Jessica Gibby (French and Spanish 1984)

A Magic Moment

It’s a chilly Saturday in March 2016 and alumnae and female students have gathered at Exeter’s Streatham Campus to think about their careers.

Kathryn Bishop, Associate Fellow of the University of Oxford Business School and facilitator Alumna Jessica Gibby have put together an interactive workshop to encourage Exeter women to reflect on their careers – past, present and future. 

Jessica says...

“With a series of working models drawn from corporate strategy, Kathryn encouraged us all to undertake our own strategic review  - the milestones and key learning moments, the definition of our strategic intent and how best to analyse and maximise our capabilities for our next steps.

What a joy to see connections being made between students and alumnae with mentoring in the moment taking place. What a pleasure to hear alumnae making contacts that would help them with their next career decisions and to see a face lit up with excitement as a new career prospect suddenly seemed possible.  How rewarding to see alumnae participating fully in open and honest discussions about their working lives with women students just starting out on theirs.

We all came away invigorated with a plan of action.

Any institution is its people. But a university in particular has people as its core product. Its fundamental aim is to help young adults develop and grow so that they all can play their part “to make the world a better place” as former Chancellor Floella Benjamin always wished.  The University wants its graduates to make a success of their lives in so many ways and then ideally return as alumni to feedback, support and mentor their successors.

It was a pleasure to see that happening on Saturday. 

My wish as a local alumna is that there would be more events when students and alumnae come together because when they do...  magic happens.

Jessica Gibby (French and Spanish 1984) 

Date: 10 June 2016