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He'll never live a normal life, doctors told Jason Arday’s parents. Your son will need full-time care, and he’ll have to live in a care home, they said.
Jason was diagnosed with global development delay at the age of three. He took longer than other children his age to reach developmental milestones such as walking, talking and interacting socially. Doctors said he’d probably need to be in assisted living until the end of his days.
They could not have been more wrong.
At the age of 37 Jason has been appointed a professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge, one of the most prestigious institutions in the world.
After a series of teaching positions at various tertiary institutions in the UK, he’s established himself as a leading scholar in the areas of race and inequality in education and academia. He’s especially passionate about helping students from disadvantaged areas – he knows firsthand the struggles kids from these environments face.
Although Jason would also be able to add a lot more struggles than just growing up in a poor neighbourhood. He’s on the autism spectrum; is deaf in one ear; and up until the age of 11 he used only sign language to communicate.
He learnt to read and write only when he was in his teens after extensive hours spent with speech and language therapists. He’s never forgotten the euphoria he felt when words came out of his mouth for the very first time. “Hello, my name is Jason,” were the first words he said.
“It was a euphoric moment,” he recalls. “For so long I’d only had an inner voice and then it became my actual voice.”
He now uses that voice to inspire others through talks as well as teaching. Jason recently became Cambridge’s youngest black professor and one of a handful of black professors in the UK.
His early life battles helped him to achieve everything he has today, Jason believes.
“You don’t really learn much about yourself when things are going well,” he says.
“You learn from disappointments. My mom says I’m the child who gave her the most heartache, but also the most joy.
“There’s something out there that’s better than the feeling of setbacks and suffering, even if it doesn’t immediately feel that way.”
Jason's rise to becoming a sociology professor at Cambridge University before the age of 40 is remarkable by any measure. He decided at the age of 27 it was a goal he wanted to achieve.
“One day I will work at Oxford or Cambridge” was third on a list of goals he’d written on the wall of his bedroom in his parents’ home on a council estate in Clapham, London.
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Few would have believed he could achieve that dream – both universities are among the most elite tertiary institutions in the world. It’s tough for anyone to get into a teaching position there, much less someone who’d faced so many learning challenges.
But Jason was determined and spent 10 years working towards his goal. He completed two master’s degrees in education before enrolling for a doctorate at Liverpool John Moores University.
He moved from being a senior lecturer to associate professor at two UK universities and in 2021 became a professor of sociology of education at the University of Glasgow’s School of Education.
It felt like a dream when Cambridge called to tell him he had the job, Jason says. “I put the phone down, screamed, and then sat in the same spot for what felt like hours. I was scheduled to make a speech in Brighton the next day, and I just sat on the train still struggling to believe that I’d achieved my dream.”
He credits his parents, mom Gifty and dad Joseph Arday, with helping him to get where he wanted to be.
His mother, especially, helped change the course of his life, Jason says. When Gifty was told her little boy, one of her four children, would struggle to develop, she watched over him carefully to discover his potential. She soon noticed he liked doing the same thing over and over.
“She instinctively realised if I could constructively apply my tendency to repeat things obsessively, it would benefit me in the long run,” Jason says.
She helped him to find activities involving repetition, like sport. He was picked to play for a professional soccer club’s youth team and came close to becoming a pro footballer.
Jason, in the acknowledgements section of his PhD thesis, thanked his parents for helping him to reach for the stars. “Gifty, in particular, the best years of your life you gave up to look after me with regards to my learning difficulties, and you always prophesised that I would be destined to achieve something great with my life. That unwavering belief has spearheaded me to be in this humbling position.”
His mom offered him words that became a mantra, he says. “When things don’t work out in your favour, politely accept it. And when things work out in your favour, politely accept it.”
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Things have worked out in Jason’s favour on various fronts. Apart from his academic achievements, he’s also an accomplished runner and raises money for charitable causes.
“I completed my first master’s degree at age 24,” he says. “The next year, I ran 30 marathons in 35 days to raise funds for a homeless shelter and a children’s home. At 26 I completed my second master’s degree while running 300 miles [about 482km] on a treadmill for charity.
“A year later, I was one of the Olympic torch carriers and ran 500 miles [804km] from Edinburgh to London in six days. By the time I was 30 I’d earned my PhD and raised a million pounds for charity.”
He was inspired to help others from a young age. Nelson Mandela’s release from prison influenced him tremendously as a young boy, as did the Springboks winning the World Cup in 1995, with Madiba there on the field to celebrate.
“I remember thinking if I don’t make it as a football player or a professional snooker player, then I want to save the world,” Jason says of his teen ambition to help those less fortunate.
“In my teens, racism became a big issue for me. My work focuses on how we can open doors for people from disadvantaged communities and how we can democratise higher education.”
The father of two also holds the research chair for critical transformation in higher education at Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha and visits the university regularly.
He has inspiring words for young people facing challenges. “I knew I didn’t have buckets full of talent, but I knew I wanted to realise my dreams and I was willing to work hard for it,” he says.
Success tastes sweet indeed, Jason adds, and it’s something he hopes to taste a lot more of in his life.
