Hon-grad Vee’s on a mission to change the world through education

The 26-year-old describes herself as an ‘education activist’ but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Spend just a few minutes scrolling through her prolific social media output and you will notice she has rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s most influential people, including supermodel Naomi Campbell, pop singer Adele, tennis legend Roger Federer, Prince Harry and even Michelle Obama, (there are many others).

Commenting on her award, she said: “I feel honoured, it’s one of the best things to ever happen to me. In my line of work, where I am advocating for supporting girls to be what they want to be, to receive something that’s so cool and so prestigious, something that goes hand-in-hand with what I do, is a big deal for me.”

Pictured above, Vee with Roger Federer

Born in Zimbabwe, Vee (short for Varaidzo) migrated to the UK when she was 6, living for the most part in Birmingham (with a brief stint in Wales), where she was raised by her mother, Loveness, whom she cites as her biggest inspiration. She is a graduate of Oxford (BA in classical archaeology and ancient history) and Harvard (Master’s in international education policy) and is currently studying her PhD in educational leadership at Claremont in California.

In 2017, frustrated by a lack of diversity at Oxford, she started making YouTube videos and so took the first tentative steps on a journey that has seen her address the United Nations, be named as a UN Young Leader for Sustainable Delivery Goals and found her own charity, Empowered by Vee.

“Social media success almost happened by accident,” she says. “Oxford is a beautiful place, so gorgeous and stunning but lacking in diversity and true mobility for students from backgrounds like mine. As a young 18-year-old that frustrated me but I didn’t have the language to express that at the time. I just knew how it felt good going to every single class, every single lecture, walking round the city and realising no-one looked like me, no-one sounded like me.

“So I made a Youtube video to share my feelings and people just started following me. I think I was creating content that was somehow useful for students. Every week I would think up a new idea, in a bid to try to shake up the system. Then it took on a life of its own and I ended up spending more time online and my following grew to what it is today.”

Pictured above: Vee with Prince Harry

Today, she has 276,000 YouTube followers, 204,000 on Instagram and over 21,000 on X (formerly Twitter). She has featured in The Times Magazine, Vogue, The Guardian Live, BBC news, The One Show and has even done a TEDx talk.

Vee is also a recipient of the UK Prime Minister’s Point of Lights Award, one of BBC’s 100 Women 2023, and a Diana Legacy Award holder (she also co-presented the 2023 awards alongside Prince Harry).

For someone who is clearly used to breaking glass ceilings (she was told by her teachers she would never go to Oxford), and whose enthusiasm and drive has caught the eyes of the rich and powerful, she remains refreshingly grounded.

“Michelle Obama is lovely,” she says sincerely. “And we happened to be in the same room together and we share the same interest, so I see that as inevitable. If you are doing good work, and they are doing good work, eventually, your paths will cross.

Pictured above: Vee with Michelle Obama

“When I meet people like Michelle, I am not having a moment where I say ‘oh my gosh, it’s Michelle Obama’. Don’t get me wrong, I did have a brief ‘wow’ moment but I am more like, ‘how can we collaborate to do something powerful and important?’

“There has never been a moment when I think ‘I’m next to Roger Federer’. Roger is invested in early childhood education and if he happens to be in the same room, then we’re going to discuss early childhood education. It’s like that with anyone I interact with - I want to know what the impact will be. I think we should use star power for good.”

As someone who has an acute understanding of the cultural and  socio-economic factors that act as barriers preventing girls from achieving their academic potential - and perhaps more importantly having overcome them herself - she is perhaps better placed than most to lead the charge for educational reform.

“I don’t understand the notion of education being so inaccessible to a gender. It feels unfair. I’ve seen how education can open doors. We’ve seen what it can do for men, because more of the people in powerful positions are men, so when we exclude half the world’s population, it breaks my heart. I will do anything I can to deconstruct such an archaic system. My feeling is: when you teach a girl, you teach the world.

“We need more gender equity and that starts in classrooms. For example, what does the world look like with more female black professors?”

Pictured above: Vee pictured (left) with education activist Malala Yousafzai and actress Emma Watson

Vee’s charity Empowered by Vee aims to reform education, to open doors for the disenfranchised - particularly young black girls. A strapline from her website declares ‘Education should not have a race, a postcode or a household income’, a sentiment chimes with the University of Bradford’s own strategic vision ‘to be the place to be to make a difference’.

Now Vee is part of one of the most forward-thinking UK universities when it comes to improving people’s life chances. The first ever University of Sanctuary, it has also topped the Higher Education Policy Institute's Social Mobility Index for the last three years and has an extensive suite of programmes designed to ensure under-represented groups are given greater opportunities.

Asked what advice she would give to summer graduates, she adds: “I would say, ‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ Education is a privilege; it’s important people decide how they will apply that knowledge. If you are good at something, whatever that is, and if you have talent, do not waste it, do something with it.”

Pictured above: Vee with mother, Loveness.

Vee Kativhu will be named Doctor of the University on Thursday July 18.