At the end of the College’s Quatercentenary, we thought it would be interesting to follow the lives and careers of the Class of 2019. Their stories continue here.
PAGE 29
HARRY GOODWIN A bombshell to top the news list: I’ve quit my job. In January I will be ‘banged out’ of The Sun after two years, freeing me up to start a book project. I plan to write a silly, sharp send-up of Fleet Street, complete with psychotic editors, servile reporters and moronic readers. I can’t remember where I got the idea. This year I have been to prison twice, to say nothing of regular trips to court. This has been in a strictly journalistic capacity, though we’ll see if that changes next year. My spell on the crime beat has been an education. How little I had understood the depth of misery in Britain, the astonishing collapse of order and justice and the triumph of their opposites. I now keenly feel my own good fortune, the social advantage I have done so little to earn. Everywhere I go in Britain I meet people doing decent, useful work – soothing autistic prisoners on Pentonville’s neurodiverse wing or chatting with widowed OAPs in a Bridlington tearoom. And there are heroes. In the spring, I interviewed Claire Throssell at her home in South Yorkshire. Her sons Jack and Paul were burned to death by her abusive ex-husband and she now campaigns with Women’s Aid to change the courts which failed them. The decency or usefulness of journalism seems less obvious at times – but that’s a story for publication day, should I get that far. Last year I complained of not having enough time or focus to read. Many people I’ve met would be lucky to have such a problem, but still it’s one I’m glad to have kicked. Recovering my teenage appetite for books reminds me of my cloistered teenage self. Five years since leaving the College, I feel like a starkly different person – and yet no different at all. JACOB PAGE Five years – blimey! It’s a substantial chunk of time since the days of slap dash prep (tactfully and perhaps marginally flying under the radar of inadequate effort), surreptitiously and furiously scribbled in form time without attracting the attention of a tutor. So too, half a decade since being slumped upstairs at Ned's in quasi-funereal silence, playing games on our phones and ignoring each other: the type of high-quality social interaction that only teenage boys are so effortlessly capable of. Now it is the relentless highway of adulthood that keeps us busy. Since last year's diary entry, I have started my career in the world of sustainability: engaging with a morally uncharted spectrum ranging from meaningful and instant change, to depressing inertia and acts of lip service towards climate action. Sometimes it feels powerful: reshaping the approach of apparel giants to supply chain transparency or designing global climate resilience programmes. But sometimes, for example, the absurdity of an alcoholic drinks manufacturer seeking to counteract problem drinking without stopping the upward march of sales , is too Beyond the tedium of the four walls of the office – or more accurately, beyond the universe of Microsoft Teams – life continues to offer at least some excitement. This year has seen the advent of a five-a-side football team composed of myself and some of my closest friends from the College. Ashamedly, our results on the pitch leave much to be desired, with results often resembling something closer to a cricket scoreboard than we would like. Additionally, trips to Naples, Istanbul, France, Portugal and, most recently, Morocco have ensured a variety of cultural and culinary exploration. Unfortunately, I imagine that this air bound activity may have carbon offset (the wrong way) the environmentally positive impact that I have brought about through my work! Reflecting again on five years since the College, I am always intrigued by learning of the adventures of others from my cohort. Sometimes I admire successes; other times I wonder what in God's name led X reputable employer to employ Y, the disreputable 18-year-old that I remember. Clearly, we've all travelled some distance from the days of the Barry Buildings. intractable to reconcile.
JAMES BARNETT It has indeed been five years since leaving Dulwich College, which has also meant the completion of five years at Rolls-Royce in Derby. In that time, which feels like no time at all, I’ve settled into a new life, although it seems like it’s always been this way. The house I bought three years ago (and one new roof) is now the one I refer to as home, much to the horror of my parents, and coming back to London feels less like going back to school and more like a weekend mini break. You never appreciate where you live until you come back as a visitor! My journey in nuclear engineering at Rolls-Royce so far has been an exciting one. We manufacture the nuclear reactors that power the Royal Navy’s (and soon Royal Australian Navy’s) fleet of submarines. While we live in unprecedented times, it is comforting to know that the ‘nuclear renaissance’ has at least managed to spawn a new generation of bright, young people who can use their skills for good. Everything changes quickly working in a place like
this – for me, engineering is about being able to have an idea and put it into practice, even if you’re not sure how you’re going to get there, and you have to change a lot to get it right! Having initially started my path at Rolls-Royce in aerospace, I couldn’t be happier that I found myself in nuclear - despite not knowing what I was getting into at the time. I’m sure in the next five years everything will have changed completely again. While I don’t see myself packing up and leaving for a new place any time soon (at least not permanently), I’m certainly going to keep trying new things and making the most of my new life. So far, I’ve been to 26
NATHAN SPARKES Flying the family nest at the beginning of 2024 kicked off an exciting year for me. I’m now into my third year at a data-focused business management consultancy, and after the best part of 16 months without any meaningful client placements, my luck changed, and I landed a contract in the trading arm of BP as a business analyst. The project I’m on revolves around a platform that enables market data access for trading analysts and the front office, which has afforded me a very interesting opportunity to get hands-on in an industry I previously had no experience of. I operate with a happy balance between acting as product owner to coordinate business- facing requirements with our developers and managing and building ETL pipelines for pricing and fundamental data. I’m really enjoying getting stuck in, having increasing responsibilities. and being constantly challenged with new coding problems to solve, so all-in-all I’m currently rather fulfilled with my career and I’m excited to see how it progresses.
Work aside, I’ve been indulging my curiosity for the world of endurance running. This led me to the somewhat surreal experience of running a two-stage ultra marathon in the Ouarzazate Province of Morocco in November. Traversing the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains for 110km through remote villages, oases, World Heritage Sites and vast arid plains, I continuously faced the difficult assessment of whether I should stare downwards at the precarious rocky underfoot terrain or take in the surroundings and risk rolling an ankle. By nothing short of a miracle, I returned home injury free with some incredible memories and I’m looking forward to scratching the next itch…
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting