Alumna shares inspiring message with classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022

Published: 10 October 2022

Dr Lucrece Wasolua Kibeti, Class of 2021 Medicine alumna, former Vice-President for the Afro-Caribbean Society and a director of the Tooting Show, attended her Graduation at the Barbican in July after Covid restrictions put celebrations on hold for her cohort last year.

During her final year at St George’s, Lucrece collaborated with staff and her classmate, Dr Khadija Owusu (now also a Junior Doctor), to launch Black and Beyond – a campaign celebrating Black staff and students at St George’s and recognising the importance of role models from Black backgrounds. She balances her full-time role with her work as the co-founder of Krowned UK, a non-profit organisation delivering workshops empowering young Black women through hair to equip them with the confidence to succeed. She is also an ambassador for Pads4Africa, a charity providing menstrual hygiene education and humanitarian aid to orphans in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Alongside her role as a doctor, Lucrece will continue working with the university to support ethnic minority students, helping them to prepare for any difficulties they might face during their placements and to challenge discrimination. She has recently travelled to Ghana to support the 'Like Her’ project and has exciting new projects in the line-up for Krowned to support local communities in London.

In a message to students from the last three years who officially graduated this summer, Lucrece reflects on how her time at St George’s shaped where she is today and congratulates our newest alumni on reaching this huge milestone in unprecedented circumstances.

To the class of 2020, 2021 and 2022,

What can I say…we finally made it! Or if you’re like me, you finally had your graduation ceremony after years of delay caused by the pandemic. The pandemic may at long last now be a distant memory to some, but we will always remember its impact on our university journey.

I remember being that 19-year-old, hungry for a new adventure and ready to take on the world. I remember thinking I knew exactly what I wanted from life. Every piece was perfectly laid out. But university had a very different plan for me. We all remember our very first day of lectures after all that time building up to that point. And we were all trying to get the full ‘uni-experience’ – from joining theatrical societies such as the Tooting Show to sports societies. We didn’t want to miss a beat.

And of course, how could we forget Freshers Week or the late nights going over to our friends’ houses to mingle; something I was often regretful of when the time came to wake up for morning lectures the next day. Learning to balance commitments whilst ensuring I stayed on top of my workload, would be a constant work in progress that I would never truly master. Nonetheless, I tried. Each academic year was met by a cycle of being lost at the beginning and finding eventual balance — each time, there was the added experience of the previous year to get me by.

A cost to every success

I always knew how much could happen in five years, but I never thought my life could change so drastically. With every victory comes tribulation; something I think we could all relate to during the pandemic. Perhaps for us this was felt more deeply because of the fact that Covid literally stopped the world. We also experienced the uproar which followed George Floyd’s death. Our future and that of the world looked unstable, and our loved ones’ futures were at stake!

My tribulation was suddenly losing my mother to Covid-19 in my final year. I had prayed it wouldn’t knock at my door and that I’d be exempt... alas, God had other plans. This brought everything I had ever thought I wanted into question: ‘Is this the life I want? Do I still want to go ahead with this?’ And I had little time to decide, with deadlines and exams fast approaching. But I had a choice to make: to take a break or to continue.

The natural choice would have been to take a year out and come back when I was ready. But I remembered how much my mother had given up to bring me to this point. We left France because she knew how much I’d wanted to follow this path since childhood, and she knew I wouldn’t get my shot there. I couldn’t stop so close to the finish line, so my only option was to continue. I barely had three weeks to study for finals after her funeral. No part of me honestly thought I would succeed in doing this, but if I was going to fail, I was going to fail trying.

So, whilst my world was on fire and I felt like I could barely think, thanks to God, supportive friends and family, I managed to complete the year and obtain my degree. Five years of sweat and tears were finally done and all I could wonder was, ‘How on earth did I survive such a thing?’ I'm sure this question is familiar to all of you, too. What I hadn’t realised at the time, was that every single life experience thus far had equipped me to survive such impossible conditions. Whether it was:

• meeting my forever friends at Freshers Week or social events, who I now call family; they carried me when I needed them most.
• the free doughnuts after every fresher's event given by the Christian Union, or the ISOC lectures that were so similar to the exams they helped me ace.
• the all-nighters I pulled in the library or at home - they helped me realise that I could endure more than I thought.
• the motivational talks I would give to myself or others when we had self-doubt - they kept us going when the road got tough.
• the various showcases I took part in and even directed; I met people from all walks of life as a result and gained valuable life experience.
• The one staff member who gave me that extra support at a time I needed it most.

All these experiences, and many others, had shaped my journey to give me one outcome:

The ability to overcome.

So, this is to every laugh, every tear, every person and how they’ve contributed to what we now value, stand for and will fight for, for the rest of our lives. Before you, I was just a girl wanting to live out her dream and today I am my dream; a stronger, more driven and more-confident-than-ever individual precisely because of these experiences.

We faced unprecedented changes to our examination set-ups, may have struggled with mental or physical health, and survived sleepless nights. We may have dealt with the loss of loved ones along the journey. Despite it all, we were able to complete our degrees, and can today stand up and say that against all odds, we made it!

So, if ever in doubt, remember this: You survived every experience University had to throw at you, with no manual. Every step. Every piece placed together to make a beautiful masterpiece: you. And if you can survive that, you can survive anything. 18-year-old you would be so proud.

- Dr Lucrece Wasolua Kibeti -

Glory be to God.

Yours truly,

Your fellow survivor,

Dr Lucrece Wasolua Kibeti, Class of 2021