Spring Martlet 2017

How do you think that Univ shaped you?
Indelibly obviously! It’s a huge, formative life experience
coming away to any university and Oxford, in particular,
it’s a big learning curve. Overall I think Univ made me
ultimately more confident in my abilities, not to begin
with – often it’s very common when you come to
Oxford and you arrive, having been the best at your
school, to think ‘Oh my goodness,
there are so many phenomenally
talented people here!’ and you
suddenly feel very mediocre.
Challenging yourself to pull through
that feeling and find a new level of
resilience and confidence means you
grow, quickly, as a person.
Fabienne Morris
(2004, BA Music)
Head of Communications and Marketing
Intermusica
Who was your biggest influence at Univ?
Academically Professor Marc Stears. I did political
philosophy with him and he did this great thing of not
tying you to a syllabus, but just encouraging you to
read things critically and come up with different ideas,
exploring your own viewpoint. That was incredibly
valuable. On the non-academic side, I would have to say
my friendship group in my year – people from many
different backgrounds studying lots of different things; all
incredibly supportive of each other and that allowed me
to become who I am now.
Nadia
Odunayo
(2010, BA PPE)
Co-Founder/Director
Ignition Works
Laura Oakley
(2011, BA PPE)
Policy Adviser in Civil Service Economics Fast Stream
HM Treasury
What were your preconceptions?
I always thought that Oxford was full of people who
weren’t like me; I thought they would be super clever
and in a different league. I always thought that at some
point they would find me out, that they would realise I
wasn’t supposed to be here, but that I should enjoy it in
the meantime. Actually everyone was equally nervous in
those first weeks and everyone was so friendly and went
out together. It was only later that everyone admitted
how terrified they had been.
28 THE MARTLET | SPRING 2017