The #PowerofThree: in conversation with Claudine Adeyemi

Three things about Claudine: she’s a property disputes lawyer, a keen Arsenal fan and the founder of non-profit organisation The Student Development Co. Claudine has already achieved more than many people of twice her age and has been recognised for her work in both a professional and an entrepreneurial world.  The SDC is an organisation which provides career related support to young people from less advantaged backgrounds through a range of initiatives. When we met at last year’s Precious Awards (where she was the winner of the award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year),  I was keen to hear her story and learn more about what motivated this extraordinary young woman, who decided she wanted to be a lawyer aged just 11, to give back to others.

 Here’s what we discussed.

When I was younger, it was a case of knowing a bit about certain professions and wanting to be something like a lawyer or a doctor. It was an aspiration, even though I didn’t really know what it meant, other than seeing lawyers on TV at 11. I deliberately chose my GCSEs and ‘A’ levels on the basis that I’d be studying law.  I then started to find out about the kind of other skills that would be helpful to me in a legal career – like debating, arguing, persuasive writing. As I grew up, I worked out that the decision I’d made as a child was a good one.

I left home aged 16. I won a local newspaper’s Student of the Year award in 2007 and met Camila Batmanghelidjh, through whom I was supported with a key worker from her then-charity Kids Company, who in turn connected me to a barrister as a mentor. I ended up getting  4 As at ‘AS’ and ‘A’ Level and I then obtained a 2.1 in Law from University College London.

A mixture of things led me to develop The SDC.  Growing up, although I’d always wanted to be a lawyer, due to my ethnic and socio-economic background,  I just didn’t know any – or even know anyone who could connect me to any lawyers. Initially, I set up a group called Young Black Graduates in 2012 to get young black people to network and share ideas and contacts. There was a huge emphasis at the time on young entrepreneurship, rather than on getting into corporate roles and careers. So I wanted to provide a platform to help other young people get into careers and transition from studying. Getting support from Kids Company has left me with a sense of duty; I want to give something back and pay it forward where I can.

I set up The SDC in early 2014. Our three aims are to support, develop and create. We want to support young people in their careers, develop their employability skills and create opportunities, either as volunteers with us or with experiences at our partner companies. We started out by targeting young people from ethnic minority groups, but now we also tackle wider social mobility issues.

The partner companies include law firm Mishcon de Reya, The Telegraph media group, PwC and Sky. We have set programmes, such as The Skills Insight Programme, which is aimed at school leavers, where our partner companies run events for our school leavers to learn about career options in companies such as theirs.  It’s really about widening career choices and providing access to new ideas – many people think that these roles and even the corporate office buildings are outside their reach. Or we work with companies who have existing outreach programmes and we participate by connecting people and companies. We’re really just trying to do what we can to overcome barriers to change.

We’re run by young people (including eight volunteers) so we can resonate with the user base. We currently work with c. 150 direct users, who attend our events and workshops or benefit from 1-2-1 support and we connect with hundreds more via newsletters and social media, our website and blog.

My hope is that The SDC becomes a national organisation, still run by young people, which can support more young people. And I want to focus on making it into something that can be handed over and can be sustainable. I’d also like to move towards registered charity status and it becoming a more prominent organisation and not just a project. Social mobility in Britain is a huge issue.

With my own career, it’s early days yet, as I only qualified about eighteen months ago. At the moment, I’m focusing on learning everything and getting to grips with my specialty area. Long term, I want to progress as far as I can but currently I’m just enjoying being in the career I’ve wanted to be in for such a long time. I have a few unofficial mentors who I meet for a coffee. And I’m a mentee on the Law Society’s mentoring programme; my mentor is a lawyer at another firm. I think it’s so important to have a mentor, be it in a structured way or more casually, to provide support and guidance.

Looking back, I’d try and encourage a younger me to have more confidence in her own abilities and in herself.  I’d tell her to stay focused and persevere. I encourage young people to research and learn about different career possibilities – there are so many options. I always suggest that they start by working out what they enjoy and then seeing if there’s potential for a career in that direction.

Yes, I’m a huge Arsenal fan! I love going to matches and I love swimming too.

 

Sponsors: would you like me to interview and profile some of the key women in your organisation? If so, let’s talk – please contact me for an exploratory chat.

 

Want to be a mentor to women in Bangladesh, India, Israel or Palestine?

Last week,  I had a very interesting meeting with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women (CBFfW), a relatively new charity set up by barrister Cherie Blair, which aims to strengthen the capacity of women entrepreneurs in countries where they lack equal opportunities,  thus enabling them to grow their businesses and become greater contributors to their economies.

