Renee Kapuku

BA Modern History 2015

Renee Kapuku was the first student from her state school in North London to be accepted into Oxford, and the first in her family to get into university. She was elected as one of the first ethnic minority representatives on the JCR and worked with both the Oxford Women’s Campaign and the Oxford Campaign for Racial Equality to tackle discrimination on campus. Renee was also elected president of the Oxford African and Caribbean society, hosting Oxford’s first black history month, and founding the #BlackMenAndWomenOfOxford viral campaign.

She worked alongside Goldman Sachs, Linklaters and Teach First touring schools across London to deliver workshops for students of African and Caribbean heritage in secondary school. In 2017 she successfully partnered with Clifford Chance and Oxford University to co-ordinate the UK’s largest student-led conference for high-achieving Year 12 state-school students of African and Caribbean heritage.

Renee was also recognised as a Future Leader by the PowerList Foundation, received an award from the Social Mobility Foundation at the House of Lords as one of the top ten students in the UK, and became a Titular Scholar upon graduating from Oxford with a first in History. She was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Memorial Trust Scholarship after her successful acceptance to the Harvard Graduate School of Education for International Education Studies—one of the youngest of her Master’s degree and scholarship recipient cohort.

Currently, Renee works at the non-profit organisation Malaika DRC, which aims to provide education and sustainable resources to young girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She remains passionate about improving access to higher education and increasing opportunities for social mobility.

“My time at Keble played a pivotal role in allowing me to pursue my passions in an environment surrounded by support and love from various members from the Keble community. I could not imagine spending my time at Oxford anywhere else.”