Dylan Kawende launches £66k GoFundMe to study law at Cambridge University

LONDON, United Kingdom – October 1, 2019 Dylan Kawende launched an online GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to study law at Cambridge because he cannot afford the £66,000 fees. The British-born son of two Rwandan genocide refugees who emigrated to the UK, cites the mishandling of the highly publicised Stephen Lawrence case as the inspiration for pursuing a career at the bar. In 1993, Lawrence, a black teenager, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack by a gang of white youths in south east London.

Dylan Kawende has received an offer from Cambridge University to read Law with Senior Status (SSL) starting in October 2020.

Dylan Kawende, 22, comes from a Rwandan family who emigrated to Britain after an arson attack killed relatives including his great-grandmother, aunts and uncles during the genocide.

Kawende, who is graduating soon in history and philosophy of science at University College London, has received an offer to do a two-year law conversion course at St Edmund’s College, but cannot afford the fees, which amount to nearly £40,000. No government grants would cover the full cost of the course.

Dylan is hoping to raise £66,000 to cover his living expenses. The application process was competitive and demanding. Cambridge receives around 17,000 applications per year and only 1 in 5 applicants secures a place. He had to submit written work, participate in two interviews and complete a legal aptitude test. Additionally, he had to demonstrate consistently high grades (i.e. mostly 1:1s) and a commitment to the law to receive the offer.

Law conversion courses are not entitled to student loans. Although he applied for the Black Heart Foundation Scholarship and the Lincoln’s Inn GDL Scholarship (worth around £10k each), both scholarships are neither sufficient nor guaranteed. He continues to apply for additional scholarships such as the Stormzy Scholarship that opened on 15 August and other Cambridge scholarships (which are also competitive) once I’m a registered student i.e. next autumn, and by then it’ll be too late. I have no alternative, therefore, but to crowdfund. Please see below for the breakdown of the costs. I will update my budget plan on an ad hoc basis once I receive more information.

Dylan Kawende has already been featured in the Times and Legal Cheek but still needs your support and help. His aim to raise £40k for tuition fees and £26k for accommodation and living expenses. In total: £66,226

To help Dylan Kawende with this amazing campaign, please visit the GoFundME campaign today at https://gofundme.com/f/getdyl2cambridge

About Dylan Kawende

From a young age, his parents inculcated in him the values of resilience and ambition. His father, who was offered a place at Cambridge University to read Electrical Engineering but did not have sufficient funds to accept the offer, fostered his intellectual appetite by encouraging him to read widely. His father also ran a charity that taught non-natives IT skills, which consequently instilled into me a desire to pursue a career that had a moral purpose.

His mother motivated him to develop his Christian faith. She has always been a wellspring of inspiration, comfort and love, in spite of all of the adversities she has faced. His mother lost most of her side of the family in the Genocide during a series of attacks by Tutsis, including her grandmother, Nyirande, aunties and uncles and baby cousins. They were brutally murdered in an arson attack in June 1994. Yet his mother remained resolute. His parents together with his siblings fled from Shangugu (the western province of Rwanda) to Kigali (the capital of Rwanda) in April 1994 with the intention of escaping the country. They eventually sought refuge in the UK in December 1994 (3 years before he was born).

1. June 9 2019 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/budding-barrister-s-plea-for-66-000-fees-dg9xz0pjz

2. Jun 10 2019 https://www.legalcheek.com/2019/06/aspiring-barrister-launches-crowdfunding-campaign-to-cover-66000-cambridge-uni-fees/

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Media Contact
Dylan Kawende
Twitter: @DylanK74254570
eMail: dylankawende (at) gmail.com
YouTube: https://youtu.be/-FKjjYTGjeQ
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GetDyl2Cambridge/
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dkawende/
GoFundMe Website: https://www.gofundme.com/f/getdyl2cambridge

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