Lessons Beyond Oxford: What We Taught Our Mentors at OSP
Anjali Martin Shankar
OSP Scholar 2024
In our early “getting to know you” sessions in the Oxford Scholars Programme (OSP), my fellow scholars and I answered the recurring question: why did you want to be an Oxford Scholar? The overwhelming answer? “I came to learn.” And over the course of our two weeks, we did learn through our talented and dedicated Mentors. We learned valuable career skills through our modules, the difficulty of living without air conditioning, and how to be a leader. Each of us traveled to Oxford hoping to return home with a new skill. I’m confident that the
majority of us left wiser than we came. We came to learn, and our Mentors came to teach. However, flipping the script, here I’m
sharing the two most important lessons that we, the first Oxford Scholars, taught our Mentors
during our time in OSP.
Lesson One: The Exponential Power of Teaching.
I believe that the real measure of our progress is not simply what we learned at OSP, but what we will teach others now that we’ve
returned home. So, our first lesson for our Mentors is that they did not simply teach 50 bright, young students how to be leaders or debaters. Rather they empowered 50 Ambassadors to return to our hometowns and share our new-found knowledge with others, affecting potentially
thousands of young minds. So, the real point of the first class of Oxford Scholars is this: Share the privilege. Teach what you’ve learned. Through our actions, our words, and our innovations each of us will teach others what we learned at OSP and empower new Ambassadors.
Lesson Two: The Power of Knowing Your Audience.
At OSP, our Mentors took a group of young, intellectually curious minds and taught us about the rich and complex political,
economic, and social histories of London and Oxford through excursions and industrial immersion. And these travels and this exposure forever changed the way that we view geopolitical history and how that informs the future of geopolitical stability. However, the lesson
we taught our Mentors is that we are simply teenagers and according to the American Pediatric Society, we need eight to ten hours of sleep per day! (Yes, I cited an American statistic because the Americans dominated culture night! IYKYK). However, as we go into the world, and we
eventually become the holistic leaders that OSP taught us to be, I promise that we will be able to
stay awake!
In conclusion, as I think back to those hectic few weeks before arriving at Oxford, I remember nervously packing, reading the intense schedule, maybe studying the required readings, maybe not. But perhaps the most stressful part was joining the group WhatsApp and
meeting my peers. Quiet at first, we slowly started connecting about our hometowns, our selected modules, and our interests. By departure, our chat had exploded! This was the initial sign of what I now know to be true: the first Oxford scholars were inspiring, fun, intellectually
curious, and really chatty! I am grateful for the opportunity to have met so many incredible people, and I look forward to continuing our community and serving others. Thank you to my Mentors for guiding me on my OSP journey, and thank you to Oxford for inspiring my curiosity
and supporting my endeavors.