Zion's Story 

I didn’t get the grades I needed. So I sent a letter to the uni and told them my business idea about setting up a social enterprise and how I needed to do the course to help me gain the knowledge. And they took me on! I’m doing a one‐year MA now in youth justice, community safety and applied criminology at Middlesex. I’m being funded by my employer, a fostering agency, which is great – they also really liked my business idea which is why they agreed to help me. I sit on their fostering panel and also work as a mentor for young people in care.

I didn’t go around telling people at uni I’d been in care but I didn’t keep it a secret. I ticked the care leaver box on the UCAS form because it meant I got financial help from the uni. I went to a care leaver’s group but only a few people turned up – some people were busy and other people were like, “I’m not really interested – I want to forget about this care stuff!”