Yasmin

How have you found navigating university as a BAME student?

What stood out to me as a BAME student was more during my placement. I definitely saw some stuff like feeling invisible in certain situations, and other people, specifically around my age compared to other placement students.

There was only me and one other placement student and you could see the difference in how I was being treated. I saw the other student getting credit for my ideas and me just being invisible when it was just me, her and someone else in a room. It was very interesting to see and definitely opened my eyes about the working world.

But when I think about actually being on campus, I didn't majorly see any kind of difference in how members who weren't part of the BAME community were treated compared to myself. What I loved about uni was just the community that was created on campus and how we all met each other. Shout out ACS (African Carribean Society)

Who has helped and inspired you the most through university and your music career?

Firstly I would say my mum - she's been like such a huge pillar in my life. She helped guide me and pushed me a lot for all my dreams and education, and she’s helped keep me grounded and reminded me of my strengths and what I can do.

Me and my mum have such a nice relationship and I speak to her all the time. It's been a blessing just having her so supportive of everything I do in my life, she's definitely been a huge inspiration.

And I would say my manager as well, who has been in my life for a few years. I've definitely just grown through him not just with music. He has taught me so much and held it down for me as well. He’s given me some of the best life advice. He’s definitely helped and inspired me to pick management as a degree to study, and has helped me see the advantages of picking something like this for university. There's been a lot of times in life where I've needed that guidance to help figure out the next step. So he’s been more then just a manager, he’s been like a life guru at times and I’ve got a lot of love for him, and am very very grateful to have someone like that in my life.

What transferable skills have you gained from your course that you can apply to your work?

I think my course was a broad one in terms of management and you learnt a lot of things that can be applied wherever you go. For example, people - how to work with people, and how to understand  consumers and what people want - I feel like you need that in any industry that you go to.

Also how to be a leader, and the kind of quality skills that you need in terms of growth. I've learnt that confidence is key, I need to love it myself and show that.

What has been the most memorable moment of your career so far?

There have been so many points, but if I had to mention one then it has to be my first radio spin. Obviously with growth and elevation over time there will always come bigger moments, but at that time that was huge and I just always imagined that moment of hearing myself on the radio. And I hear that and I'm like "what?" I was literally shaking, it was just crazy.

How has it been balancing your career alongside your studies?

It has been the most challenging year by far! This has been a difficult year for everyone lets be honest with Covid, as no one expected it and everyone's on their grind. It was a huge one to balance studying and everything on top of Covid - Covid alone was hard for everyone.

Then balancing university with music was mad because they are both 24/7 things. If you have a part-time job you maybe have shift work and once it's done you go home and don't need to think about it. But with music, I'd go to sleep thinking about what I needed to do and have a constant to-do list in my head.

With university it was the exact same thing. You’ve got assignments and you’ve got a constant to do list, so its literally just the biggest test of self management. That's what this year was for me and I definitely saw strengths and weaknesses in myself, and if I want something I just put my mind to it and go and get it. But at the same time, sometimes it was so distracting because I wasn't able to do things as efficiently as I normally would have.

It's been crazy challenging but I’m just very thankful, and I'm definitely happy I had a year like this because it's shown me more than I realise. So it's been challenging but its been good.

Is education a part of your plans for the future?

Maybe. I remember a conversation with my manager when he was talking to me about doing Business Management. It's a good degree to do because I had already done it for GCSE so I was already thinking about it, and I can apply it anywhere.

With music obviously, I can dabble into the music business as well. It's not just music I want to do, I have a sense that management is also what I want to do. Different financial avenues and management can definitely be applied to music, so I picked something that I knew I could apply regardless of what I'm doing.

Where do you see yourself career wise in five years?

I want to see growth. When I get asked this question I get scared to say specific milestones because I just want to see. I want to have built some kind of fan base and I'd want that to be global, not just in this country. I have had a lot of love from people in Brazil and Portugal, literally from different countries and more than the UK sometimes. Its already kind of getting to that place and I’d love to build on that and, yeah, just have my foot everywhere.

I would obviously have a certain stream of income from that and build the business side as well, and build my brand to be in a position where I can fully rely on my music to live. I like to dream big so I’d love to be in a position where I could do something for my family, maybe property or something like that. I know it takes a lot longer than 5 years to be as successful as you want to be, but I'm a hard worker so it's all possible.