Vogue, Glamour, the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Telegraph – you’d be hard pressed to name a media outlet that Ateh Jewel (BA 2000) hasn’t written for. Ateh is best known as a beauty journalist, but during her incredible 20-year career she has also written about politics, culture, wellbeing and everything in between. She has used her platform to kickstart difficult discussions around institutional racism and to act as a diversity advocate.

This year, she launched the Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation, which aims to help generations of Black and mixed-Black heritage students enter and thrive in higher education. We caught up with Ateh to learn more about her time at Bristol, her career highlights and the advice she gives to her young twin daughters.

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Alumna, Dr Melanie Etti (BSc 2010, MBChB 2013), has received The Fulbright Nursten Award in Medical Studies, one of the most well-regarded scholarship programmes in the world.

Melanie was selected from a strong applicant pool to complete a Master of Public Health at Harvard University with a focus on global health. Her interest in health and disease developed during her time as junior doctor and while studying Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Bristol.

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Two University of Bristol alumni have launched a friend-finding app called fethr. The app, which aims to tackle loneliness, links up like-minded individuals by analysing their personality, values, interests, and friendship preferences.

Bristol Geography graduate, Julian Issa (MSci 2014), former Maths and Philosophy student, Miguel Bravo (BSc 2013) and their flatmate, Gerardo Rodriguez, came up with the idea for fethr during the first UK lockdown. The trio were discussing loneliness and realised that they had felt isolated long before the pandemic struck.

As a business analyst, Julian had lived in 10 cities in just two years, which made it difficult to form friendships. After carrying out further research, he discovered that 45% of adults in England felt lonely at least some of the time.

“Meaningful human connection shouldn’t be such a difficult thing to find in the 21st century and that is why we started fethr,” said Julian.

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This year, a whole host of Bristol alumni have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for their extraordinary contributions to society. Among them are NHS heroes, leading academics and community champions. Read on to see if you can spot any former classmates in the list of Bristol alumni who have been given a honour this year.

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Bristol alumnus, Lord Boateng (LLB 1973, Hon LLD 2007) has made history multiple times during his ground-breaking political career. In 1987 he became one of the first Black MPs to be elected in the UK and went on to become the UK’s first Black cabinet minister in 2002.

While at the University, Paul Boateng was a committee member of the Students’ Law Club and a member of the Council of the Students’ Union. After graduating with a degree in Law in 1973, Paul qualified and completed his articles in London. He later returned to Bristol to represent defendants in the St Paul’s uprising of 1980 and thereafter continued to practice in courts in Bristol, London, Liverpool and the Midlands right up until 1997.

In April, Lord Boateng joined us in conversation to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the University’s Be More Empowered for Success programme – which exists to ensure that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students thrive at Bristol. In this event, he shared his wisdom, looked back on his time as a student and gave us some invaluable life advice. Here are some of our favourite Lord Boateng quotes from the event – from politics to the power of love.

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