During the summer holidays, Wokingham Borough Council ran a writing competition, Protect Our Broken Planet, in partnership with the Natural History Museum's new exhibition, Fixing Our Broken Planet. I chose to participate by composing a poem on my own experience of the growing issue of pollution, based on my memories of the beach we frequented most during my childhood.

That beach holds a special place in my heart. My first experience of the vastness of the ocean mesmerised me, and it continued to do so every time we returned. Our best pastime was to dip our feet in the cold sea and play with the waves. 

Each year, the Royal Albert Hall hosts an eclectic mix of musical performances as part of its spectacular BBC Proms series. With music from well-known composers such as Beethoven and Elgar, to some artists you may be surprised to see there, such as that of Bill Bailey and Soul Revolution with Trevor Nelson.

We are incredibly proud to say that there have been students past and present involved in this year's set of programmes.  

Over the holidays, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take part in the Financial Times-AverPoint summer reading challenge. The challenge works as follows: over several weeks, your news consumption is tracked by a browser extension called AverPoint, which gives you targets to meet each week in order to move up to the next level of the challenge – targets include the number of articles read, the number of different news sources consulted, and saving facts you deem noteworthy.

This year’s challenge also included a short essay competition on the theme of remilitarisation for participants who had reached the top level – I was in third place in this competition and in the challenge overall.

Over the summer, I had a fantastic opportunity to be part of the Cambridge Cancer Research Institute, where I witnessed the cutting edge of science in action as researchers explored new non-invasive treatments for life-threatening cancer diagnoses. As a sixth former at Kendrick School, I’ve always been encouraged to challenge myself academically, and this programme offered the perfect environment to explore the real-world impact of biomedical research.

During the summer of my fourth year of medical school, I had the opportunity to complete an 8-week research placement in Japan, at the University of Kyoto followed by a 2-week research placement at the University of Kyushu, both in their respective departments of Dermatology.

Despite having graduated from Kendrick School in 2021, I was fortunate to receive a travel grant of £500 from the Kendrick Trustees, which I was very grateful for.