After leaving Bedales and taking a gap year, I went to study French and Spanish at the University of Exeter. As part of this, I spent a year working for a merchant bank in Madrid, which was an absolutely fantastic experience. This piqued my interest in finance as a career, and out of it I managed so secure a summer internship at a private equity firm in London.
At the end of 2016, I was contacted by one of the people I had worked with in the private equity firm, asking me to work with him at the company he was establishing, Auruem Advisory. I joined in January last year and have loved every minute of it. Aureum provides investment services to private investment companies as well as a few, small, charitable trusts. These services range from reporting, accounting, market research and analysis of potential investments. I am aware of just how boring this all sounds, however I have found it to be wonderful; I am challenged each day and have been able to take on a great amount of personal responsibility, since we are such a small firm.
Obviously, I was very much humanities-focused at Bedales (A Levels in, History, Religious Studies and French), and so cannot say that my academia there had much direct impact on my career, but my experiences there were incredibly useful in shaping me. I finally started to appreciate the value of hard work and grit in sixth form; things do not fall on your lap just because you would like them to! I also gained a huge amount of self-confidence at Bedales, which is important regardless of the field one goes into in later life.
Outside of work, I am a trustee for the Oliver Borthwick Memorial Trust, which gives money to various charities across the UK providing help for the homeless or those in risk of becoming homeless. Another thing Bedales did was to instil in me the importance of charity and thought for others, not least via the Swaziland project, and I am truly grateful for this.
(Summer 2018)