UCL Bartlett alumnus Tunde Banjoko OBE has dedicated his life to widening opportunity and raising aspirations for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Raised by his mother in West London, Tunde reflects: “I was bright enough… but I wasn’t focused on maximising my academic gifts,” he reflects. After graduating in Economics and navigating early career setbacks, he “fell into” an organisation helping unemployed people in Harlesden and Stonebridge in Brent find work. He’d only planned to do it for six months but soon realised that this was where he was meant to be.
Leaving the office for the day, I’d often run into the people who would stop and tell me how I had changed their lives. I realised that what motivated me was helping people.
That passion grew into Making The Leap, a pioneering UK charity that has been raising aspirations and creating opportunities for young people from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds for 32 years. The charity influences change at individual, institutional, and societal levels; from direct youth programmes to the UK Social Mobility Awards and the Social Mobility Day campaign.
Tunde was doing what he loved, but felt out of place in policy meetings dominated by Oxbridge‑educated advisers. Seeking to challenging those insecurities, he undertook an MSc in Urban Regeneration at UCL’s Bartlett School of Planning. This was a pivotal step.
UCL was a really important step for me because it helped me realise I was as good as anybody else… I belong and I can do this.
His time at UCL also sparked a chain of events that helped secure Making the Leap’s first major funding bid. After a chance encounter in an airport lounge led to an introduction to Rachel Hall, then UCL’s Development Director, Tunde collaborated with UCL to successfully bid for £250,000; a major step in expanding the charity’s programmes, reach and impact.
Tunde is recognised as a national leader in social mobility, but his proudest achievement is the Lanre Johnson Charity, created in memory of his late sister. Since 2017, the foundation has been advancing education for disadvantaged young people around the world through scholarships, bursaries and awards.
Speaking about one of the families the Foundation has supported, he says:
The son of an illiterate cook is now training to become a doctor… the profound impact I’ve been able to have on that family and the stories I hear from people we’ve helped every day, that is what I’m proudest of.
