The highlight of my career at NGHS has certainly been my role as head girl, which I have enjoyed immensely and found a welcome challenge. As I leave school I hope that my study of law will lead me into the field of international human rights and becoming a barrister, but I am determined to enjoy myself every step of the way.

Past Minerva Prize Winners and Runners Up

Annie Hughes - Croydon High School - Class of 1997

After completing my A-levels, I gained a place at Loughborough University to study Business, Economics and Finance. 

Loughborough is a fantastic university and I had 3 enjoyable years there.  Aside from studying, I continued to play netball, and play the piano! In 2000 I graduated with a 1^st Class BSc (Hons) degree. I was also awarded the ‘Adam Smith Prize’ for being top of the year at University.

The summer of my graduation, I spent 8 weeks travelling and working in Spain.  The following September, I began a job at JPMorgan.  I was one of c.100 graduates from around the globe to join their Analyst Training Programme.  This was carried out in New York – a city I now love! Following training I returned to London to work in the Mergers and Acquisitions department on the European Financial Institutions Group.  I only lasted a brief spell at JPMorgan (c. 10 months), before deciding that I wanted a work life balance i.e. more in favour of life!  I therefore resigned, and spent a few months temping.  My few months temping was enough time to allow my boyfriend (from Loughborough) to graduate.  In October 2001 we then embarked upon a year out – travelling to America, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Bali and Singapore – the best year of my life!

On returning to England I was fortunate to secure a job as a Credit Analyst within Lloyds TSB’s Acquisition Finance Department.  I have been here for four years now, and have been promoted to Assistant Director (a job I have been in for 18 months), with the responsibility for taking underwrite and lead arranger positions in global leveraged buy outs (private equity driven).

I am still very close to many of my CHS friends – and next year I will be bridesmaid for my best mate who I met at CHS when I was 11!  Whilst I don’t play netball seriously anymore (which is a shame), I do continue to keep fit by running – indeed I completed the London Marathon in 2005! 

Alison Evans - Croydon High School - Class of 2000

After leaving school I headed to Nottingham to study medicine.

After successfully graduating from 5 years of fun/hard work I headed down to Somerset to work as a Pre Registration House Officer in Taunton.

I enjoyed my time in the small, district general hospital doing medicine and surgery placements. I am now coming to the end of this year and have been officially accepted on the GMC doctors register. In August I will return to the midlands and work in Derby on a rotation including General Practice and Paediatrics - the two careers I am considering going into after this second training year.

Isabel McArdle - Central Newcastle - Class of 2004

July 2006

I am at present two weeks into my summer holiday at the end of my second year at university. I am studying law at Brasenose College, Oxford. Next summer I shall have my final exams, so I am trying to take as much pressure off next year as possible, by revising hard this summer.

Academically, I have really enjoyed my past year. I have been studying trust, tort, land and administrative law, and jurisprudence. I had no formal examinations this year. 

I have also been having a good social life, but unfortunately my workload does not allow me to do as much as I used to do outside of academic work while at Central High. I have been playing in goal on my college women's football team- a new experience for me. I have been debating at the Oxford Union again.

I have recently taken up mooting (mock trials) and won a mooting competition in which I was the senior counsel in a fictional contract case.  Mooting makes big demands on time, but I enjoy it actual moot so much, and it is such good experience for the future, that I am keen to keep it up. I am also planning to join my college choir next year, for which I shall have to give up football.

I have spent the first week of my summer holiday, and am spending more time at Christmas, doing mini-pupillages: work experience for those wishing to go to the bar. It is refreshing to see everything I am learning put into practice.

Besides revision and visiting friends, I am going camping in Devon for my summer holiday. I am very much looking forward to this, as I have not camped since my days in the army cadet force! I am also attending the Head Girls' Reunion workshop in London on the 15th of July this year.

Sophie Hemming - Norwich High School - Class of 1998

In my ‘Gap year’ between school and university, I travelled to Ghana in West Africa in order to undertake a placement with the organisation ‘Projects Abroad’. This five-month placement entailed working with the state-run Veterinary Medical Service (VMS) in Accra, the capital of Ghana. During this time, I lived with a Ghanaian family, and worked alongside the Ghanaian vets in numerous departments of the VMS. These included the small animal clinic, the farm unit, the laboratory, and the zoo.  Working in all of these departments was fascinating.  I was able to gain hands-on experience with a variety of species, and by the end of my time with the VMS, was treating animals under supervision myself.  Due to less advanced prophylactic treatment available in Ghana, it was invaluable to treat numerous diseases that are not commonly seen in this country due to routine vaccination programs.

During my stay in West Africa, I also had the opportunity to travel within Ghana, and the neighbouring countries of Togo, Burkina Faso, and Mali. The highlight of these trips, although difficult to choose, was probably riding camels from Timbuktu (Mali) into the Sahara at dusk, watching the sun setting over the expanse of dessert.

