Aqil Jaigirdar
Founder of Maa Charity
As a second year medical student, Aqil witnessed a caesarean section in rural Bangladesh that ended with the expectant mother bleeding to death, a new-born baby denied his first breath and a family fracturing in front of his eyes. Aqil returned to his studies and founded a UK registered grass-roots charity called Maternal Aid Association (MAA), with the aim to revolutionise maternal healthcare.
Joana Baptista
Social entrepreneur, speaker, and student
Joana is a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur, public speaker, activist, and student at the University of Oxford. Her social enterprise, She., originally started as a school project aimed at reversing prejudice by rewriting classic fairytales and has gone on to reach 15 countries and receive endorsements from the likes of Peter Tatchell and Miriam Margolyes OBE. She is a 2-time TEDx Speaker, advisor for the Institute of Future Work in the House of Common and ambassador #iWill and the Queens Commonwealth Trust, among others. Most recently, she co-founded UniPear, an access initiative at the University of Oxford.
Sabilah Eboo Alwani
Doctoral Candidate at Cambridge University's Faculty of Education
Sabilah Eboo Alwani is a Doctoral Candidate at Cambridge's Faculty of Education, examining the effect of parental engagement on young children's learning and development during the Covid-19 crisis. She is particularly interested in how parents play with their children, and listening to real parents talk about their attitudes and experiences of being their child's "first teacher". Sabilah is also writing a book on early childhood development and the new science of parenting.
Sulaiman Iqbal
Founder, Team UPside
After his first year at Cambridge, Sulaiman returned to his council estate in Southall, West London, to build Team UPside - a grass-roots community organisation focused on tackling opportunity and resource gaps for young people in socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the UK. Sulaiman is a firm believer in the idea that local problems are most effectively addressed by local actors with local solutions.