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Sid Djerfi

Sid Djerfi (’03) Information Systems Engineering, Surrey
Taught ICT Cranford Community College
Now Managing Director, Teach For All- Middle East

I think one of the essential things about my attraction to Teach First is I believe that I am one of those kids that we’re trying to help. I grew up in a similar background, and education made such a difference to my life - it gave me opportunities that just moved me up in life, I believe, and I was very grateful for that.

It’s fantastic. It’s definitely challenging, I mean there’s no doubts about the fact that it is quite a tough programme and it is very character building. Every Friday I left thinking I would not come back on a Monday morning, but the thing that was sadder than that was the fact that you knew that inequity exists and that those bright students that existed in those schools are not going to get the opportunities that they deserve, and that’s what brought me back on a Monday morning.

One of them was a student who was about to be excluded, and so I was invited in to a meeting and they told me that this particular student it was his last day, and like all my other colleagues we had to sign him off. But I think I took the courage to stand up for him, and I said that he did have the ability to stay on and do quite well. And he was present at the time, and he just couldn’t believe the fact that I did believe in him. And after that, because I believed in him, he got straight As, and he managed to go to university. He is at second year university now. But the exciting part happened a year later when I was walking down Edgware Road, and I ran in to this student, who’s by then 21 years old, and he started jumping and he hugged me in the middle of the street, and then he said to me: I am what I am because of you.

You know, I like to quote Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, and he once said we’re here to make a dent in the universe, and I like to feel that that contribution I made to that child, that’s my kind of dent in the universe, that’s my contribution to the world.