📚📚📚 April's Gifts 📚📚📚

03:04

The deadlines have come and gone, now come the exams. Much of the past month has been spent studying for my final set of exams here at Imperial so there hasn't been much time to focus on other commitments. There are still some important updates you might be interested in...

❄️💷❄️ Freeze the Fees Demonstration ❄️💷❄️

Plans for a public action following the recent Freeze the Fees conference were put into action and on the 18th of April, campaigners from the Let Us Learn Campaign gathered outside Downing Street to raise awareness around the increasing prices for applications to renew residency in the country that are already disproportionally high.

Campaigners stood holding giant cheques directed to Amber Rudd, who has now resigned amidst the Windrush Scandal, highlighting the total cost per application. The visual representation of these exorbitant fees has garnered a lot of attention from the media.

Let Us Learn Campaigners outside 10 Downing Street

📰📻📺MEDIA COVERAGE 📺📻📰

Wednesday 18th April - Coverage of the demonstration in The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/18/commonwealth-youth-forced-to-pay-thousands-or-risk-illegal-status

Thursday 19th April - Dami and Chrisann explaining that 'It’s not just the Windrush generation terrorised by Theresa May’s ‘Go Home’ climate' in the Daily Mirror

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/its-not-just-windrush-generation-12393375.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Sunday 22nd April - Ijeoma takes us around Enfield and speaks out about her story on the BBC's Sunday Politics

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06526wt

Monday 23th April - Dami, Agnes and Charlotte explaining that the Fees for making Leave to remain applications are extortionate on BBC 5 Live

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b01dlx

Wednesday 25th April - Agnes and Michelle speak very powerfully about their stories on Radio 4's 'Today's programme'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zt3jj

Wednesday 25th April - Dami and Chrisann explaining the campaign and why we are asking for the fees to be frozen on BBC Radio 4 Money Box Live

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zt3jx

🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾 Good luck to everyone sitting exams!!! 🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾

#EOtoImperial

🕴️🕴️🕴️March Madness 🕴️🕴️🕴️

09:04

It's that time of the year again, when deadlines come from all angles and it can be a struggle to stay afloat amidst all the work. It's been no different on this side, luckily the bulk of the deadlines have now been successfully met. It's been a challenging, busy month with a silver lining, here's why...

🎉👨🏾‍🔬🎉 Completing Final Year BSc Project 🎉👨🏾‍🔬🎉

After spending two months of in the laboratory, I can now tell you that my Final Year Project has come to a conclusion. It has been tough to say the least and I am thankful to all the members of the Ashley group for taking me under their wing and for their relentless support for the duration of my project.

Structure of a new ethylene-bound Ruthenium complex synthesised and characterised by me

It was difficult to come to terms with the fact that my main aim of creating a new catalyst for nitrogen fixation was not met, but such is the nature of research. At least the groundwork has been laid in place for someone else to carry on from where I have left off. On the brighter side, I did manage to make a compound that has never been made before during my experiments (shown above).

❄️💷❄️ Freeze the Fees ❄️💷❄️

Through the efforts of the Core Team at Let Us Learn and our network of loyal supporters, we managed to host an event in the Jubilee Room at the Houses of Parliament this month. The main focus of the event was to highlight the highly extortionate fees legal migrants in the UK are charged to process our applications and to call on MPs to raise this in parliament in a bid to see them reduced.

I was lucky enough to be among the speakers asked to share their personal experiences and thoughts on the matter. We were also graced with a few words from David Lammy MP about the unjust nature of the situation. It was encouraging to see such a wide range of people attend the event; from MPs to teachers, people were supportive in resisting the hostile environment faced by migrants in the UK.

The Freeze the Fees panel alongside David Lammy MP

Changes in these fees are announced each year in April. Unfortunately, the event had little effect as the Home Office have announced that they will once again increase the fees this year. We are however relentless in our efforts and plan to follow up with a public action this month. Stay tuned!

🎨Picasso 1932 - Love, Fame and Tragedy 🎨

A poster advertising the exhibition of Picasso's work from 1932 © Tate Modern

I would highly recommend checking out the current exhibition at the Tate of Pablo Picasso's work from a pivotal year in his illustrious career - 1932. The exhibitions details his complicated personal life and unveils the man behind some very iconic works of art. I left the exhibition with a newfound appreciation for the relentless passion Picasso had in reinventing himself in an effort to prove his critics wrong.

🎬🎬🎬Famalam 🎬🎬🎬
A good friend of mine was commissioned by the BBC to produce a new comedy show and it is due to hit television screens on 9th of April (BBC Three). I was lucky enough to be asked to provide some musical entertainment at the premiere of the first two episodes of the show. I couldn't contain my laughter for most of the screening as the fast-paced comedy sketch show did not fail in delivering punchline after punchline.

