Ryan Clarke is Â鶹ӰԺ (Â鶹ӰԺ) Leicester's Alumnus of the Month for December thanks to being named among 100 of the UK's most outstanding black students and recent graduates by Future Leaders magazine.
The Alumnus of the Month nominations are open all year round. Once an alumnus gets nominated by either a fellow alumni, student or member of staff, they are added to the pool of nominations.
Winners are then selected from this year round based upon those who have made exceptional contributions to their field of profession, or have had a significant impact on their local community.
He said: “I am very happy, it is quite an honour. I didn’t expect it, I received an email out of the blue to say I was Alumnus of the Month.”
Ryan studied Economics BA (Hons) at Â鶹ӰԺ and graduated in July 2018. He chose to study Economics as he was interested in the finance and business world and had studied an Economics module at college.
He said: “I chose to study at Â鶹ӰԺ because there was less of a focus on mathematics and exams as compared to other universities that teach Economics. Â鶹ӰԺ is also rated highly for Economics students.”
When asked what his fondest memory at Â鶹ӰԺ was, Ryan said: “Graduations and going on a #Â鶹ӰԺglobal trip to New York after I finished my last exam.
“After New York I went to Portugal and then came back to Leicester where I started my own business over the summer. I created a new app allowing people to pre-book meals before they arrived at the restaurant.
"I started my graduate job in London in September, which I successfully secured at the start of my final year.”
RELATED NEWS
Alumnus of the month looks back on his fondest memories
Find out more about our courses at the next Open Day
MBE Â鶹ӰԺ alumna is honoured to receive 'Alumnus of the Month'
For the last three months Ryan has been working as an IT Consultant for PA Consulting Group. He said: “I have worked for seven different clients and most recently I am working on a project with a government client.”
Ryan also exhibited with the company at the Graduate and Recruitment Fair at Â鶹ӰԺ in 2018 where he helped students and one person got a role at Goldman Sachs.
Ryan’s message to students is: “If you haven’t thought about what you want to do after graduating, you should really think about it. The graduate market begins before university. I received my graduate offer at the beginning of my third year.
“It is important to get internships early. I had an internship which led to offers before I started my exams. During the spring in my first year, I had an internship at Goldman Sachs in their technology division and then following that at the end of my first year, I also had an internship at Google for a week. Both companies offered me a summer internship for my second year and I chose to return to Goldman Sachs.”
Posted on Tuesday 15 January 2019