October 11, 2009

Diversity With a British Accent

Diversity With a British Accent 1

Peter Searle

Raising university attendance rates among underrepresented groups in Britain is a continuing challenge. For Shamillah Najjuma (left, with roommate), a sociology student at Warwick U., a weeklong summer program at the U. of Oxford showed her that she could aspire to a university education.

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close Diversity With a British Accent 1

Peter Searle

Raising university attendance rates among underrepresented groups in Britain is a continuing challenge. For Shamillah Najjuma (left, with roommate), a sociology student at Warwick U., a weeklong summer program at the U. of Oxford showed her that she could aspire to a university education.

By Aisha Labi

Shamillah Najjuma is just 21, but even from her youthful perspective, she can pinpoint a crucial turning point in her life: When she was 14, she took part in a weeklong summer program at the University of Oxford, run by an education charity called ACDiversity. Visiting the elite institution was eye-opening for the Ugandan-born woman, who attended an inner-city high school in London where most of the students were nonwhite and from low-income families.

"It basically said to me, You can

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