Main cast of Famalam © BBC

The sketch show draws most of its punchlines from observations of African and Afro-Caribbean culture, from spoofing Nollywood films to satirising the intricate politics of how to handle leftovers from a party. Without spoiling too much, I'd urge you to tune in when the show launches.

🐰🥚🍫 P.S. I hope you have all had a wonderful Easter Break 🍫🥚🐰

#EOtoImperial

⏩⏩⏩Fast Forward February ⏩⏩⏩

09:14

February is the shortest month but I always get caught off guard by how quickly it flies by... the final year project has kept me occupied in the labs thats probably why the month feels like it has disappeared. Other than lab work, things have been pretty busy on this side...

👨‍🏫👩‍🏫 Decolonising Education: Teachers and Racial Bias 👩‍🏫👨‍🏫

Attending this event held minutes away from Dalston Junction Station was insightful, inspirational and motivational all at the same time. This was the first time the education team had been to an event together and the breadth of knowledge in the panel alone was something that amazed every single one of us. We heard from each member of the panel and then floor was open to questions from a very vocal audience. Teachers, students, parents... passionate activists came together to voice their opinions on a very pressing issues.

Banner for the event held on the 10th of Feb 2018 © Decolonising Education

We were split into groups and given some cue cards to help spark debate within ourselves as to what could be done to curb the influence racial bias and its impact on the education sector as a whole. This quickly led to critical comments on the education sector and how there is much work to be done to get it to a standard those in attendance deemed acceptable.

I really enjoyed the topics debated in the room an definitely left with a renewed outlook and realised a lot of people are mobilised and set on bringing about positive change within their respective sectors.

🗣️Project w/ UCL Institute of Education 🗣️

Myself and Adebola had the pleasure of being invited to pilot workshops designed to engage teachers and inform them about the resources available to young migrants who are facing barriers. We had the pleasure of delivering this to a cohort of about 10 students on the BA Educational Studies course over at the IOE taught by Dr Stuart Tannock.

Myself and Adebola with students from Dr. Tannock's class

It was helpful to hear back from all the students on how our session could be improved and it was a pleasure to be able to share out knowledge gained from all our years campaigning for change regarding migrants and our access to student finance.

We will be working with these students to come up with a curriculum that they will take into several colleges, primary and secondary schools across London. This should be a worthwhile experience and will also provide the experiences to inform the education team with tools to develop out own curriculum aimed at teachers rather than students.

🥁TalkingDRUM 🥁

In other news, I went to support a friend who was performing at Balabam, a live music venue in Stamford Hill. They performed some rhythmically tantalising songs from Ghana, Brazil and Cuba. I was so surprised when they performed kpanlogo music from Accra, my birthplace, and even managed to get the pronunciation and accent bang on!

🔻🔻🔻FIND OUT MORE HERE 🔻🔻🔻
https://www.talking-drum.co.uk/

And on that note, I hope you are all surviving this cold snap and the sudden downpour of snow.

Stay Warm!

❄️❄️❄️

P.S. GO AND SEE BLACK PANTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!

#EOtoImperial

🤸🤸🤸 New Beginnings in Jan 🤸🤸🤸

04:48

I hope you have all had a wonderful start to the year. So exams are finally over! Time to kick back and chill right? 🤔 I wish! 🤣 The busiest period of the first half of the year is over but the ball keeps rolling. There are new and exciting projects on the way. Keep reading going to find out more...

🔍👨🏾‍🔬 Final Year BSc Project 👨🏾‍🔬🔍

⚠️⚠️⚠️*Caution - Science Ahead*⚠️⚠️⚠️

The fumehood I will be working in for the rest of the term.

This terms marks the start of the final year project. I have been working with Dr. Andrew Ashley's group. It's been an honour to be able to work with leading researchers in the field of nitrogen fixation. Their research focuses on developing groundbreaking new catalysts (they speed up reactions) to convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia.

Ammonia is an important starting material in agriculture (for making fertiliser) all the way to the fashion industry (involved in manufacturing nylon). The catalysts developed are very sensitive to air and moisture so I've learnt a whole new way of doing chemistry involving using liquid nitrogen and bring extremely careful not to allow any air into reactions. It has been an amazing learning experience even though reactions take almost five times longer to set up!

By the end of the 8 week project I will produce a 10-page literature review of current research in the area and an extended write-up of my investigation: Nitrogen fixation using Ruthenium based catalysts. Wish me luck 😥

👨🏾‍🎓 UCL Institute of Education 👨🏾‍🎓

Myself and Dami had the pleasure of having a meeting with Dr Stuart Tannock and James from citizens UK to discuss what how we could collaborate in improving a programme they had implemented the year before focusing on educating people around the issues faced by refugees.

