Newnham’s Principal told guests that the University of Cambridge teaches students ‘how to think, not what to think’ at two international alumni events.
Dame Carol Black was one of the speakers at two special dinners – one in Singapore, one in Hong Kong – to mark the international celebration of Cambridge’s £2 billion fundraising campaign.
The University launched the ‘Dear World, Yours Cambridge’ campaign last year to ‘ensure that our impact on the future will be as vital as our impact on the past’.
Just under 300 alumni, supporters and guests attended the event at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore on April 11 and more than 400 were in Hong Kong at the Four Seasons on Wednesday, April 13
Dame Carol told the packed alumni audience: “What makes Cambridge really special is our unique constellation of 31 Colleges which stimulate intellectual and cultural collaboration.
“Within each College our supervision system ensures that every mind is carefully nurtured and can blossom and bloom. We must ensure that our collective impact on the world can never dwindle and can only go from strength to strength.”
Alumni from all 31 Colleges were present and the evenings showcased some of Cambridge’s world leading academics, young alumni and students including two Newnham graduates.
In Singapore, Dr Manu Chhabra (NC 2006), Medicine graduate, also took to the stage to talk about her time at Cambridge.
She said: “At Newnham I met an incredibly diverse set of brilliant women from whom I learned how to discuss and how to debate. Cambridge gave me a genuine edge and it will help me make a genuine impact.
“I miss the Newnham family that supported me physically, emotionally and financially for so long. Part of me will be forever Newnham, forever Cambridge, but all of me will be forever grateful.”
In Hong Kong, Cathy Yuen (NC 2011), Law graduate and one of the late Dr Catherine Seville’s students, was one of the guest speakers after Dame Carol.
She said: “From the moment I attended a student conference aged just 16, I knew that Law was for me and that Cambridge was for me. I’ll admit that the first few weeks were pretty daunting. But my view of the world has changed and my perspective has broadened. My memories of my Director of Studies – who turned from chief inquisitor into my second mum – will live with me forever.”
Dame Carol and Penny Hubbard, Newnham’s Development Director, also attended a number of special Newnham alumnae events in Hong Kong and Singapore and visited numerous schools in both places to encourage students to aim high and apply to Cambridge.
Cathy Yuen (NC 2011), Law graduate, talking about her time at Cambridge on stage in Hong Kong
Dr Manu Chhabra (NC 2006), Medicine graduate, on stage in Singapore talking about her time at Cambridge.
Professor Dame Carol Black on stage in Hong Kong
Dinner guests watch the presentations