Brilliant Club Graduation at King’s College London

On Monday 18th May, a group of our scholars attended their graduation ceremony at the Guy’s Campus of King's College London, where they received their certificates and enjoyed a tour of the campus.

These students deserve enormous congratulations for their dedication, resilience and academic ambition. As part of the programme, they completed a challenging university-style assignment, culminating in a 12,000-word essay on a topic currently being researched by a PhD student. Our Year 7 and 8 scholars became Disease Detectives, working with Chara Smitzi from University College London, while our Year 9 and 10 students explored Are Stem Cells the Future of Medical Research? with Alice Rossi from King’s College London.

Special congratulations go to Kosy, who showed tremendous courage by becoming the first student in the school to deliver a speech at the graduation ceremony. She spoke confidently about malaria and the knowledge she had gained through the programme. Chioma also represented the school exceptionally well, delivering a thoughtful and articulate speech on stem cells and reflecting on the challenges she had overcome during the course.

The Brilliant Club offers students a unique insight into university study. Working in small groups with PhD tutors, participants explore a specialist research topic, develop their academic skills and complete a university-style essay that is assessed using university grading criteria. The programme concludes with a graduation ceremony at a leading university. This year’s ceremony took place at King’s College London; previous cohorts have graduated in Oxford.

In the 12 weeks that I have spent my Thursday mornings in the Brilliant Club, I have learnt new pieces of information about my course that I would have never learnt without the Brilliant Club. With my PhD tutor from the Francis Crick Institute, Alice Rossi, I was taught about the topic of stem cell research. In my first tutorial, I was faced with the introduction of stem cells, and as someone who has never been keen on science, especially stem cells, I thought that by the end of the tutorial I’d leave the Brilliant Club and never look back. However, with Alice, she showed me how to understand the topic of stem cell biology and helped me to understand the topic to the maximum. By tutorial 3-4, I was enjoying the Brilliant Club and looked forward to every Thursday with Alice.

One of the most interesting topics I learnt in the Brilliant Club was about stem cells in medicine. I learnt about the butterfly syndrome and how stem cells have been used to cure it. In case you may not know what the butterfly syndrome is, it's when there’s constant blistering caused by a mutation in a single gene, meaning the person with this diagnosis is going through constant pain. However, with Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSCs) a virus inserts a working version of the gene (also known as correction) and the corrected skin cells are differentiated from the IPSCs and were grafted onto the patient, and after the surgery, it was successful, curing the patient from the butterfly syndrome and them living a healthy life. This was the most interesting case study I learnt during the Brilliant Club and it enabled me to research more about these types of topics.

After completing the Brilliant Club course, it gave me a perspective of university life, and what type of work I would have to complete while studying in about 3 years time, I will attend university studying Law, and due to the Brilliant Club, I already know what level of coursework I will be faced with. The Brilliant Club has taught me scientific information that I can carry with me in my biology lessons and later in my life. My tutor was always available to help me whenever I needed it. Not only did she help me answer my questions, but she provided me with extra information so I could ensure my answers were adapted and let me reach my full potential. If I could give a piece of advice to the next scholars attending the Brilliant Club programme, it would be to take the opportunity and enjoy it as much as possible, because with the Brilliant Club you learn new things that you can carry with you into your future and possible everyday life.

Chioma's verdict on Brilliant Club

Through all our hard work, the countless essays, the sleepless nights.

Perseverance is not about never stumbling. It’s about refusing to stay down when you do. It’s the quiet courage to keep showing up, even when the results aren’t immediate.

Imagine a young runner at the starting line of a marathon. They trained for months, but halfway through the race, her legs ache, her breath is short, and the finish line feels impossibly far away. She could stop. She could walk away. But instead, she takes one more step… and then another… until she crosses that line. That moment – the choice to keep going when it’s hardest – is the essence of perseverance.

This term, as part of the Brilliant Club’s Disease Detectives programme, we became investigators – not of crimes, but of illnesses. Our mission? To understand how diseases spread, and how science can stop them. One of the most fascinating topics we explored was Anopheles mosquitoes. We discovered that:

• Female mosquitoes are the ones that bite – and carry them.
• In doing so, they can pass on dangerous diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and zika virus.

Before this project, I thought mosquitoes were just annoying. Now, I understand they are one of the most dangerous animals in the world – not because of their size, but because of the diseases they carry. Learning about them has made me realise how important science is in protecting communities, especially in countries where these diseases are common.

None of this learning would have been possible without our amazing PhD tutor. She didn’t just teach us facts – she taught us how to think like scientists, to ask questions, and to never stop being curious. Thank you Chara, for your patience, your passion, and for making every session exciting. You’ve inspired us to see science not just as a subject, but to change the world.

So next time you hear that mosquito buzz, remember – there’s a whole world of science behind it. And maybe, just maybe, one of us here today will be the next Disease Detective to solve the mystery of the next big health challenge.

Kosy's speech at the graduation

Brilliant Club 2026