Returning to England after my time in Ghana was inevitably a culture shock, but it wasn’t long until before it was time to pack up my belongings for the start of my veterinary course at Bristol University.  Throughout the 5 year course, I spent numerous weeks on veterinary related placements: 5 weeks on a dairy farm placement in Germany (utilising my German A-level), 6 weeks lambing in Gloucestershire, 6 weeks on a pig farm, 2 weeks on an equine unit and 18 weeks in several veterinary practices. 

Having played in numerous bands and orchestras at school, it was only natural that I would continue this at university. In my first year, I was selected to play in the Bristol University Symphony Orchestra. Despite having been a keen rower during my time at Norwich High School, I was eager to try some new sports and activities at University.  I decided to join the Bristol University Women’s Rugby team, and was soon playing in the 1^st XV. I was selected as club captain in my third year, and also put forward to trial for the England Students team, being selected for the squad for two consecutive seasons, the latter season as Captain. I have continued to play rugby throughout since graduating in 2004.  I have remained in the England set-up, having just finished a successful season playing in the England A squad.

Since leaving Bristol Vet School in July 2004, I have worked as a ‘mixed’ vet at Avenue Veterinary Centre in Bristol.  My duties include operating and consultations with domestic pets (varying from dogs, cats, to more obscure species!); and visiting farms and equine yards to examine larger animals.  There is no such thing as a normal day – work is incredibly varied and always keeps me on my toes! 

Catherine Pinder - Portsmouth High School - Class of 2002

Ambassador for the GDST

This year I finished my degree at New College, Oxford in psychology and philosophy and gained a 2.1. I did my third year project on intergroup attitudes in Northern Ireland, and relished the opportunity to travel to Belfast to do research there. Despite all the hard work I had a great year, playing in lots of concerts with the OU philharmonia orchestra and playing college football and university ice hockey. The highlight of the year was our Varsity match in which I scored some goals and which we won 13-4.

I am now keen to get as much experience as I can in NGO and humanitarian work, with the aim of getting a job in the sector when possible. I am therefore travelling to Nicaragua (tomorrow as it happens!) to do a three month internship, working in the office of a small aid agency there and hopefully getting my Spanish to a high level.

Then in January I am going to Chicago to do another three month internship with the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, which again should be a fantastic experience.

I am applying for a reverse Rhodes scholarship (which would fund me to go to Canada to do a two year taught master's degree in international relations) and should find out about that in December. I would be happy to do a master's here but funding is a problem. If I get the scholarship I will do the master's and then hopefully get a job in the field that I want to. If not,

So that's the plan as it currently stands! I continue to be very proud of my educational heritage, of winning the Minerva prize and of being an ambassador for the GDST.

Nottingham High School

I took a gap year after school to travel to New Zealand and Australia and get some more work experience under my belt, spending two months working for L'Oreal New Zealand at the start before heading off in a car to travel around New Zealand for 3 months. Whilst there I was lucky enough to do such things as skydiving, bungy-jumping and white water rafting, before I whizzed around Australia for a month, the highlights of which were sailing in the Whitsunday Islands and camping out on Fraser Island. It was an unforgettable year.

It was then time for university, so I returned to the UK to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at Hertford College, Oxford University, where I became a scholar after my prelims and graduated last summer with a 2:1. In my first year I played the violin in the Oxford University Orchestra, before deciding to focus on chamber music, through which I won a competition with my quartet to perform the Mendelssohn Octet with the Allegri Quartet, which turned out to be a very exciting concert! I also continued to enjoy playing hockey at a college level, captaining the women's team and playing for the mixed team. During my first university summer I volunteered as a teacher in Nepal with an Oxford University charity, working alongside a Nepali NGO, where we also got involved with the local women's group and the drama society, coaching the local women on health issues. One of the best memories of that summer was performing in a street drama to over 2000 villagers, explaining how you can get diarrhoea and how best to treat it, all in Nepali...it must've been our accents but the locals found it hilarious!  In my second year I was appointed as Food and Housing Office on the JCR Executive Committee at college, where I was responsible for the accommodation of the undergraduates, and for the catering facilities in college. For my second summer at university I did an internship with Deloitte consulting, which was a fantastic experience and made me realise that consulting was what I wanted to do when I left Oxford.

Having graduated from Oxford in the summer of 2005, I spent the summer in between university and work in New Zealand and Ecuador where I learnt Spanish and enjoyed many more travelling experiences. In October 2005 I joined McKinsey and Company (a management consultancy) as a Business Analyst in the London Office. McKinsey has been a fascinating experience so far; I've worked on some very challenging problems with a huge variety of clients and met hundreds of exceptionally interesting people along the way. I've got another ten months left at McKinsey, at which point I'm not certain exactly what I want to do, but I'd like somehow get involved in the education sector, potentially within policy making.

Louise Renshaw
McKinsey & Company