I couldn’t speak until 11, couldn’t read or write until 18 but now a Professor at 37

The story of Jason Arday, a black man who only learned how to read and write when he was 18 and could not speak until he was 11 has further confirmed that nothing is impossible. Arday despite his seemingly challenging childhood has become the youngest Black Professor at Cambridge University.

As a child Arday was diagnosed with global developmental delay, which affected his ability to learn how to talk and read.

Until he was 11 he spoke through sign language and it wasn’t until he was in his teens that he became able to read and write.

According to ValidViewNetwork, the testimony of Ardy amplifies the saying that ” never say never.”

Arday then went on to become a PE teacher after studying at the University of Surrey.

At age 27 he wrote on his bedroom wall at his parents’ house: “One day I will work at Oxford or Cambridge.”

With the early challenges he faced, therapists had predicted that Jason Arday would need lifelong support in an assisted living home with perhaps no indication of him metamorphosing into an academic superstar.

ADVERTISEMENT

Contrary to all predictions and expectations, he has proved everybody wrong and will resume as a Professor of Sociology of Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge by March 6.

Surprisingly, Jason, 37, who could not speak until 11 and could not read or write until 18 is the youngstest Black professor, and just one of five at the university. The UK has 155 Black university professors, out of 23,000.

According to Arday : “My work focuses primarily on how we can open doors to more people from disadvantaged backgrounds and truly democratise higher education.

Hopefully being in a place like Cambridge will provide me with the leverage to lead that agenda nationally and globally.

“Obviously unpicking a long history in which Cambridge has been, or seemed, very exclusive is difficult.

“There are now lots of pockets of good practice, but culturally this needs to extend throughout the entire university.”

He remembers talking to his friend and college mentor Sandro Sandi who installed the confidence in him that he could do this. “Looking back, that was when I first really believed in myself.

”A lot of academics say they stumbled into this line of work, but from that moment I was determined and focused – I knew that this would be my goal. On reflection, this is what I meant to do.”

Sharing his experience, Arday stated that watching Nelson Mandela’s prison release in 1990 and witnessing South Africa’s 1995 Rugby World Cup win were among the most formative moments in his young life, vowing that if he didn’t “make it as a football player or a professional snooker player,” then he would “save the world.”

He said he never had a mentor teach him to write for academia, leading to a number of rejections — that is, until he finally reached his goal of teaching at the University of Cambridge.

”Everything I submitted got violently rejected. The peer review process was so cruel, it was almost funny, but I treated it as a learning experience and, perversely, began to enjoy it.”

In the face of adversity, he was hell-bent on changing the tides in his favor. He went on to earn two master’s qualifications after receiving a degree in physical education and education studies from the University of Surrey. He later earned a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University in 2016.

Professor Bhaskar Vira, who serves as the pro-vice-chancellor of education at the university, described Arday as “an exceptional scholar.”

“He will contribute significantly to Cambridge’s research in this area and to addressing the under-representation of people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, especially those from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities,” Vira said in a statement.

“His experiences highlight the barriers faced by many under-represented groups across higher education and especially at leading universities,” he continued. “Cambridge has a responsibility to do everything it can to address this by creating academic spaces where everyone feels they belong.”

The story of Jason Arday should encourage others to strive to attain greatness against all odds, ValidViewNetwork reports.