UCL Coffee Connect

If I were to describe my UCL Coffee Connect experience in a single word it would be ‘serendipitous’.  

When I learned that my match had graduated in 2011, more than fifteen years after I had, I wondered what we might have in common.  I must admit to Googling her in advance of getting in touch! After a bit of ping pong, our date was set and it turned out to be one of the easiest conversations I've had with a stranger. We had so much in common! From our educational backgrounds, to having cross-cultural marriages, to our children.  

UCL Coffee Connect offered a totally random chance to ‘meet’ a totally random person, and I ended up connecting with someone with whom I shared so much. It was quite scary… good scary! In fact, our paths might literally have crossed, as it transpired that she had participated in the Berlin Art Fair last year and I had been at that same event. We could have been standing right next to each other and not known it.

In a year where words like “pandemic” and “unprecedented” became common parlance, silver linings were hard to come by. It felt right to do something different, something I might not have done had life been carrying on as usual. What a clever and quirky idea, UCL Alumni Relations, thank you!

I always enjoy meeting new people. I'd been meaning to get back involved in UCL life for a while. Towards the end of 2020, I had worked from home nearly the whole time since the start of the pandemic and therefore met very few new people during the year. UCL Coffee Connect was a brilliant way to inject novelty into my life and get involved with the university again.

Sally and I talked non-stop for about two hours; I felt like we had a head start on connecting given our shared first name! We discussed our respective experiences of UCL, 20 years apart; our scientific backgrounds and research; and our working lives and future plans. As Sally had recently graduated from UCL, it was so interesting for me to hear what the student experience is like now.

Meeting someone completely new is a joy, and we shared enough of a scientific background that we could have a really good conversation about our fields. I really enjoyed learning about Sally's specialism and hearing her plans, she even helped me to better understand a work item I had been working on! Sally definitely lifted my evening and I hope our conversation lifted her too. 

I’m based in Ferguson, Missouri in the USA. I graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture in 1973. My UCL Coffee Connect match was based in London and graduated from Anthropology in 2006. Despite the difference in time zone and generations, we found connecting easy! We organised a Zoom call, and being able to see one another made connecting easier still.

After graduating from UCL, I transitioned from architecture to broadcasting. Strangely enough, it transpired that we both had worked at the BBC. Despite not working there for several years, I was able to share some ideas about what to look for in different jobs, especially around engaging with different departments to gain experience. It was so good to hear their experiences, and how they had applied their time at UCL to their career.

We discussed our hidden talents – including drawing and painting – which are not anything to do with our careers. It was so interesting to meet someone of a completely different generation, with very different life experiences, and find commonality. I have always been grateful to UCL for the formative experience it offered me. My only regret is that I didn’t get re-involved sooner! 

I am always seeking opportunities to expand and enhance my network – especially to establish connections with fellow UCL alumni. UCL Coffee Connect gave us the opportunity to actively sign up to those virtual connections and I enjoyed the initiative. 

I connected with my match for what felt like just a casual chat. We occasionally leaned towards careers – my match leads an interesting career in the public sector and it was fascinating to hear his trajectory, as well as share my own. There are aspects of his career path that I could never have possibly known without his insight. 

I had not come across UCL Coffee Connect before, but delight in and welcome any initiative to connect people!

When I signed up to take part in UCL Coffee Connect, I was aware that many UCL alumni and students were in lockdown around the world, as was I in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It seemed like an ideal opportunity to connect with someone to show support and kindness during a challenging time. 

We connected initially via email and then via Zoom. We had a lot in common, despite being a few decades apart in age and from very different academic and career backgrounds and cultures. We talked about how we both maximised the wonderful opportunities and learning presented to us living outside of our passport countries, and some of the shared challenges we faced. For example, neither of us was able to get home to our families for the December holidays, because of the pandemic. So, we shared ideas of how we were planning to celebrate, incorporating some of our home traditions with our host country traditions. 

We also shared our love of yoga and pilates as a way of relaxing and disconnecting from work, which we both recognised was really important whilst we were working from home. We talked about how we both love, and currently miss, London's fantastic cafe, restaurant, arts and cultural scene and being part of a multicultural community.

It was a fantastic hour. In my opinion, one of the best ways to grow personally and professionally is to intentionally connect with people who are from diverse cultural backgrounds, who are not in your age bracket and who work in a different sector. UCL Coffee Connect provided that perfect opportunity!

I recently moved to a small village in Crete from London and I wanted to connect with new people who already share some common interests with me. I am always keen on networking and discussing new ideas and innovations.

I met with my match over Zoom and we had a lovely talk. We talked about our experiences in UCL and what we're currently up to. Time flew by very quickly so we agreed to stay in touch and talk again in the future. It was great to meet someone new without leaving the house and I would definitely be up to continuing connecting with more UCL students or alumni in the future.

I really liked listening to my match's experience in UCL and their upcoming projects, as they are in a completely different field than me. It was a good combination of relaxed conversation and learning something new!