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HUGHES HALL: ALUMNI CHANGING THE WORLD
Fighting the misinformation pandemic At 17, Professor Seema Yasmin (2005, Medicine) was advised to ‘lower her sights’. Teachers told her that because she came from a non-academic family and received only a comprehensive state school education, she would never get into university to study medicine… Discouraged from pursuing her dream, Seema studied for a BSc in Biochemistry at Queen Mary University of London. ‘Part way through my course I realised that I still wanted to become a doctor. Fortunately, I had an inspiring mentor, Dr Joep Lange, a Dutch physicianscientist who fought to end the global HIV pandemic. He encouraged me to apply for one of the new accelerated graduate medical programmes. I decided to try for Cambridge. It seemed such an impossible dream I was too embarrassed to tell anyone and hid the prospectus.’ Challenges Seema applied to Hughes Hall and was accepted. Initially she found the University alienating. ‘So many Cambridge students were white and came from much more privileged backgrounds. Fortunately, the mature students on my course and in the college had a greater variety of backgrounds and experiences, and my cohort at Hughes was lovely.’ ‘I didn’t want to compromise my identity in order to fit in. Instead, I resolved to find a way to belong, to opt in but on my own terms. It took a while to find students I could connect with and I was so glad to be at Hughes because I found wonderful friends here. The college has a high proportion of state school students which made it a less alienating experience. Hughes is more approachable in many ways. I also enjoyed being one of the first
