Succession: Serena Cole

Serena Cole

Second-year Medical student

I’ve always made last-minute decisions. Deciding to come and study Medicine at Trinity was definitely not the exception. I was still considering Engineering well into year 13, I never actually made it into Trinity College when I came to visit Cambridge, and I would tell my family I wanted to go to Edinburgh. But for some reason, I felt like this is where I was supposed to be. Even when my tutor asked, ‘Are you sure?’: a confidence knock, which had to be reversed by an uplifting talk from my Dad. Even when I was one of only two people in my year occupying this space as black students, I have thrived here; I have made friends, joined societies and become Trinity BME officer, while of course studying. All in all, I wouldn’t change that last-minute decision and I hope that more and more black students can make the same one.

Photograph: © Henry Kamara