Going Beyond to help others

A BRITISH teenager who won a £200,000 scholarship to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has set up a tutoring business to help children from under-privileged backgrounds apply to top universities.

Tafsia Shikdar, from Newham, east London, studied engineering at MIT after finishing her A-levels at Newham Collegiate Sixth Form (NCS). She has now started her own academic counselling business called Beyond Exams.

She said: “The experience you get from living in America, from simply leaving your own bubble ... is one that all young people should try to experience.”

Mouhssin Ismail, the NCS headteacher, said: “Tafsia... has not only set the standard of what can be achieved with hard work and determination, she has also given her time to support our scholarship programme and her fellow students.”