RARE  RISINGSTARS 2014 The UK’s Top 10 Black Students
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No. 5

 

INEZ SARKODEE‑ADOO

BSc Politics and Sociology
University of Bristol
Community Activism and Media
George Mpanga


Inez has proven herself to be an inspiring character and an adept community organiser, from a remarkably young age.

She grew up in Edmonton, north London, before spending her formative years attending secondary school in Hackney. At the tender age of 13 she was already mentoring students in the year below her, facilitating events that promoted innovative learning. She was also part of a group of 15 young people who organised a learning festival in Birmingham for over 200 pupils and she went on to secure a Youth Leadership Qualification for her efforts.

"The claims I hold to these achievements can only be made by acknowledging the amazing people I have had the pleasure of working with and learning from over the years."

Inez has gone on to lead on a number of high profile projects, including a self‑designed initiative to reach out and offer comfort to young female prisoners in local institutions. She also had an important role in the public campaign to secure jobs for Hackney residents during the 2012 Olympics.

As an alumnus of the Social Mobility Foundation, Inez has also been afforded the opportunity to work in some top organisations, each of which has seen and benefitted from her potential. Aside from working in the office of opposition leader Ed Miliband MP, alongside his diary secretary, Inez also spent a week working at The Observer/Guardian.

"I have found that paying less attention to the barriers that could potentially hold me back and focusing fully on realising all opportunities that present themselves have contributed to everything I am proud of today."

While she was there, during the infamous London riots of 2011, journalists at the paper struggled to get close enough to cover the story. Inez was personally called upon by the editor, John Mulholland, to return to her north London roots and be his ‘woman on the inside’. She duly obliged and her article was published as a double page spread in The Observer, as well as on the Guardian website. She would return to write for the site on three separate occasions, including a powerful personal reflection on the changes in London since the death of Stephen Lawrence.

Unsurprisingly, given her experiences, Inez is an accomplished and confident public speaker. She was a Grand Finalist at the Jack Petchey Speak Out competition, and was even invited by John Bercow MP – the Speaker of the House – to address an audience in the Speaker’s Room at the Commons. Despite a busy university schedule, she has a number of mentoring commitments and also teaches debating each week at a comprehensive school in Bristol.

Not content with being an active and authoritative voice for her generation, she is also clearly dedicated to giving the next generation one of its own.

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