Alumni Profile : Laura Winwood
Alumni Profile: Laura Winwood was at HLC from 2000 to 2006 in Lincoln West. Laura was also Head of Choir whilst at School. She was President of the Oxford Union Society in 2010 and at the time of interview lived in Hong Kong.
Laura was interviewed by our Upper 6 pupil Sophie, and spoke to us from Hong Kong amidst a typhoon.
Laura Winwood : Alumni Profile
Please tell us more about your time at HLC – what was your school experience like?
I had a really good time boarding, and I am still in touch with quite a few of the girls that I was boarding with across the various Houses – the bond that you get from being a boarder is great and can be lifelong, which is terrific. One of the best things about being a boarder is that you’re so well set up for the transition of going on to University because you are so independent. My friends still joke with me that I am organised and that was because I had to be so organised as a boarder. It is very good training for life!
Choir was really important to me. I spent a lot of time doing music and I played piano and violin. The choir tours were really amazing. I feel very lucky that I had the chance to travel with the choir, including Paris.
What was the best thing about school?
The best thing about the school experience is that you are set up for later life. At the weekend, as Sixth Formers, instead of going to school dinners or lunch, they brought food ingredients in for us, and we cooked it for ourselves. So, I knew how to chop an onion and could do other basic cooking, again setting us up to be quite structured and principled. If you grow up in that boarding environment, taking care of your friends, you learn how to look out for other people.
I really enjoyed my studies too and found choosing my A levels was really hard for me because of that. I ended up selecting a mix of A Levels with Music, French, History as well as Biology (at AS Level).
Do you have any advice for Sixth Formers as we go into our final year?
It’s ok not to have a plan! I still don’t know 100% what the plan is.
Other than that, I’d say to use your time wisely – and make a note of your experiences, what you learned. Have different experiences that you can learn from, even if it doesn’t necessarily appeal to you straight away. If you get an opportunity to try something then do it, even if it is to learn that it is ‘not for me’, you will always learn something from that experience. I had the chance to work as a paralegal in a law firm for my first job. I met some great people but was able to determine that it wasn’t for me.
Think more about who you want to be and how you want to spend your time, rather than what you want “to do”. You should have mentors in your life, and build networks, professionally and personally so you can learn from lots of different types of people.
Be really good at life admin, and be organised.
I’d also suggest that every six or 12 months you take the time to do a mind map for where you are in life – with work, friends, family, health, sport, social, cause or charity you care about – it’s a good way to check in.
What was the application process like for Oxford? Was it everything you expected it to be?
When you apply to university you have to be really passionate about the subject you are going to study. I had an internship with a brilliant Barrister in Leeds. She had done Archaeology and Anthropology which I thought sounded amazing, so I ended up applying for the same degree. I finished my A-levels and then took a year out to spend some time working at The Natural History Museum in London so that I was well prepared to apply to Oxford. I had a really positive interview experience because the passion I had for this subject came through. I still love Anthropology and can bore dinner guests about fossils!
Do you have any tips for anyone who is planning on studying at Oxford or Cambridge?
Only apply if you really want to go there, and are really passionate about your subject because the people who will be interviewing you probably wrote the textbook! Like anything in life, you need to put in the work, and you need to prepare and be ready to answer all the questions on your personal statement. They are more interested in how you thought about your answer rather than the “right” response.
They could throw a curve ball at you. In my interview they gave me a tray of historical artefacts and I was told to pick one and talk about it. They liked that I asked lots of questions about it. I held it up to the light, I tried to identify if it makes a sound – they want to see that you are curious. I know a lot of people who got in with 2 A’s and a B, rather than 3 A’s, because the interview panel were able to spot a candidate’s intellectual curiosity. The mix of A Levels that I had selected then made sense to me – they fit into Archaeology and Anthropology. I’m so glad that I didn’t do an A Level that I didn’t like so much.
How would you describe the Oxford Union Presidency role experience?
It was probably one of the most difficult things that I’ve done in my life because it was very hard to get there. I joined the Union because at 18 I was quite shy at public speaking. I would get nervous in public speaking competitions, and I wouldn’t sleep before playing music in assembly. So, I made the decision that by the time I left Oxford I wouldn’t be afraid of that anymore. I remember going to debates and seeing 21-year olds giving speeches in front of 500 people and wondered what their secret was. I also thought it was a great way to meet people and the topics were really interesting, so I got involved. Then I ran for election and I did well. There are not many women who get involved in the Oxford Union and a couple of guys took me aside and said I should drop out. But I realised they were afraid I was going to beat them. So, I decided to do it to prove that I could, and then I won.
Did you have a speaker, or an experience of a debate, that you particularly liked?
I met Roger Moore and his wife for a coffee at a hotel and I was terrified! They were so lovely and down to earth and they let everyone do the James Bond poses with them! He spoke a lot about his charity work and he used to play the violin.
I particularly remember the debate about climate change because I wrote to one of the speakers afterwards. I said I’d noticed they were on the Board of Directors of a major Hong Kong conglomerate and I would love to talk to them about the place. I told the speaker I hoped to go there and asked for his advice. He said he’d appreciated the debate and the work I had put into the preparations but also that he was happy to recommend me for an internship, so I went over a few weeks later with one suitcase. That is when I came to Hong Kong which was 10 years ago, and I’m still here! This shows the power of network, following up with people, and not being afraid to ask for help. I always follow up now with people that I meet, as the worst thing that can happen is people don’t reply to me!
What is your advice on debating?
My advice is to start small – start with presenting in front of a couple of people and then build up. When I worked at Citibank we were all given voice coaches to make sure people slow down when they speak. Record yourself speaking and listen to it so that over time you will become more comfortable with pausing.
Thinking on your feet is hard but it will come with time. For a debate, knowing the argument is important, and remain objective about it. Write down the pros and cons – if I’m going to say this, what are they going to say? I ask myself what is my narrative – how am I going to persuade my audience to listen to me and connect with them. When you get more comfortable you might open with a joke or an anecdote to get the audience’s attention. If I don’t know the answer I’ll say ‘that is not something I have come across before, but what I can tell you is…’ then share something I want to say, and divert!
Listening to debates, for example in the House of Commons, will help you prepare really well for interviews. When I worked at a PR company, I used to train Executives how to answer media questions. To stay in control of the conversation is a good life skill to have.
What is it like living in Hong Kong?
You’ll have read the news – it has changed a lot in 10 years. It is really an international melting pot – you meet people from everywhere here, which is great. I have got used to the differences in culture – though the price of cheese is always very offensive to me! What is cool is that Hong Kong is 70% country parks and mountains. I live on the biggest island in the countryside, not the city, and when I go on my roof, I look out and see water buffalo in the river and I even had a giant tortoise in my garden this morning! From a diversity perspective, both ecological and people, it is a great place. I live in a village that has a village chief that makes all the local decisions. We have a village WhatsApp group with 120 people on it that are a mix of local people and ex pats from everywhere! There are so many different provisional types of food and the cuisine is very culturally rich – though we also have a Marks & Spencers here!
We are actually leaving Hong Kong shortly, to live where my husband is from in France for a couple of years, so a big change again. I will need to dust off my A Level French! It will be nice for my daughter to connect with her French roots, and it is close to the UK so we can come back, so we are excited about that.
Can you please update us with what you have been doing since your interview with us?
After a few months in France I found that I had time to take on some more work (I had been working as an independent consultant since not long after my daughter was born). Following the approach I described above, I decided to reinvigorate my networks in the UK with the view of securing remote work. By chance, I did visit Oxford and dropped by The Oxford Union where I learned that they urgently needed to fundraise to pay for expensive maintenance works and that if the money couldn’t be raised within a year or two, that the buildings would close. I threw myself at this opportunity, not just to pick up an interesting piece of work, but to channel my professional skills towards something that I really cared about. I re-designed the website, provided communications training for the students, set up fundraising operations and just recently organised a dinner for +250 alumni, including a former British and Australian Prime Minister and multiple MPs. It was an incredible amount of work and quite exhausting but so rewarding to see different decades re-connect with their peers and with those that had been involved before or after them, and to re-connect with the place and its important role in standing up for free speech.
The opportunity to speak to someone like Lord Heseltine, who was President of the Union in 1954, and ask him about his time in government, about his views today and also hear from him as a business leader, was such a privilege.
Just a few months ago we did actually relocate to the UK and are currently living in Oxford.
How did your experience at HLC equip you for the successful role you are now in?
Strong organisational skills.
Teamwork – seeking to draw on and celebrate the strengths of others.
Good communication to persuade others to support proposals I had made.
Resilience – overcoming multiple setbacks in a multi-stakeholder environment but nevertheless persevering.
find out more about our alumni programme