Zoah Hedges-Stocks
{{Infobox journalist
| alma_mater = Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
| occupation = journalist
}}
{{Short description|English journalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}{{Use British English|date=March 2025}}
Zoah Hedges-Stocks is an English journalist who became the first travelling showman to study at and graduate from the University of Cambridge.
Biography
Hedges-Stocks was born into a Suffolk family of travelling showmen,{{Cite news |title=The road less travelled: 'Everything that I learnt on the fair I apply |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-road-less-travelled-everything-that-i-learnt-on-the-fair-i-apply-to-academia-8747273.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20220707121349/http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-road-less-travelled-everything-that-i-learnt-on-the-fair-i-apply-to-academia-8747273.html |archive-date=2022-07-07 |access-date=2025-02-24 |work=The Independent |language=en-GB}} who have worked on fairgrounds since the 1800s.{{Cite web |title=Varsity Profile: Zoah Hedges-Stocks |url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/2001 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Varsity Online |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2021-06-06 |title=Dame Mary Beard calls for educational disadvantage to be tackled |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-57344134 |access-date=2025-02-24 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} As a child she worked on the dodgems and candy floss stalls of the family fair during the summer season{{Cite web |date=2010-02-12 |title=Caravan girl wins place at Cambridge |url=https://www.caravantimes.co.uk/news/caravan-girl-wins-place-at-cambridge/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=CaravanTimes |language=en-GB}} and lived at Leiston, near Aldeburgh, in the winter.{{Cite web |date=2011-03-22 |title=Q&A: Zoah Hedges-Stock |url=https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/suffolk/22627654.q-zoah-hedges-stock/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Great British Life |language=en}}
Despite despite having disrupted schooldays Hedges-Stocks achieved an two As and a B in her A-Levels. Hedges-Stocks matriculated to Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge in 2010.{{Cite web |date=2013-06-26 |title=Student Makes First In Traveller History By Graduating From Cambridge |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/06/26/traveller-zoah-hedges-stocks-first-cambridge-graduate_n_3501718.html |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=HuffPost UK |language=en}} She studied History and achieved a first class degree.{{Cite web |date=2013-06-25 |title=First among unequals at Cambridge |url=https://metro.co.uk/2013/06/25/first-traveller-student-at-cambridge-university-to-graduate-with-a-first-3856436/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Metro |language=en}} During her studies, she edited The Cambridge Student newspaper.
Hedges-Stocks has commented that: "Among travelling showmen it’s often felt that education isn’t that relevant, you know what you’re going to do — settle down with a nice traveller boy and work on the fairs. A lot of people in my community didn’t understand the application process was selective — they assumed you could walk in. This wasn’t to do with ignorance it’s just not really part of our world. People were interested as it was something new and exciting."
Her story attracted coverage in the national press and on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.{{Cite web |date=2010-03-04 |title=Uni girl's fairground attraction |url=https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21792053.uni-girls-fairground-attraction/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=East Anglian Daily Times |language=en}} In January 2014, she began a journalism training course with the Press Association. She now works as a freelance journalist, writing for the Barking and Dagenham Post,{{Cite web |last=Hedges-Stocks |first=Zoah |date=2016-11-27 |title=Post Memories: Exhibition celebrates Dagenham designer who created clothes for the Queen |url=https://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/lifestyle/20922248.post-memories-exhibition-celebrates-dagenham-designer-created-clothes-queen/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Barking and Dagenham Post |language=en}} The Independent, Newnham Recorder,{{Cite web |last=Hedges-Stocks |first=Zoah |date=2016-08-25 |title=St Bonaventure's shines bright on GCSE results day |url=https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/21439552.st-bonaventures-shines-bright-gcse-results-day/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Newham Recorder |language=en}} and The Telegraph,{{Cite news |last=Hedges-Stocks |first=Zoah |date=2018-01-25 |title=The Dam Busters: why Peter Jackson's remake keeps hitting a wall |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/dam-busters-has-peter-jacksons-long-promised-remake-hit-wall/ |access-date=2025-02-24 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}} among other local and national publications.
She has used her platform as a journalist and Cambridge alumnus to criticise Murray Edwards President, Dorothy Byrne, who planned in 2021 to introduce a series of seminars to teach women about their fertility in response to the falling national birth rate.{{Cite web |last1=Freedland |first1=Jacob |last2=Kennedy |first2=Esmé |last3=Petrie |first3=Aoife |date=15 October 2021 |title=Outrage at Medwards President's fertility comments |url=https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/22211 |access-date=2025-02-24 |website=Varsity Online |language=en}} Also in 2021, she went viral on Twitter after people misinterpreted her surname and approached her for financial advice, prompting her to tweet "this is not a finance account."{{Cite news |date=2021-02-05 |title=GameStop frenzy prompts Hedges-Stocks viral surname mix-up |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-55948440 |access-date=2025-02-24 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}
References
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Category:Alumni of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge