Sulaiman Wihba, Old Brightonian is the first Opening Doors ambassador

Inspiration for the scholarship

A scholarship has been inspired by Sulaiman Wihba, Old Brightonian and our first Opening Doors ambassador.

For the past four years, pupils and staff from Brighton College have led different classes for the local Syrian community, providing space for them to meet and facilitating language and cultural lessons for people of all ages. In 2015, two young refugees, Sulaiman and Elias, arrived in the city after long and incredibly demanding journeys from their home in Syria.

Both boys were awarded full scholarships to Brighton. They both did so well that they received additional scholarships for university – to study maths at Balliol College, Oxford, and medicine at Queen Mary’s, University of London.
Our ongoing links with the refugee community in Brighton and the remarkable success of Sulaiman and Elias have led us to launch Opening Doors: a scholarship for young people in the local area with talent and ambition, and who have experienced a significant disadvantage, or who have been displaced.

Link here www.brightoncollege.org.uk/openingdoors/ for more information about this scholarship.