Annual Scholars’ Dinner: What are you hungry for?
Ms Boustead – Careers Coordinator
The annual Sixth Form Scholars’ Dinner took place on 3rd December and proved to be another enriching experience for our Upper Fifth and Lower Sixth Form students. The evening began with welcome drinks, allowing students to network with our guest speakers, followed by talks in the Academic Hall. Our guests were as superb and diverse as usual, covering the fields of law, town planning, science and business.
We were delighted to welcome our first esteemed speaker, Martin Walsh, who left St. Bede’s College in 1973 and was the first from his family to attend university where he studied Law. His extensive career journey began after he qualified as a solicitor in 1979, transferring to the Bar in 1990. Martin was appointed a Recorder in 2000 and became a full time Circuit Judge in 2009. In 2017 he was appointed as the Resident Judge and Honorary Recorder of Bolton. In addition to this, Martin was also a Tutor Judge at the Judicial College, a member of the Criminal sub-committee of the HM Council of Circuit Judges and also served on the Mental Health Review Tribunal panel.
Next to speak was Elizabeth Brady who left St Bede’s in 2020 to study an integrated Master’s in Town and Regional Planning at the University of Liverpool. She was drawn to understanding how places evolve and how good planning can genuinely improve people’s lives, and so became a Land and Planning Graduate at Taylor Wimpey. Passionate about creating well-designed, sustainable neighbourhoods and being part of projects that people will call home for generations, Lil has worked across a range of planning environments – from social housing regeneration schemes that focused on building stronger, more inclusive communities, to renewable energy projects such as solar and battery storage developments that highlighted the importance of sustainable infrastructure.
She was followed by Dr Joao Paulo Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester, whose career path began in his home country of Brazil, took him to Yale, back to Brazil before arriving in Manchester. Joao’s first desire was to excel in martial arts, but after pursuing a Sports’ Science degree he fell in love with biology. For the past ten years, Joao has focused his research on understanding how brain regions that encode the sensation of hunger regulate whole-body metabolism and, more recently, immune function. He employs pre-clinical models and genetic tools to remotely manipulate specific neuronal populations. When talking about what lengths a mouse would go to in order to satisfy its appetite, Joao posed the question, ‘What are you hungry for?’ which proved to be a fitting metaphor for students making crucial decisions about their future.
Our final speaker, also alumni, was Inzinga Samms-Alcott who graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc in International Business with Spanish in Summer 2025 and is a recipient of the Future Leaders Magazine Top 150 Future Leader Award 24/25. Subsequently, she pivoted into law, as she began studying the PGDL at the University of Law in Autumn 2025, having accepted a 2027 Solicitor training contract with Pinsent Masons LLP in Manchester. Alongside her studies, she has built consulting and research experience, including previously serving as an ESG pro bono consultant at 180 Degrees Consulting and continuing her work as a freelance human rights due diligence researcher at SupplyESChange.
It was inspiring to hear our speakers’ stories and their valuable advice about choosing the right course, apprenticeship or career. Although each speaker brought their own unique experiences to the table, they were united in their message that the way to achieve success is to pursue what you love and make the most out of every opportunity and connection that is presented to you along the way.
After the talks, we made our way to the dining hall for a delicious three-course meal, providing both students and speakers the opportunity to exchange thoughts and engage in valuable discussions about how to follow their dreams.
