Alton Brown was already a promising young karate athlete with his heart set on becoming the best in the world when he started thinking about university. If he went, he’d be the second person in his family to do so – his aunt Sasha had studied nursing – but he wasn’t sure what to study and where. Eventually, he settled on business administration after enjoying business studies at college, and chose London South Bank University (LSBU), particularly because of its sports scholarship programme.
“I loved sports and drama at school but didn’t quite have the confidence to go down the performing arts route,” he says. “I had already started competing as an athlete for the English national team, so it was important for me to be somewhere that gave me the flexibility to do that alongside getting my degree. LSBU offered a lot of support. I did my undergraduate there and then went on to do a master’s degree in international development a few years later.”
