We're all finding different ways to do what we'd normally do, aren't we? And so members of our amazing alumni community are stepping in again virtually to support Year 12 students in their quest to find out more about Life after Queen's - enlightening them in conversations on topics as varied as universities' reputations (and the reasons for them), content of courses, day-to-day life in research, professions and payscales, work/family balance and more.
In the latest of our Zoom Alumni Lunches, Queen's students interested in dietetics and nutrition enjoyed a great chat with Ruth Cornock '03 and one of her university lecturer colleagues, and got a special insight into the everyday reality of a lab-based research scientist (including the frustrations of Nottingham's bus timetables!)
But looking at the Have Mynde Archive reminds me that this kind of remote support by alumni is certainly not new. In 1898 former Queen's girl E. R. McNeile did a fantastic job of bringing a Cambridge student's day to life in her 'Letter from Girton' - discussing many of the same topics as last week's Zoom!
And what really struck me about that letter is its encouragement to Queen's girls to 'to come up as soon as possible and live it for themselves' 50 whole years before women were awarded degrees there! Queen's girls at the forefront of women's education again... More here if you're interested in the fight for degrees for women in Cambridge.
Clare Holland
Alumni Officer