‘If you are going through hell, keep going’

It is graduation season. As our class of 2026 Longford Scholars get a raft of Firsts, Distinctions and 2:1s, our former scholar Rishi shares some advice with them as he reflects on all the obstacles he faced, first in getting into university after prison, and then getting into not just a graduate job, but the graduate job that was right for him. Through rejection, rescinded offers, wrong turns, it was, he writes, his Longford Trust mentor who kept him on track, focussed on the possibilities not the problems.

 It may be a little early to congratulate myself on my success. I still have so much that I want to achieve. I am writing this mainly for those among my esteemed fellow scholars who feel that there is no way out. I entered prison at the age of 20 and was fortunate in many respects. However, just as I had been awarded a scholarship by the Longford Trust, I began to encounter problems that put my university place at King’s College London at risk. These arose from miscommunications between the university and staff at the category C prison in which I was residing when the conditional offer was made.

Still in a category D (open) prison at the time these problems cropped up, I was told that this miscommunication meant I would have to delay starting university by a year. Every day I went to the education coordinator’s office in the prison and asked to use her phone to call King’s, hoping to reach someone who could help resolve the issue. After approximately three weeks of these daily visits, and no sign of resolution, the education coordinator suggested that I should probably give up since she was worried about my wellbeing in the face of such repeated disappointment. I persisted anyway.

‘The Vice-Chancellor himself authorised me to attend’

Eventually, my case was elevated to the university’s senior leadership team, where the Vice-Chancellor himself authorised me to attend on the strength of my exceptional recommendations, grades and persistence. If this story is starting to sound familiar to you—perhaps because you are experiencing something similar yourself—then this article is for you.

We all have something that employers look for in their employees but can seldom find: grit. If you are determined to change the trajectory of your life, for whatever reason, that grit you need to have is a valuable and rare commodity.

We also  have something else for which we should consider ourselves extremely fortunate. The Longford Trust gives us access to the support and sound judgement that, when combined with our grit, can enable us to achieve things that perhaps we would not have thought possible even before entering the path that led us to prison. I have experienced this myself with my Longford Trust mentor, Victoria.

That elusive first job after university

I spent my third year at university working in every spare moment to secure an internship. I applied for more than 300 roles and completed innumerable tests, coding assignments and statistics quizzes. I had interviewed with banks, hedge funds and household-name technology companies, but I never cleared the final hurdle. I had offers made then rescinded, communications abruptly halted, and endured all manner of painful rejection whenever I disclosed my conviction. Throughout that time, however, I was not alone. My mentor was beside me, sharing my excitement, feeling my disappointment and becoming part of my journey.

I now lead AI engineering at what is perhaps one of the most exciting young venture capital firms in London. I left my previous, relatively comfortable finance job because of a few well-chosen words of insight from my mentor. I have not looked back since! I am certain that I owe much of this to her.

‘There is a way out, but you cannot stop looking for it’

Your path to where you want to be may be longer or shorter than mine. It may involve more or less turmoil along the way. It may leave you feeling more dejected and less confident, and cause you to question whether there is a way out. There is a way out, but you cannot stop looking for it.

If you believe that your experience of life deserves a voice, you owe it to yourself to find a way to be heard, to pursue a path to success, to use the resources available to you and, ultimately, to find a way out.

If you have been in prison and want to get a degree that leads to a career that excites and stretches you, speak to Clare Lewis, the Longford Trust’s scholarship manager, about how to apply. Or access our application form here.