Our HSD Graduates

Alice Inman

Class of 2017 FP, Alice, graduated from the University of Oxford in June 2020 with a First Class Honours Degree in Economics and Management. Alice also received the Saïd Foundation Prize for the highest mark in the Technology and Operations Finals paper.

“Since school, I have been captivated by Economics. It helps us to make sense of the world around us, and for me there's nothing more satisfying than cracking a problem which has a tangible real-world application. Management, the other half of my degree, is the study of organisations. This provided the opportunity to engage with a wide range of topics - some highlights were debating whether a woman can have a career and a family, defining the meaning of work, and analysing why so many mergers are unsuccessful.

“The academic program at Oxford was intense and I enjoyed the challenge, although there were definitely times when it felt overwhelming! The sense of achievement when I finished my final exams was a feeling I will always remember. Even though there wasn't the ending to my degree that I expected, as we were all at home in the height of lockdown, my family still managed to make it very special.

“One of the greatest things about university was the freedom to structure my time. With only a few hours of academic contact a week, I scheduled library time around a plethora of other activities. For example, in first year I was out rowing on the river almost every morning, I was the producer of a play and I acted in two others, I took an active role in the Oxford Guild and that's not to mention all the time I spent having fun with friends.

“Now I am a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy firm. We help organisations in the social, public and private sectors to solve their pressing and complex problems. For example, I am currently helping a company think about the role of the physical store vs dotcom and how this will evolve over the next five years. The best thing about my job is that it provides the opportunity to work with incredibly passionate and inspiring people. As I move between projects every few weeks, I am always meeting new people and the pace of learning is exhilarating.”

Euan Foulis

After leaving the High School of Dundee in 2017, Euan went on to study Film Production at the University for the Creative Arts, graduating in 2020 with a First-Class degree after specialising in Directing.

During his time at university, Euan took particular enjoyment in the social and collaborative activities the university offered him. Such activities allowed him to collaborate with his classmates in the creation of different short films, which were independent from the university, thus expanding his creative talents.

University also taught Euan a wide array of knowledge about the professional world of film production that he has used in the development of his career. Since graduating, Euan has been freelancing in the British Film Industry to quite some success, having worked as a Production Runner on numerous feature films and tv programmes for big name distributors, including ITV and Apple TV.

Currently Euan is working as an Assistant Covid Supervisor on a Netflix feature film in London, due to be released in 2022. In addition to this he has continued developing his creative talents, directing the short film First Time in the middle of lockdown. The short has gone on to receive critical acclaim, winning awards including “Best Thriller” at the Symbolic Arts Film Festival in St Petersburg. Currently, he is in preproduction on his second short, Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening, which shall be released under his production company, Munro Productions. It began filming in late November in Dundee.

Ivan Kapelyukh

Ivan, a Class of 2017 FP, studied Computing at Imperial College London, which he describes as a wonderful experience that fosters the skills and enthusiasm needed to contribute to the technology of tomorrow. Graduating this summer, Ivan says he was first inspired to pursue a career in technology when developing mobile apps with a group of fellow pupils, mentored by Computing Science teachers at HSD.

The Imperial course focuses on large-scale engineering projects. For example, Ivan had the chance to work as part of a team developing a new programming language for Facebook’s Libra blockchain. Although the scale of the challenges initially seems daunting, it is the perfect opportunity to solve problems creatively and learn by working closely with your peers. Ivan says this experience is crucial for securing internship positions. During his summer breaks, he interned as a Software Engineer at Netcraft, a cybersecurity startup, as well as the financial institutions J.P. Morgan and Citadel. In his final years at university, he picked up an interest in the machine learning field, gaining experience with medical image computing and natural language processing. His MEng thesis presents a novel method for learning spatial preferences, enabling robots to tailor their behaviour to what the user wants. Ivan also enjoyed super-curricular options, such as taking a Mandarin course and teaching programming tutorials for younger students.

His favourite aspect of studying Computing at Imperial is the techie culture shared by both students and staff. This is epitomised by the annual ICHack event which is the largest student-run hackathon in the UK with 300 students participating. They work in small teams over 24 hours to invent, prototype and demo their own tech ideas, e.g. an app that lets you log in with a secret knock instead of a password, or a program which automatically summarises any long YouTube video into a 20-second highlights clip. This is a fantastic chance to unleash your creativity, and (just as important for students in London) - a weekend of free food!

Ivan enthusiastically participated in competitive debating at school and continued this at university. He is grateful to Irene McGrath, who runs the debating club at HSD, for teaching students to confidently express themselves and develop an awareness of global affairs. Ivan represented Imperial at the World and European University Debating Championships, and was elected President of the Imperial Debating Society. He would highly recommend trying out the activity, if not for personal growth, then definitely for the chance to travel to Athens, Bali and beyond.

After graduation, Ivan is studying towards a PhD, joining the research teams of the Imperial Robot Learning Lab and the Dyson Robotics Lab. He credits his physics teachers at HSD with showing him that research can be great fun if you just follow your curiosity. Ivan is interested in addressing the Value Alignment Problem for Spatial AI. This answers the question: “how do we ensure that robots always act in the interests of humans”? Although household robots today can only solve very specific tasks such as vacuum cleaning, Ivan believes that aligning the goals of robots with human interests is essential as their capabilities become more advanced. And, as sci-fi films never fail to show us, it is better to solve the problem of robot safety sooner rather than later!

Ella Hudson

After leaving the High School in 2015, Ella went on to study International Relations at the University of St. Andrews.

“In June 2021, with a ‘graduation ceremony’ in my garden presided over by my dad, my time at university was suddenly over.

“My advice to those who are nearing the end of their time at school and looking to the next stage is not to be defeated when things don’t work out the way you may have hoped. A couple of months into my time at university I took a leave of absence for health reasons. I was so ashamed of myself for not being able to do what everyone else was doing. In 2017, I went back to University to start the same course again. Looking back, I am so proud of myself for not allowing that shame to take from me what I now have. So, another bit of advice – take time. The world moves so quickly these days it can be hard to keep up. It is important to stop and breathe and remember that you can’t pour from an empty cup. And with that, a final piece of advice – don’t let others define your path. It is your life, do what makes you happy. It really is no one else’s business.

“I’m now living in London, working in a coffee shop in Fitzrovia. I am still trying to work out what it is that I want to do as a career. I have a few ideas but hopefully with time it will become clear!”