Sophie Pender

It’s taken 8 years to get here, but you’re finally looking at the full-time CEO of The 93% Club.

8 years ago, age 19, I stood in a tent at the freshers’ fair of Bristol University. I’d stayed up all night trying to make sure the signage I’d designed was perfect. The logo was pretty crap and the colours for the branding were taken directly from my state school’s blazer. Despite the smile, I stood for hours anxiously in front of that stand with the distinct feeling of exposing myself.

Against the backdrop of university, I’d felt so ashamed of being from a state comprehensive, ashamed of growing up on a council estate, ashamed of having to work part time jobs, ashamed of the drugs, violence and alcohol that made my childhood so turbulent. Ashamed of not being like the others I found myself surrounded by.

When I set up the The 93% Club’s Facebook page and stood in that tent, I just wanted to feel normal again.

When the Club started to snowball in 2020, I immediately registered it as a charity. The registration as a charity was important to me - I knew that, despite the growing interest in social mobility, this issue did not belong to me, or to anyone, for that matter. I wanted to preserve its public interest and its status as a not for profit. Even when it was finally approved, I had no idea what was to come.

For the last four years, alongside a career as a corporate lawyer, and due to a whole load of stubbornness and fear of the unknown, I’ve worked as a volunteer in evenings, weekends, holidays, birthdays, Christmases, to keep the Club going.

It’s been exhausting at points, and not great for the mental and physical health (don’t recommend 2 full time jobs), but I was kept going by the belief that we could galvanise enough people - state AND private school - to change the very fabric of UK society.

As I step into my role full-time, 8 whole years later, I’m reminded of what drove that 19 year old girl to stand in front of that stall for hours, talking to anyone that would listen.

The mission remains the same - it’s time to transform what it means to be state educated in the UK, one connection at a time.

#StateSchoolProud

In 1996, I was born and raised on a council estate in North London.

In 2008, I lost my dad to an overdose after his long-standing struggle with drugs and alcoholism.

In 2012, I got my first two part time jobs at McDonald’s and John Lewis, where I’d revise for my exams on lunch breaks and listening to the notes I’d recorded on the bus to work.

In 2014, I became the first person in my school to achieve straight A*s at A-level, and I headed to University of Bristol. I quickly learn that going to university from a state comprehensive means changing things until you land on an acceptable version of yourself.

In 2016, The 93% Club is born - it’s a small Facebook page receiving a lot of abuse. I also land a training contract offer at Herbert Smith Freehills after arriving at the interview armed with a briefcase (because that’s what lawyers use, right?)

In 2020, The 93% Club becomes the largest network of state educated students in the UK with the mission to reinvent the Old Boy’s Network so that it works for the majority of the population.

In 2023, I’m doing my first TEDx talk in London. This whole social mobility journey has been nothing short of messy so I can’t promise you coherent thoughts, but I can promise honesty👇🏻

Happy Wednesday to everyone EXCEPT Rt Hon Rachel Reeves, who just single handedly ruined The 93% Club brand LIVE ON TV IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.





*screaming begins*

Update on my last post: my worst fears have been confirmed.

At 12:01, my flat was infiltrated by my mum under the guise of a “visit”. Where a piece of printed art once stood, there is now the 3ft Prince of Wales. He is joined by Rylan. How much more can the suspect stick on a canvas?

My birthday is fast approaching. I fear that we have not seen the end of this.

Stay safe, stay vigilant, watch your walls, and report any packages that say “Vista Print” on them,

Sophie

Never in a million years when I set up a Facebook page for state school students did I think that The 93% Club would be up for one of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. 🤯

Sadly we didn’t take the crown last night but it was such a privilege to lose to a formidable organisation like The Cheeky Panda 🐼 (who I use on a regular basis!)

Congratulations to all of the finalists - it’s an honour to be in your orbit 🪐

What next…?!?! 😉

Fin Wright | Sam Turnpenny

#GBEA2022 #GBEA

This is what State School Solidarity looks like.

Yesterday was A-Level Results Day. News reports showed that the inequalities in educational attainment have become even wider. We were not surprised, but we were prepared. Despite what happened yesterday, what I witnessed was magic.

Yesterday, The 93% Club deployed volunteers into state schools across the country to support teachers and students throughout the day. For the students who got their first or second choices, we celebrated their successes and got them signed up to their local 93% Club so that they would have a community ready and waiting for them on their first day.

For the students who missed their grades and didn’t know what to do, our volunteers spent hours on the phone and online - advocating on their behalf, supporting them through the clearing process, and holding their hand through what felt like, in that moment and to those students, the end of the world. Because of the work of those volunteers, those students who woke up without an offer, finished the day with a place at university. They had choices.

This is what it means to be the UK’s largest network of state educated people. This is exactly what The 93% Club is about. It’s boots on the ground support from one state educated person to the next. It’s being the support network we wish we’d had in life’s critical moments.

I couldn’t be prouder to be part of this network. I couldn’t be prouder of our team. And I certainly can’t wait to go into even more schools next year to make sure that no state educated student is left behind.

#StateSchoolProud #ALevelResultsDay

“It always seems impossible, until it’s done.”

The first year of running The 93% Club was hell. In fact, it was so bad, that I had to take a 3 year break from it.

In the year that I launched the UK’s first network for state educated individuals, I got the following:

✉️ hate messages on social media, questioning why we needed a network of our own

📰 student newspapers publishing stories calling me an anarchist, claiming the Club should be banned on campus

🗣️ harassed and heckled by other students at my freshers’ stand, which I had worked so hard to get

❌ ignored by almost all of the companies I reached out to, who weren’t ready to address socioeconomic background

Last month, on Social Mobility Day, The 93% Club hosted Alastair Campbell at Salesforce Tower. If you had told me that 7 years later I would be interviewing one of the world’s most famous political strategists about his new book and his favourite quote, I would have said you were mad.

Contrary to what you may see on social media, running The 93% Club is not easy. Whether it’s because socioeconomic background is still neglected, even in D&I circles, or because of the sheer amount of work that needs to be done. Sometimes, it feels impossible.

Despite that, the team show up every day because once upon a time it seemed impossible that an organisation like ours could even exist. We show up for state educated people because, even though it seems impossible that we can undo the years of damage inflicted by educational inequality in the UK, we have to try.

We show up for The 93% Club because we know that it always seems impossible, until it’s done.

#StateSchoolProud ❤️