Alumni Fellow Case Study: Lola Idris

As an active participant in the Fellowship Programme, Lola took time out to explain what motivates her to take part.

“My time studying at Nottingham Law School was a very good three years,” she says. “I was very upset when my time there finished!

“I’ve kept in touch with quite a few people who studied at NTU and many of them had good things to say about the Fellowship Programme. When I graduated from NTU, I just got on with my job and career and that was my focus for the first few years. Then I got to the point where I wanted to reconnect and was quite grateful to what the University had done to help me achieve what I had.

“NTU had supported me from the age of 18 until I was 21, and it felt right to repay some of that by helping others.”

Had Lola benefitted from the Fellowship Programme during her own studies?

“I don’t think it had started running back then,” Lola says, “although I’d previously used the University’s Employability Hub and was part of the Employment Mentorship Scheme. I’d benefitted from the support and mentoring of an alumnus who at the time was working as a solicitor over in Leicester.

“As well as sharing their knowledge, they obviously had faith in me. Particularly towards the very end of my studies, I was getting a little nervous about finding a job, but the help they gave me with things like fine-tuning my CV and interview preparation was invaluable. It’s one of the many reasons I decided to come back, so I could offer the help that I had found so useful to students.

A reoccurring theme when talking to our alumni fellows is how much they have also gained as result of engaging with the programme. Had it helped Lola develop too?

“Absolutely,” she says. One of the things I’m really looking forward to is taking part in seminars and events that involve public speaking. As a lawyer, that’s something you need to feel comfortable doing, so taking part in the programme where you are asked to talk publicly has benefits for my skills and career as well.

Taking  part in things like that help you to develop and tackle that fear if you have it. It’s also worth remembering that the student’s you’re working with aren’t there to judge – and they’re all keen and supportive and want to learn from you.

The kind of mentoring support Lola provides is varied, but all utilise her skills and experience from many years working in the legal profession. She’s found the programme to be very flexible in terms of the amount of time and commitment required.

“I currently have one mentee,” she says, “and would happily accommodate at least one more.”

Does this sound like you?

If you've been inspired by Lola's story, visit our Alumni and Industry Fellowship Programme information section to find out more.