With presents the opportunity to work with students from the course on achieving the goals of the education team; mainly delivering classes centred around migration in general. The aim of the project will be to encourage campaigning, best practice for schools and to teach students about issues faced by migrants.

Myself and Dami outside the UCL Institute of Education.

This is a project I'm really looking forward to working on with the rest of the education team as it gives us a chance to expand our remit.

📣 Does Britain care about young people? 📣

It was great fun to be able to support our very own let us learn member, precious, as she spoke amongst other young activists on the panel at an event at SOAS designed to highlight and facilitate debate around challenges faced by our generation.

The panel of 'Does Britain care about young people?'.

We were greeted with a radio play curated by one of the panel members on what it meant to be young, followed by two shirt films, one of which was produced by Precious. Her film was telling the story of Let I'd Learn and what we had achieved so far.

These were followed by some spoken word performances and a Q&A session. Questions quickly shifted to what teachers could do to inspire young people to take ownership of their own futures. It was interesting to say the least and refreshing to see so many young people banging together to get their voices heard.

A group selfie from this month's gathering.

Thank you once again for reading my blog post and I hope you are all sticking to your New Year's Resolutions!

✌️✌️✌️

#EOtoImperial

🎆🎆🎆 Happy New Year! 🎆🎆🎆

11:43

I hope you've all had a wonderful festive season and the best of luck with the year ahead. I hope 2018 to be an unforgettable and prosperous year for us all!

It has been a relatively quiet month in terms of activities outside of uni with deadline season at its peak. Spending time with family and friends over the holiday season was a much welcomed break and with 2018 comes a fresh outlook..

🎓 The First Meeting with the Education Team 🎓

The Education Team @ LuL

The campaign grows from strength to strength and I am very excited for the year ahead as we have a lot of fresh new faces and ideas to take forward into 2018. As the core team has grown a lot this year, splitting off into smaller teams was a natural response.

The newly-formed Education team met for the first time and we set out our targets for the first half of the coming year. I'm most excited about establishing a networks with inner London schools to deliver workshops aimed at educating students as well as teachers about the current policies regarding access to student finance and potential barriers migrants might face in the process.

The LuL team also met up this holiday for our Xmas Social which was lovely as the group got to bond outside of our fortnightly meetings, with Secret Santa gifts and various games keeping us entertained.

LuL Xmas Social

🍻🍴 ChemSoc Christmas Dinner (AGAIN!) 🍴🍻

A few 3rd Year Chemists at the Xmas Dinner © Chem Soc

It's become a bit of a tradition to be at the Chem Soc Xmas Dinner which is always hosted in a fancy hotel somewhere near Campus in last week of term. This year, 120 odd chemists were ushered into the Millenium Gloucester Hotel for the yearly festivities.

After kind words from senior staff members, three courses of food was served out before the dancefloor was crowded with eager chemists ready to shake a leg. I'd have to say this was by far the best Xmas Dinner; dancing didn't stop until the very last minutes of the night.

Our Christmas Dinner table © Chem Soc

🎇🎆🎇 BEST OF LUCK IN 2018 🎇🎆🎇

Wishing you, your friends and family good fortune for the year!

#EOtoImperial

😲🍂 Unexpected November 🍂😲

08:07

Synthesis labs from 9 AM till 6 PM, cold cycles to and from uni, battling the flu left and right and centre, you'd think this November was shaped to be a drab, predictable one but, to my surprise, it hasn't. Here's why...

🎭🥁 Samba Gigs 🥁🎭

November is never the highlight of a samba drummer's calendar but I'd say this one might change that for me. I've had the opportunity to feature live alongside Stefflon Don and Demi Lovato for BBC's "Sounds Like a Friday Night" which was an exciting experiences.

Myself and the other drummers after the live studio recording

We got the chance to see how a TV programme is made straight from the studio (in White City literally two stops away on the tube from me!) and we're even treated to our own dressing rooms, brushing shoulders with the presenters of "Pointless".

Drumming through the side streets off Oxford Circus for the Carnaby Street Winter Carnival and the official turning on of the Christmas lights wasn't too bad either. Although drumming outside in the November cold in just a shirt isn't something I'd rush to do again.

👇👇👇 Here's a short video from the event 👇👇👇

🗣️ NUS Black Students' Winter Conference 🗣️

As leader of the LuL education team, I was delighted to be invited to sit on the Panel for the NUS Black Students' Winter Conference held at University of West London in Ealing - also two stops away on the tube in the opposite direction.

Representing LuL on the panel @ NUS Conference

Also gracing the panel was Dr. Denise Noble (Senior Lecturer of Sociology) and Neha Shah (Diversity Activist at Oxford). Questions varied from how people could directly help in opening up scholarships for blocked migrants to our thoughts on what needs to be done to ensure "decolonisation" of further and higher education curriculums.

