The University’s 300,000th student will graduate this summer and join our alumni community. To celebrate this occasion we asked staff and students to nominate a student to become our symbolic 300,000th alumnus. Due to the volume and quality of nominations we chose an additional 11 students to form our Top 12 Alumni to watch. Final year Chemistry student Carly Thomas is one of those and we will be following her journey through her final months as a student and into graduate life. Here Carly discusses some of the highlights of her time at Birmingham and her post-graduation plans.
My time here at Birmingham has been incredible and I have had so many amazing experiences along the way. In first year I volunteered with Carnival Rag and was elected as Mainstream Events Coordinator. I organised large scale events which helped raise over £50,000 in one year for local charities. Following on from this, I joined the Chemistry Society (ChemSoc) as a committee member. Over the course of two years I have run a number of successful events, from an Anthony Nolan recruitment drive to a food bank collection with over 350 items donated.
I am currently in the process of finalising my dissertation, “Prof. Gilbert Stork’s Contribution to Organic Chemistry”, with Dr John Snaith as my supervisor. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this and take pride in my finished piece of work.
I cannot wait to graduate, to make the most of my summer break before joining the Nationwide Building Society General Leadership Programme in September.
Overall, my time here at Birmingham has been unforgettable and I look forward to visiting in the future as an alumna!