As Dean Colin Mayer spoke to the attendees of this dinner, I realized I had recently heard him give a similar speech to the attendees of the Skoll World Forum in April. This was another incredible opportunity afforded me by being a part of the Skoll Associate Fellows Program through the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Hundreds of the most impressive social entrepreneurs across the globe come together each year in this internationally recognized forum to talk about current issues and, this year in particular, how to collaborate more effectively. Some of my favorite parts of the conference were hearing Paul Farmer of Partners in Health speak about his work in Haiti, and hearing Tim Smit of the Eden Project talk about how he motivates his workers (including making every employee say good morning to 20 people before beginning work in the morning).

All in all, I realized how much is possible at this School if you get involved. There is so much more I could be doing, but I know that in the limited time here, I will never forget the experiences I have had.

I attended the careers session on Social Finance, and loved hearing from Rod Schwartz of ClearlySo—an online marketplace for social business. Rod will be co-teaching the Social Finance elective in Trinity term, so it was fun to get a preview of his engaging talks. I also heard from Cecile Galoselva at the Ethical Property Company who talked about her company’s innovative model. In one of the general addresses, Caroline Casey from the organization Kanchi was literally one of the best speakers I have ever heard. I highly recommend checking out her organization if you get a chance.

My personal favorite part of the conference was being a mentor for contestants in the Ideas competition. Basically, budding social entrepreneurs submitted an overview of an idea then finalists were selected to pitch to judges at the end of the conference. During the day, peers and mentors helped them shape their pitch, and at the end of the day we got to see the finished product. There were some amazing ideas such as a new recycling process to make toys and household items, and a charitable loyalty card. The finalists will get support throughout the year to develop their ideas. Later in the year, a final will take place and the winners will get funding from UnLtd and Barclays Capital. 

Overall, it was a great and inspirational day, and one of the many examples of the amazing opportunities happening at SBS. I only wish I had more time to take advantage of them all!

As you might have guessed from the names of the terms, Oxford tends to do things a little differently from other universities. On Matriculation day, we all dressed up in “sub-fusc” with our college-mates and listened to a speech in Latin in the beautiful Sheldonian Theatre. Very quickly we all felt part of the centuries old Oxford experience. It has been really fun going to different colleges for meals and events, such as dinner at Christ Church (in the Harry Potter dining hall!) and the HalloQueen bop at St Anthony’s College.

So far I have been trying to get involved in activities throughout the University, but there are so many cool things going on, it is impossible to take advantage of them all. Some of my favourites have been being part of the Peer Support program before classes started, where I and 9 other MBAs went through 30 hours of training to learn listening skills and ways to support our classmates through this hectic, fun and sometimes stressful year. I’ve started practicing basketball with Oxford’s second team, which has been a blast. I’ve loved being involved in college activities and meeting people from other disciplines and broadening my own experience in that way. And of course, I’ve loved hanging out with the other MBAs in various settings such as International Development/Social Enterprise drinks at the historical Turf Tavern on Mondays and the weekly Friday happy hours in the School’s common room.

Does it seem as though I’ve forgotten something? Oh yes, there is some studying happening in all of these activities. Actually, we are learning so much at such a quick pace that I can already see the way I think about problems changing, which is really exciting. We are all starting to think about what we will do for our Entrepreneurship project, and it is so much fun throwing business ideas around with classmates from all over the world. But first, I have to get through exams which are in (gulp) 5 weeks!