Anything is possible.
Anything is possible.
Welcome
Our Story
How many times have you heard something like: 'Our young people are underachieving!' or 'There is a lack of aspiration amongst our kids?' But for every time you have heard this how many times have you heard of a solution?
We made the decision that we were no longer going to sit on the sidelines and say, "Someone should really do something about that". We realised we had to be that 'someone'. It was going to be challenging but as Barack Obama said, 'Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.' It was from this conversation where we conceived the idea of Limitless.
As students ourselves, we understand and have a personal insight into why young people don't reach their full potential. We've been in their position. Therefore we have a clear vision around what needs to be done to change that. We realise that the problem starts from an early age and we have designed a solution to break this cycle.
Limitless is run out of our sheer passion to transform the mindset of talented young people so they can achieve their dreams, become the best version of themselves and develop into positive role models for the next generation.
Our students of today are Limitless, they just need to start believing it.
Our Vision
To develop students aged 12-18 from non-selective schools in London, into individuals who are confident about being ambitious.
We define ambition to be a strong desire to do something successfully. We believe this comes from a growth mindset and an understanding of one's interests and talents. Limitless is placed to guide our students to discover and question train of thoughts that help each of us achieve success.Our Programme
We have designed a 5 session programme run after school led by university students across the academic year.
Our students
We currently target students in non-selective secondary schools across London, who left primary school with a level 4/5 in Key Stage 2 SATs. Our programme is for those currently in Year 8/9 and require the motivation to maintain their high attainment.
Our Sessions
4 sessions of our programme will concentrate on tasks and activities surrounding:
The Meaning of Success: Why are some people more successful than others? How could our students achieve individual success in their future? By understanding the mindset of those who achieve amazing things in our world, we hope to show to our students what is truly possible if they adopt qualities like determination and resilience, in every aspect of their life.
The Growth Mindset: How does our mind actually work? How do we remember things? Why do we forget? Our 3rd session will focus on the limitations, structure and sheer power of our mind. We feel if our students can understand more about their mind, they will feel more confident to stretch and even break the boundaries of their achievements.
Career guidance: We hope to give our students a new understanding of the working world so they can gain a perspective of what the end goal might look like for them in the future. Connecting the students with amazing organisations from global banks to leading tech companies. So as to gain real life, practical understanding of these industries.
The 5th session is for our students' parents. During this session we will focus on how parents can continue to support their sons/daughters to achieve their potential throughout secondary education and beyond, aided by the experience and advice of our university students.
Our university students
All our university students will take lead of the sessions and will be hand-picked as inspirational role models from some of the best universities in the country.
In a very new and exciting way, our university students will be given an opportunity outside of their studies to take on new challenges and work towards contributing to their community in a positive light.
Qualities like leadership, creativity and flexibility, learnt through participation in our programme, will allow our university students to graduate from university with the transferable skills and experience to obtain whatever graduate role they desire. Research shows these are the skills employers are looking for from all their employees.
LIMITLESS TALKS
school talks FOR young people BY young people
launching soon...
Our Impact
We aim to ensure that every student that goes through our programme goes on to meet the Limitless criteria by the end of their secondary education.
The Limitless Criteria is the expectation that all our students by the end of Year 10:
• Achieve (or are predicted to achieve) at least 5 A*/A’s at GCSE;
• Have a clear goal they want to achieve in the future;
• And are Involved in an extracurricular activity which contributes towards their goal.Our Reason
We cannot believe that these statistics are real - this is why we do what we do.
Almost 65% of high-attaining pupils leaving primary school securing Level 5 in both English and mathematics, did not reach an A* or A grade in both these GCSE subjects in 2012 in non-selective secondary schools.
This represented over 65,000 students.
Ofsted 'The most abled student' report (June 2013)
27% of these previously high-attaining students attending non-selective secondary schools did not reach a B grade in both English and mathematics at GCSE in 2012.
This represented just over 27,000 young people.
Ofsted 'The most abled student' report (June 2013)
Our Team
some of the UK's best undergraduate students
Ivan Beckley
FounderCurrent UCL medical student.
City Year 2013 alumni.
One of the UK's top 10 black students 2015.
Sogo Akintaro
Co-FounderCurrent Analyst @
Credit Suisse Bank. Cambridge University Economics graduate.
Wilfrid Obeng
Director of Limitless TalksCurrent Account Strategist @
GOOGLE. Sussex University Computer Science graduate.
Tor Abrams
Director of StrategyCurrent Account Strategist @
GOOGLE. Leicester University Economics graduate.
David Annor
Director of OperationsAspiring Lawyer.
Lloyds Scholar.
UCL Economics and Business student.
Mandy Anukam
Marketing LeadFast stream civil service intern
University of Cambridge Human, Social and Political Sciences student.
Doyin Afolabi
Director of FinanceIntern at Llyods Banking Group.
Leicester University Accounting and Finance student.
Seye Akinboyewa
Assistant Director of FinanceWarwick Business school Accounting and Finance student.
Stephanie Okereafor
MentorGraphic Designer.
Loughborough University Retail Marketing and Management student.
Our Supporters
02 Think Big
In late 2014, we were awarded the 02Think Big award in partnership with TEDxTeen.
This is was an amazing award for us because it was our first and played a big part of our early growth.
~Think Big aims to inspire, support and enable young people (13-25 year olds) with great ideas; so they can have an impact on society while getting the hands on experience and skills they need to thrive in today’s digital world.~
Action squad 2015 award winner
At the Shaping Social Action Conference on March 25 2015, we were honoured to be announced as one of the NCVY's Action squad award.
With this award we have been given a one year membership and £500 funding as we continue to grow.
~ Supported by NCVYS Partners, Step Up To Serve, and NCS Trust, the NCVYS Action Squad Awards 2015 aimed to showcase and celebrate good practice amongst social action teams that have made a positive and lasting impact on their environment. ~
UnLtd Award winner
In recognition of our potential to create positive social impact. We are proud to be recognised with this award by the UK's largest funders and supporters of social enterprise.
~ UnLtd is the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the UK and offers the largest such network in the world. UnLtd resources hundreds of individuals each year through its core Awards programme.
UnLtd operates a unique model by investing directly in individuals and offering a complete package of resources; from Awards of funding, to ongoing advice, networking and practical support. ~
FAQs
Things that we are asked about all the time.
Why is what we are doing important for high attaining students?
From our experience at school as high attaining students; what was missing from our time that would have made achieving our full potential easier, was the support, guidance and motivation that encouraged us to think more about our future and strive for excellence. This is exactly what we hope to bring to all the Yr 8 & 9 students working with us.
Why are we providing a session for parents & carers?
- Parents & carers are essential to the development of all students throughout their secondary education.
- After teachers at school, it is the parents & carers that will provide the support that is important for achieving targets and goals whilst at school.
- We have found that for the students we will be working with not enough information is available to their parents & carers which might explain how they could help their child take the greatest advantage of the opportunities available to them.
- The world is ever changing - both parents, students and ourselves need to constantly be learning.
Why are we targeting students pre-GCSE?
We feel it’s important that students have a clearer understanding of themselves before they embark upon their GCSEs - where undoubtedly they will make decisions that will affect a part of their future. Generally, not enough students are prepared for that.
We are confident that providing a perspective of where they might want to be in the future will allow them to be prepared to make the right choice for themselves.
Keep in Contact
We need your support to spread the message that students are indeed Limitless.
Copyright 2014