It was a freezing cold evening, the 20th of November 2008, as I huddled in The White Horse with Caitlin, Claire and Raj; doing what you always do in an Oxford pub—dreaming up big ideas.
The Clarendon Council: a timeline (and why the best ideas are always found in a pub!)
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We had just come from the annual Clarendon reception where Professor Sue Iversen spoke about the benefits of closer interaction amongst Clarendon scholars. She could not have realized it at the time, but this was something that had been brewing in my mind for quite some time. I was fortunate to have found myself at ease in Oxford, but I realized that a huge part of this was feeling a sense of belonging. A part of a community. Oxford can be a pressure-cooker at times; the constant grey, the impossibly impressive colleagues, an international reputation that sets a standard you wonder if you can ever meet. The Clarendon Scholarship, we were told, was awarded to the best international post-graduate applications as judged by Oxford academics, experts in their field. We boast the largest community of any international scholarship, yet the community was dormant. A large potential—untapped! A large potential that could provide relief to its scholars, complementing the collegiate system through its diverse, yet like-minded, collections of people. Thankfully, I was not alone in my belief.
THE CLARENDON CHRONICLE – Newsletter of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association
By early February 2009, the dreams cooked up in a darkly lit booth just two months before were being presented to Jenny Carter and Lindsay Davis from the Student Funding Services and Rachel Goode from the Oxford University Press. Nervously, we pleaded our case. We needed to showcase the scholarship and its talented body within and outside Oxford. We needed an email list, a way to communicate to the larger community, a website! Something! We pleaded for support for scholar activities including but not limited to interdisciplinary forums, career events, and socials. Mostly, we wanted to build something special at Oxford for one of its special cores and as it turned out so did the University and in particular, Emma Sabzalieva, the then Head of Graduate Funding.
‘We needed an email list, . . . a website! Something!’ With full support from the University and more than a few pub-brainstorming sessions later, we launched the Clarendon Scholars’ Association from Exeter College on the 11th of May 2009. The first council formed that evening was open to anyone who wished to be involved.