When it comes to academic prestige, Cambridge is the Harvard of the U.K. It's notoriously difficult to get into, with more than 16,000 undergrad applicants vying for one of 3,400 places.
So it makes sense that the students who pass the long and rigorous interview process deserve to be here.
They're inventors, actors, athletes, and philanthropists — and some of the most impressive students we've met.
Adam Crafton covers sports for one of the largest newspapers in the U.K.
Homerton College, class of 2016
Adam Crafton has been writing about sports for U.K.-based publication The Daily Mail since he was 16, and last summer was finally named the Manchester Football Reporter for the paper's online division, MailOnline. In this role, Crafton covers one of the most demanding and competitive beats in the country by conducting exclusive interviews, planning features, and reporting breaking news.
Crafton admits he’s not gifted in playing sports, but his sportswriting has been widely read and recognized. In February, Crafton was nominated by the Sports Journalist Association for the Young Sports Writer of the Year Award — an impressive accomplishment for a 19-year-old. The year before he was nominated for Feature Writer of the Year at The Guardian Student Media Awards.
During the semester, Crafton works as a contributor for MailOnline, and during school breaks he’s a full-time reporter. He resumed his full-time position this summer, with a focus on the World Cup. He’s also a prolific writer for Cambridge publications, including his work as a contributing editor to The Cambridge Tab, the most widely read student publication in the U.K.
Outside of his work as a sportswriter, Crafton has been a soccer coach and referee since the age of 14 and, after a four-week intensive, gained professional coaching qualification.
The French and Spanish major, who speaks five languages, ferries off to Barcelona in August for a year abroad. He plans to combine teaching at a school with sports journalism in Barcelona while writing a book. When he graduates in 2016, Crafton hopes to join a graduate scheme (similar to a work-study program) at a national newspaper.
Amber Cowburn started a national mental-health organization with her family after a devastating tragedy.
Emmanuel College, class of 2015
Amber Cowburn suffered an unimaginable loss when her brother, after a short and debilitating period of mental-health issues, took his own life in 2010. She and her family were determined to enact positive change after the tragic event. They set up The Invictus Trust, a charity to support teenagers with mental-health issues that started off as a local organization to her county of Cornwall, but soon gained national support.
Today Cowburn and her sisters organize all the fundraising events and lead branding efforts, with Cowburn at the helm of their online and social-media presence. To date, they have raised over £50,000, produced three short films that were picked up and broadcast on Sky TV, and started lobbying for a £5 million adolescent-specific mental-health unit in Cornwall, the first time this age group has been recognized in patient care.
Cowburn is also an unwavering mental-health advocate at university. As the president of the Cambridge chapter of Student Minds, Cowan organized the largest mental-health conference ever hosted at Cambridge, which included five key speakers and the debut of the first-ever video of students talking about their mental-health issues. The event was over capacity, and was attended by the chief executives of the three largest mental-health organizations in the U.K.
Outside of her work in the mental-health field, Cowburn is a jack-of-all-trades. At various points she’s worked as a professional Bollywood dancer, photographer, and brand ambassador, and is passionate about fitness.
Cowburn, whose mother is an entrepreneur, hopes to go into business. With dreams of one day starting her own fitness brand, Cowburn hopes her upcoming summer internship at Goldman Sachs will give her a well-rounded insight into big business.
Carina Tyrrell is a contender in the Miss England competition.
Murray Edwards College, class of 2015
Last month, Carina Tyrrell ran against 11 young women for the title of Miss Cambridgeshire and won, which now puts her in the running for the prestigious title of Miss England. Contestants for Miss Cambridgeshire are scored on more than just beauty: They have to be sporty, personable, eco-friendly, charitable, and talented (Tyrrell is a skilled tap dancer).
Tyrrell’s charity is Beauty With A Purpose, a Miss World nonprofit that donates money to disadvantaged children around the world. She has raised over £3,000 for her cause, and will continue campaigning until the Miss England finals in June.
When she’s not prepping for her upcoming competition, Tyrrell spends a lot of time at Cambridge University’s teaching hospital, Addenbrooke’s, where she works as a student doctor as a part of her premed degree. There she studies under physicians to learn good bedside manner, a skill she says is fundamental to being an effective doctor. Tyrrell will receive a first-class honors degree — meaning perfect grades, essentially — when she graduates, an esteemed accomplishment achieved by just one in six undergrad students.
Tyrrell is the president of Cambridge’s Global Health Committee, through which Tyrrell is championing a project to help the homeless community in the surrounding Cambridge area.
Tyrrell was born in Switzerland and speaks French fluently. She plans on spending the summer working at the World Health Organization in Geneva developing leadership and international-relations skills. She eventually aims to become a doctor and work in the global- and public-health fields.
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