Call for volunteers – Confront Educational Inequality mentoring programme

Do you want to contribute to making higher education accessible for all students, but don’t know how? Then we have just the program for you!

Confront Educational Inequality’ is a grassroots-driven, EDI seed-funded, mentoring programme, providing 6th form students from a school in a socioeconomically deprived area of London with extra support. We have partnered with Ark Academy in Wembley and now for the first year Barnet Pioneer for the last 5 years to assist highly motivated students (Year 12) in:

  1. Creating a scientific poster in the mentee’s topic of choice.
  2. Applying to universities.

Partnered with the Ark Academy in Wembley, and Ark Pioneer, Barnet the CIE (Confronting Inequality in Education) programme provides support to Year 12 students studying STEM subjects. The initiative aims to foster a nurturing environment for scientific exploration, and to equip students with a diverse set of skills to strengthen university applications.

The programme involves:

  • Matching an Imperial postgraduate student or staff member (mentor) with a Year 12 student (mentee), according to mutual research interest where possible
  • 1-2-1 remote meetings between the mentor and the mentee, with three face-to-face meetings. A time commitment of about 4h / month for the duration of the programme. You do not need to be based in London but we do ask you to try to come meet your mentee during the face-to-face meetings (see dates below) whenever possible to benefit mentor-mentee relationships
  • Until Spring 2025, supervise your mentee to make a scientific poster on a topic of their choice, that will be presented at the final showcase at Imperial College. Afterwards, support your mentee on career aspirations and university applications

Provisional Dates 2024-2025

  • w/c 2nd December, late afternoon/ evening: Career speed-meeting to meet your mentee and give them insights into your studies and/or career path. Location: Ark Academy, Wembley or Ark Pioneer, Barnet (depending on your allocated mentee)
  • Mid to Late January, Afternoon: Crash course for mentees on how to make a scientific poster. Location: Imperial College (South Kensington or White City campus) – this is optional for mentors
  • Late April, Afternoon: poster presentations by mentees to their peers, mentors, and other interested parties. Location: Imperial College (South Kensington or White City Campus)
  • Summer: mentees write personal statement for UCAS applications with mentors support
  • Autumn / winter: Interview preparation.

The students (Y12) are taking courses in Maths, Chemistry, Physics, and/or Biology, and we are looking for mentors whose research has a base in any of those topics, including Engineering.  We are looking for mentors, ranging from PGT students to PIs – everyone is welcome to join!  Any additional experiences (a day in the lab, running a small experiment) that you could give your mentee, would be the cherry on top!

Register to become a mentor here: https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a9LkJlOM6D8CcXc

This year we have a record number of mentees signed up, and it would be fantastic if we were able to support them all.  If you have any questions, please get in touch with ciementoring@imperial.ac.uk