Gallery: the Student-Alumni Journey

From Open Days to the annual Benefactors’ Garden Party to welcoming back dozens of Wadham-Rhodes Scholars who were in Oxford for the Rhodes 120th anniversary events – and much more – it was an incredible opportunity to engage with future students, congratulate and wish our Leavers all the best, and to welcome back hundreds of alumni over a series of events, each spectacular in their own ways.

From prospective students to alumni who matriculated in the 1940s – the Summer was full of several terrific events at Wadham that saw this diverse student-alumni mix.

On 16 June, dozens of Leavers enjoyed the warm sunshine over drinks in the Warden’s Garden. Having endured weeks of intense academic pressure, this was a welcome opportunity to relax with peers in an informal setting with the Warden, Robert Hannigan. These Leavers’ experiences have been particularly challenging, having had to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic and several lockdowns.

Wadham was proud to hold this year’s Encaenia Garden Party in the Private Fellows’ Gardens on 21 June, which was hosted by the Vice-Chancellor. Encaenia remains one of the most prestigious and colourful events in the University’s annual calendar, and it was an honour to welcome this year’s distinguished honorary degree recipients and guests.

A few days later, on 24 June, we were excited to hold our Wren 300 Tercentenary Symposium in the Holywell Music Room. The event, organised under the auspices of the 1610 Society with Rory Coonan (English, 1973), brought together a diverse mix of talks by four excellent speakers, who discussed different aspects of Wren’s life, work and enduring influence.

The symposium was immediately followed by our annual Benefactors’ Garden Party, which was attended by some 350 alumni with family and friends. It was heart-warming to see alumni supporters spanning about seven decades coming together to enjoy the gardens, family games, lunch and strawberries and cream in the warm sunshine.

The final week of June saw several hundred Rhodes House alumni returning from all parts of the globe to Oxford for the Rhodes Trust’s 120th anniversary celebrations. We were delighted to host a drinks reception in the Warden’s gardens, followed by dinner in Hall for some 40 Wadham-Rhodes alumni and their partners.

After the disruptions and hardship of the pandemic over several years, this cluster of events was a reminder of how enjoyable and fulfilling it is to welcome back and engage with our alumni and supporters.

We also interviewed several of our Wadham-Rhodes alumni as part of the anniversary celebrations. Check out our interviews with Geoffrey Yeung, Susan Bartlett and Julie Levison.

In those final days of June we saw hundreds of prospective students and parents visit Wadham for the Open Days, which ran 28-29 June. A dozen student ambassadors, along with colleagues from the Academic Office and our Access team, provided tours, information and a warm Wadham welcome to everyone who walked through our doors to get a taste of what Wadham is like.

June also saw us kick-off Planet Positive Lab, a climate tech accelerator taking place in Wadham this summer. This is a pioneering partnership between the College and Founders Factory (founded by Wadham alumnus Henry Lane Fox), where nine companies from the Oxford ecosystem working in sustainability or green technologies are learning how to take their businesses to the next level through educational session, panels, and mentorship networks (to stay informed and find out about how you can get involved, sign up to the newsletter here).

An extraordinarily busy but also an extraordinarily exciting month for all of the teams in College, who’ve been working flat out to pull off the above activities.

Robert Hannigan noted, “It’s been a month of incredible and varied events which have shown much of Wadham and its community at their finest – from our hugely impressive students about to embark on the next stages of live and who become part of the Wadham family, to our alumni and supporters whose generosity is the bedrock of the College’s ability to continue its academic mission with such excellence, to my indefatigable colleagues across the departments who’ve shown such creativity and resilience in ensuring all of these events have been run so smoothly.”

We hope to see many more of our alumni return to the College for our upcoming events.