One year at Oxford

One year at Oxford

Julie Greene is a 2018-19 Skoll Scholar and Oxford MBA, and co-founder of The Women’s Bakery in Rwanda. She recounts her time and whirlwind journey on the MBA programme this year.

This year was, frankly, much harder than I expected. I didn’t think that getting back into the swing of school would be such an adjustment, I had forgotten how short and dark the days are in northern hemisphere winters, and I didn’t anticipate the magnitude of changes I would need to navigate with my company and my own personal direction during the year.

Transitioning back into school was not hard so much in the academic sense (although trust me, the workload was challenging!) as it was in the day to day motivational sense. I was so used to fast paced, hands on start-up life. Where every day brought new problems to solve, visible successes or new challenges, and constant connection with the women our company was working with. By comparison, sitting in class lectures day after day felt impersonal and theoretical. I could certainly connect classroom ideas to potential application in The Women’s Bakery, but I missed the action, the constant feedback, and the personal connection to my work.

As the days grew shorter, and the business finance exam loomed larger, I sometimes questioned what I was even doing here. Why had I taken time away from my passion, to sit in lectures all day and learn about corporate finance? What does a small-scale social entrepreneur need to know about corporate finance anyways? (It turns out, a lot.) At the same time, having stepped away from the day to day of my company, I had to face another reality: I was drained. I took the incredibly difficult decision in January to leave my company, which was something I had not considered before coming to the MBA.

With all of these changes, the first half of the year felt like a pretty long road for me. I often felt like I should be joining a case competition, or should be more social and end more of my nights at the ever popular bar Hank’s. But, with the support of a lot a great colleagues, classmates, and mentors I gave myself what I really needed – permission. Permission to take time and process, permission to be more introverted than extroverted in a program of over 300 incredible people, and permission to grieve and deeply reflect on one ending before throwing myself into any of the million new possibilities in front of me.

julie and team at london bridge

And eventually, the days did get longer again. The sun started to shine a bit more frequently, and stressing about corporate finance turned into choosing thought provoking electives. The spring filled up as I planned and led a student trek to Rwanda to explore the social enterprise and impact ecosystem, and worked with a team to develop a business plan for an impact focused craft brewery in Rwanda. I even found myself at Hank’s a few times. Before I knew it, the year was winding down.

As I was nearing the end of the final term, researching and writing thousands of words for what felt like endless papers, something clicked. I was reading an article and it struck me – what I had just read, full of terminology and references to all kinds of financing options, would have been nearly gibberish to me a year prior. Yes, I would have had a general sense of what was going on, but I wouldn’t have grasped any of the specifics. And then I had the same experience listening to a podcast. And then listening in to a conversation next to me in a café. Like an image coming into focus, the year came together for me. Despite all the challenges and grey days and distance from the work I am passionate about, I had in fact amassed a lot of knowledge. I had gained a new understanding of the world around me, from sustainable supply chains to impact investing, from trust in technology to raising capital. Of course, you go to school expecting to learn. But there is still something truly amazing about the moments when things click.

I walked into this year thinking I knew where I was headed when I walked out. The specific destination has changed for me it is now completely unknown. But I am walking out confident that I have grown and learned, that I have been challenged, and that I have an incredible community that will support me as I find my next direction.

Julie at castle mount