Some of you may remember that last year I was lucky enough to go on the Young Muslim Leadership programme. If you don't you can read a little about it on my post at the time. I met amazing people while on the course and made firm friends with a lot of them and our cohort WhatsApp group is still as active as it was last year. In fact, last week's Wedding Speech post was from the wedding of a friend I made on the programme.
Each year, the organisers (Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies) hold an Alumni day where all previous participants are invited back to Oxford for a day of hobnobbing with the Centre staff/facilitators and also meet the current programme participants. Having had a great experience of it last year, I was very pleased when my invitation came through and over the following weeks co-ordinated with other members of my cohort to plan our transport and attendance. The car journey to Oxford with Jamilla and Ashraf was packed full of drama with lateness and some very memorable conversation that really made the miles fly by.
On arrival in Oxford we wandered into the Centre where we were pleasingly met by various facilitators whom we recognised from our time last year who briefly explained the format of the day - that we should take a name badge, sign up to attend the talks in the afternoon and have a good day. Scanning the name badges to find your own was a fun little exercise - each name I recognised gave me a small stab of happiness.
We'd arrived almost at the scheduled starting time and so were ushered toward the main hall for the day's activities where we were greeted by Dr Farhan Nizami (Centre Director) and Dr Asma Mustafa (primary facilitator) and welcomed with tea and biscuits. A quick game of I-spy ensued as I tried to spot familiar faces in the gathering crowd. My own purposes for attending was to reconnect with friends and people I already knew rather than make new acquaintances but I recognised enough people to keep me happy.
Eventually the formal proceedings began with an introduction and welcome by Dr Nizami followed by a series of short talks by various Alumni who wanted to share experiences and projects that they were working on. Some were more interesting than others depending on your personal interests. After this there was a session where we were informed of the existence of an Alumni Advisory Group and people who had ideas on how to go about setting up an alumni network were asked to share. A fair chunk of this session seemed to be a re-run of the previous year's discussions though I think this time round the output will hopefully be more tangible. The chairperson for the session was adamant that he would eat into our lunch break - an intention which I heartily disapproved of.
Eventually though, we did finish and had lunch followed by Dhuhr prayer in the Centre's prayer hall which really is a very beautiful room. Lunch is always a good time to chat and catch up with people and this one was no exception. I was able to talk to various people in the queue and at the table, including the Registrar Richard Makepeace and got into an in-depth and stimulating discussion about business and careers with one of the alumni from the very first YMLP cohort. I left lunch with my hunger sated but with lots of food for thought.
The talks began after lunch but YMLP encourages free-thinking so I and a few others instead decided we'd prefer to chat and explore the building and gardens. We did this for an hour or so and had a great time of it catching up with the various people we bumped into after which we were joined by everybody else on their break between talks. During the break we took a great big group photo and as the break came to an end, rather than join the second set of talks, the same handful of free-thinkers said our goodbyes, meandered our way to the exit and quietly departed.
All in all it was a fantastic day and a thoroughly enjoyable reminder of our fortnight and the friendships we made and the endless possibilities of life.
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