This session will run from 14:00 - 15:30.

We are pleased to announce the first Lightning Talk of the academic year for the freshly updated Parents and Carers working group.

Dr Anna Varadi will talk about how Cardiff University has partnered with The Brilliant Club to co-run the Cardiff Parent Power (CPP) community programme. CPP helps parents to develop community organising skills and build a knowledge base about Higher Education, so they can support their children with access to HE. Anna will discuss how CPP empowers parents to initiate campaigns that benefit their community, how the partnership has established a mutually enriching relationship between Cardiff University and the local community, and how parents, most of whom do not have first-hand experience of HE, have embraced the opportunity to become HE champions.

Dr Anna Varadi is Widening Participation Manager at Cardiff University, working with a wide range of communities to support them in accessing HE in the UK. With a PhD in Media, Politics and History, she has previously taught undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Universities of Reading and Warwick. She then served as Selection Manager for the Rise Scholarship at the Rhodes Trust, Oxford University. Currently, she manages Cardiff University’s Aspire programme for sanctuary seekers, the Cowrie Scholarship for Black British undergraduates, and the Parent Power community group, along with a supervisory role for other Widening Participation enrichment programmes.