Hope Oloye Receives Future Leaders Award

Hope Oloye (Biological Sciences, 2015) was recently awarded second place in Powerful Media’s Future Leaders Award, an annual publication profiling the top 100 outstanding students and new graduates of African and African Caribbean Heritage from across UK universities. Hope has just graduated from Pembroke College and this award recognises her major impact on College’s outreach and access work in establishing the Afro-Carribbean Tyler Prize at Pembroke. She also served as President of the Junior Common Room from 2016-17.

Hope is the founding Director of the Afro-Caribbean Tyler Prize.  She launched the initiative as an access and outreach project, tackling some of the barriers that prevent African and Caribbean-heritage students from applying to Russell Group universities, such as Oxford. The prize aims to improve key academic skills, recognise exceptional writing and build networks between high-achieving students across age groups. 

This year, participants were invited to select a title from a list of possible essays, some dealing specifically with topics around race and class. Students also attended a workshop on essay writing and a prize-giving ceremony at Pembroke, which celebrated their individual achievements. The programme also matches a current African or African Caribbean Oxford student to a participant so they can offer academic mentoring and essay feedback, ultimately acting as a role model to the young person.

In response to receiving the award, Hope commented:

‘I'm so grateful to have been given this award. Thanks to Pembroke Fellows and staff for all of the behind-the-scenes support they provided with access and elsewhere!’

Hope’s role as Director includes equipping mentors with information and resources, creating educational resources for mentees, running workshops and organising the celebration days. With a generous donation from the Tyler Trust, the prize is set for expansion in future years and we look forward to seeing the impact that it will have.

When asked by the Future Leaders Award where she sees herself in 10 years, she said ‘...to be a cited author, still managing the Tyler Prize and to generally be shaking up the world of academia.’

Find out more about the Future Leaders Awards here.