determine what works and what does not for younger generations.

He works in a careers guid-ance role for the Reach So-ciety, and for him it is about “encouraging education as a pathway to a career.The former head teacher sees teaching as something like no other ca-reer. “If you’re an engineer you see the product leave the fac-tory and that’s it, you don’t get feedback from it, you can’t talk to it like a person.”

The economics teacher de-clares it is the teacher-student bond which makes the pro-fession so special, he says, “Through education you can connect to your students af-ter the education has finished. You’re touching lives, it brings great satisfaction.” Recently he ran into one of his former pu-pils, he smiles broadly recall-ing the encounter.

The educator appreciates teaching is not the right career if you are planning to make millions, “The pay might not be as good as the bankers, but there is much more joy,” his hands are animated like a poli-tician’s, “there is intrinsic val-ue and it’s much longer last-ing. Education has the power to transform lives in a way other careers can’t offer.”

It was during his univer-sity days that he discovered his passion for teaching and education. While a student at Middlesex university, he was encouraged to teach his peers, “It was then I realised this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.” He went on to do a postgraduate and doctorate in educational administration and leadership, and he has not

looked back since.Like the many military per-

sonnel at the event, Davidson sees his profession in a simi-lar vein, “Education is about service, serving others,” he says. He talks of the qualities required to make an excellent teacher, first of all “you have to know your subject well.” Secondly, he believes a great teacher will “be able to moti-vate and inspire young people to love that subject too.” Also, a teacher has to be good with children, he says, “You got to love the children in order to construct the right relationship and believe in them.” Lastly, he deems that a teacher “has to be committed to service.”

As Tony Blair famously once said, “Education, educa-tion, education,” and this is a sentiment that undoubtably resonates with Davidson’s life story. So much so he cannot imagine life without it; “Edu-cation is essential to every-thing in life, without it you can’t be successful.” He pon-ders over what he has said, and then says with conviction, “Education is life.”

36 | APRIL 19 -25, 2012�

EXCITEMENT WAS at feverpitch at Kensington andChelsea College after stu-dent Ruth-Ann St Luceimpressed some of thebiggest names in the musicindustry to secure her spoton BBC1’s prime time show‘The Voice’.

Ruth was watched by morethan 8 million people on tal-ent show, The Voice as sheperformed a moving rendi-tion of Leona Lewis’s ‘Run’ toan all star panel of TomJones, Jessie J, will.i.am andDanny O’Donoghue.

Unlike other talent showsthe celebrity panel sit facingaway from the acts and canonly hear them. If the starslike what they hear, theyhave to hit their buzzer andturn their chair around atwhich point they get to seethe person they’ve chosen fortheir team.

Within moments of taking

to the stage 18-year-old Ruthinspired global superstar,singer and songwriter Jessie Jto turn her chair.

Clearly moved by theteenager’s audition Jessie Jsaid: “I couldn’t sing like thatwhen I was that age. I amhere to work on someone thatI think could be phenomenaland I think she is definitelythat.”

Now a firm contender inthe fight to be crowned theUK’s next great voice, Ruth isgetting ready for her once in

a life time opportunity to becoached by Jessie J as she

battles to win the show.Songbird Ruth, who is

studying for her Level 2Diploma in Music, said of herdebut performance on TheVoice: “It felt like I wasmeant to be there. It just feltlike something I could doeveryday. I am just so over-whelmed right now…. All mydreams are full of being asuccessful artist – I feel likeit’s meant to be.”

The talented singer hasalready shown her versatilityand star quality in severalcollege music performancesin front of industry namesincluding award winningEnglish rap star Akala.

Head of Music atKensington and ChelseaCollege, Paul Hall said: “Ruthis a shining example of whatcan be achieved with theright attitude, dogged deter-mination and a thirst tolearn. She has an incredible

talent and everyone at thecollege knows she has what ittakes to go all the way on TheVoice.”

To listen to Ruth’saudition click onwww.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qw48k

Course that changed my lifeMusic diploma student strikes winning chord with Jessie J

If you have participated on acourse that changed yourlife,we would love to hear fromyou e mail Careers andCourses sponsored featureseditor on: jacqueline.asafu-adjaye@

gvmedia.co.uk

Outstanding performance: music college student Ruth-Ann St Luce

The Voice UK Judges including Jessie J

COURSE SPECIAL

Transforming lives through teaching

“Education is about service, serving

others”

PASSION: Educator Keith Davidson

REACH UP

Days on June and 13 July