For Crisanto Da Cunha, joining Furness College at Lancaster University was like joining a big family.

After leaving Goa, India, where he was born and brought up surrounded by his extended family, moving to London was a “big change”, though he soon found a close-knit friendship group at his school.

His experience moving to Lancaster was no different, where he was soon surrounded by new friends and it was this outgoing nature that pushed Crisanto to run for Vice-President in his second year and then eventually for President of his college.

Crisanto, 22, was brought up speaking a regional dialect similar to Portuguese, and learnt Hindi and English at school before moving to London at the age of seven.

He said: “Primary school was different as I adjusted to a diverse range of cultures and took in new experiences.

“Like any child that age, I started playing and watching football, especially the Premier League, something I’d never watched before on a regular basis. At school I was lucky to meet a group of friends that I still keep in close contact with today.”

At high school, Crisanto recalls eating different food to his classmates. He said: “During school I was fortunate enough to have my mum make amazing home cooked Indian food to take for lunch rather than a sandwich.”

Crisanto again made a close group of friends in the sixth form, and was determined to take every opportunity while at University.

He said: “When I moved to Furness I always wanted to make sure I put myself out there, got to know different people and do as many different things as possible. In my second year I applied to be in the JCR, which was a really good experience. Now that I’ve been applying for jobs, I’ve been able to talk about it in interviews.

“Furness had always been pitched as a family-feel college because it is so small and tight-knit. When I arrived in the first year, the first three people I met were two second-year students and a Masters student. Here, it doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is – if you’re a Furness student you always have a place, you always have a group of people you can go to.

“When I was in my third year I was President and organised welcome weeks for the new students coming in and that’s one of the things we told the reps- to instil in the students that they are part of a family.”

During his time as President, Crisanto set up free breakfasts, welfare sessions and sports competitions, as he wanted to reflect the positive experience of his first year and ‘give that back’.

Crisanto, who studied Computer Science, now hopes to return to London to work as a technical consultant or software engineer.

He said: “I’ve gained a lot of confidence being at Lancaster University and I’m 100 percent going back to London with more than I came with – I definitely think I’ve grown as a person.”