The Foundation aims to offer women better access to business development support networks and finance in areas of the world which include India, Israel, Kenya, Malawi and Palestine.

The CBFfW is now launching  their Mentoring Women in Business Pilot and if you’d like to be a Mentor … read on.

The 10-month pilot programme will support women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, India, Israel and Palestine through mentoring. Approximately 30 entrepreneurial women will be mentored by 40 successful entrepreneurs or professionals. The pilot aims to demonstrate that there are measurable and tangible benefits from partnering women with entrepreneurial potential in developing and transition countries with successful Mentors in the UK using Google’s online applications such as Sites, Docs, Chat and Gmail. The pilot will involve testing exciting new formats and applications, so the Foundation is  looking for Mentors who are willing to be at the forefront of the development of this extraordinary international programme.

Being a Mentor is a great opportunity to share your knowledge and experience while helping others to succeed and learn about other cultures, places, businesses and market opportunities. Your participation in the Mentoring Women in Business Pilot will require a minimum of one hour of your time every two weeks, and the more you engage,  the more you will help shape the future of the Mentoring Programme.  Some of the Mentors applying for the pilot will be matched with a Mentee by July and will be able to start the mentoring relationship right away, while others will be matched in October, when a second group of Mentees will be ready to participate in the programme. Some Mentors will not be matched with a Mentee, but their involvement in the programme will be crucial for the successful management of the mentoring Platform, as they will be able to contribute to the public forums and share their expertise with Mentors and Mentees alike. The pilot phase will finish in May 2011.

Mentors are asked to provide a minimum donation of £100 per year to help support the programme and will be given training from Google on how to use Google’s applications and from renowned experts, Clutterbuck Associates and the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning, Cambridge Judge Business School, on how to develop a strong and effective mentoring relationship. The one-day training course for the Mentors will be on July 14^th (it’s free) and will be a great opportunity to learn new skills and to network with like-minded people.

The Platform built with Google to run the Mentoring Women in Business Programme is now ready; if you would like additional information or have any questions, you can contact the programme’s project manager via gc@cherieblairfoundation.org

If, having browsed the site, you’d like to apply to become a Mentor, please apply now, as the the application deadline is 23^rdJune.

And please feel free to share this link with anyone who you think would be a great mentor for these women around the world.

A sidebar trip to Bangalore

And so to Bangalore,  a short one hour flight from Goa but a world away in terms of weather (cloudy) and atmosphere (business like). I’ve been invited by the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Women Business Leaders’ Forum, on which I serve as a global advisor,  to participate in today’s workshop on mentoring (still a relatively new concept here) entitled “Mentoring as Power Advancement” – so here I am.

Very strange to be back in the corporate world again … other than for interviews,  it’s been over three months since I’ve had to prepare for a meeting (drafting notes etc) or get myself appropriately dressed.  And,  as I wasn’t expecting to be participating in this event,  I didn’t bring any proper clothes,  so I’ve had to improvise a bit,  as I doubt anyone would take me seriously as a potential “global mentor” if I rocked up at the Thomson-Reuters India HQ in my typical Goan attire: sarong, t-shirt, flip-flops. Luckily,  I brought a black silk dress out from England,  with the goal of getting it re-tailored to fit me. I’d had that done in my first week here,  to the tune of £4 and the loss of 4” from the waist and it now looks quite smart,  although my footwear (Boden sandals) is less than conventional.  However,  I’m comforting myself that I will probably be the only woman there not wearing a beautiful sari, who’s dressed in black – and in that case,  I’d stand out whatever I wore.

This is such a great topic for the workshop;  mentoring is still in its infancy here in corporate India and it’s a privilege to be invited to join in and reconnect with some of the wonderful women I met at last year’s NASSCOM event. It also ties in a little with my work in Goa; I hope that I am providing support and informal mentoring to the 50 girls aged between 7 and 13 who live at Rainbow House and who cannot have too many positive female role models to nurture them and show them the benefits of education and working hard.  I love this quotation from the current President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who reminds us that she is both a role model and a mentor to Indian women in saying that she is:

“ … deeply committed to the cause of education and would like to see every person, man and woman, boy and girl, be touched by the light of modern education. Empowerment of women is particularly important to me as I believe this leads to the empowerment of the nation.”

The CII have put me up in a lovely hotel (a comfortable bed! HOT water in the shower! How a month in a 1* hotel has changed me …) and I’m so appreciating the free and fast wireless connectivity in my hotel room that I haven’t even left it since I arrived last night.

But I must venture out now,  ahead of the workshop.