Dylan Kawende, a 23-year-old son of Rwandan genocide refugees, is close to securing his dream of studying Law with Senior Status (SSL) at Cambridge University’s St Edmund’s College, having raised over £52,000 through his #GetDyl2Cambridge crowdfunding campaign by June 29, 2020.
Inspired by the botched investigation into Stephen Lawrence’s 1993 murder, Kawende aims to become a barrister to address systemic issues like institutional racism and promote diversity in the legal profession.
A Personal Mission for Justice
Kawende’s drive stems from his family’s history and the Stephen Lawrence case, where institutional failures delayed justice for the Black teenager’s racially motivated murder.
“There’s the opportunity to be a positive steward for social change,” Kawende said, citing Doreen Lawrence’s advocacy against institutional racism as a model.
His parents, who fled Rwanda in 1994 after losing relatives in an arson attack during the genocide that killed over 800,000 mainly Tutsis, instilled resilience and ambition in him despite growing up in a low-income household on Harrow Road, West London.
The two-year SSL course, a law conversion program for non-law graduates, costs £40,000 in tuition and £20,000 in living expenses, ineligible for UK student loans.
Kawende, who earned a 2:1 in History and Philosophy of Science from University College London (UCL) in 2019, initially raised £24,000 in 2019, forcing him to defer his October 2019 start.
Relaunching his GoFundMe in 2020, he leveraged the Black Lives Matter movement’s momentum, which boosted donations amid heightened awareness of racial inequalities.
Overcoming Financial Barriers
By July 1, 2020, Kawende’s campaign surpassed its £60,000 target, raising £65,000 from 1,400 donors, securing his place for October 2020.
St Edmund’s College, supported by alumni, allowed him to enroll, expecting further scholarships like the £6,000 Cambridge award and his Freshfields Stephen Lawrence and Gray’s Inn David Karmel scholarships.
“I’m absolutely over the moon!” he told Legal Cheek, emphasizing gratitude and the campaign’s broader message about access to elite institutions.
Kawende’s father faced a similar barrier 40 years ago, unable to afford a Cambridge electrical engineering degree.
“I want to correct what I think was an unfair outcome,” Kawende said, highlighting how his era’s focus on diversity enabled his campaign.
He criticized the lack of loans for postgraduate conversion courses and the competitive nature of scholarships, noting structural inequalities at elite universities.
Advocating for Diversity in Law
Black barristers remain underrepresented, comprising just 3% of the UK Bar and 1.1% of QCs, per the Bar Standards Board.
Kawende, a former UCL Law for All Society president and recipient of the Amos Bursary, aims to address this by mentoring future Black lawyers and advocating for institutional reforms.
“If the law is meant to govern a diverse society, it needs professionals from diverse backgrounds,” he said
His internships at Goldman Sachs, Linklaters, Freshfields, and Matrix Chambers, facilitated by scholarships, have fueled his ambition to effect tangible change through human rights law.
A Broader Impact
Kawende’s campaign, featured in The Times, BBC Radio London, and The Guardian, has sparked conversations about educational access.
By 2021, he founded OmniSpace, an EdTech startup, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, earning a 2:1 in his first-year Cambridge exams despite Covid-19 disruptions.
His story, culminating in raising over £80,000 ($106,000) by 2021, underscores the power of community support and the need for systemic changes to make elite education accessible to talented students from underrepresented backgrounds.