We also led a workshop on public speaking and social action planning briefly after. They were very well received and it was a great opportunity for newer members of the campaign to get a feel for the more hands on aspects of the campaign. It was great to meet like minded activists and to be presented with opportunity to work together to create positive change.

A group discussion in the second part of the workshop facilitated by the amazing Jessica!

🤗 Migrant and Refugee Welcome Tour @ Foundling Museum 🤗

Sharing stories with the refugees I met at refugee event organised by Liv from Just For Kids Law was insightful to say the least. The organisation, Migrants and Refugee Welcome Tours, help people with newfound refugee status in the UK settle into life as smoothly as possible by showing them around areas of interest in London.

But things weren't as easy as that, speaking to a Syrian refugee attending the meeting really put the challenges they faced in perspective. His story was one of success but he campaigns day in day out for people in less fortunate situations than himself.

Myself, Precious and Anika with Liv from J4KL!

🏟️⚽🎉 Arsenal Vs Huddersfield 🎉⚽🏟️

Myself and three other mates were lucky enough to get some last minute tickets for Arsenal's 5:0 thumping of Huddersfield Town in the Premier League. Although we missed the first goal (someone was late, definitely not me! 👀), we were treated to four more cracking goals by the end of the game!

And on that note, I hope you all enjoy the festive times ahead and thanks for reading this month's entry!

❄️❄️❄️

#EOtoImperial

👻👻👻 October's Surprises 👻👻👻

09:36

This month has been full of surprises to say the least, luckily they have't been of the spooky kind! Wouldn't want to speak too soon though. I've been surprised by just how much work is being done by the younger generation to bring about positive change. Let's start with...

🌍 WMHD @ City Hall 🌍

As some of you will know, 10th of October was World Mental Health Day and I was fortunate enough to be invited to an event at City Hall with a host of passionate speakers sharing their experiences with several issues surrounding mental health.

From spoken word artists sharing their artistic pieces to an author sharing her battle with anorexia, we were reminded of the importance of discussing mental health in a safe space and being a champion for those who might be suffering at any point in time.

The biggest surprise of the night was when students from Hendon School came up and spoke about all the campaigning they have been involved in, ever since their principal committed suicide. Their drive to raise awareness and support others was truly awe-inspiring. They have won numerous awards for their efforts and even have an app out there to provide support for those who seek it.

🎼 🎻 Chineke! Foundation 🎻🎼
Out of all the BlackHistory Month events across London, the one that left the biggest impact on me was hearing the story Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE and how she overcame the barriers she has been presented with in her life.

Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE
Image by Eric Richmond

Chi-chi was unfortunate enough to receive a career-ending injury which put her athletics career to a halt and at the age of 18, she took up the double bass and avidly pursued a career in music. The rest, as they say is history, Chi-chi has won numerous awards and international recognition for her musicianship.

Chi-chi has witnessed first hand that she is always one of the very few if not the only BAME musicians in the orchestras that she's played in. She set up Chineke! Foundation, a BAME majority orchestra, to address this issue head on! Find out more below...

>>>>> http://www.chineke.org/ <<<<<

🌊 LUL Away Weekend @ Brighton 🌊

The Let Us Learn campaign is growing from strength to strength, with a whole host of new members joining the core group and a few long-standing members leaving us to study at their respective universities, we have come to a very critical point.

The majority of our time in Brighton was spent reflecting on how far we have come as a group which was a big shock for me. I realised how much we had accomplished in the little time that we have been up and running. It was also a reminder what we stood for as a group and what our aims for the future were.

There has been a major restructuring in how we will be moving forward as an organisation and expanding our remit is one of those. I cant tell you too much though but I can tell you that I will be the leader of the "Education Team" overseeing, organising and building a network or primary and secondary schools along with universities with the aim of raising awareness and educating our network on migrant issues.

☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

STAY TUNED, ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!!!

I almost forgot...

Blogging My Way Through Uni

📚📚📚 April's Gifts 📚📚📚

🕴️🕴️🕴️March Madness 🕴️🕴️🕴️

⏩⏩⏩Fast Forward February ⏩⏩⏩

❄️❄️❄️

🤸🤸🤸 New Beginnings in Jan 🤸🤸🤸

📣 Does Britain care about young people? 📣

✌️✌️✌️

🎆🎆🎆 Happy New Year! 🎆🎆🎆

😲🍂 Unexpected November 🍂😲

❄️❄️❄️

👻👻👻 October's Surprises 👻👻👻

🎃🎃🎃 HAPPY HALLOWEEN 🎃🎃🎃

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