"one year on" talk (December 2023)

nearly a year on from leaving his position as OW Mentoring Lead, Oluwani returned to Whitgift – along with a few special guests – to check in with his mentees' progress and update them on the growth of upthegreatness (utG) over the last twelve months. The utG family members in attendance were: Joshua Jibulu {sports media producer},  Joseph Golding {UCL graduate, business owner, founder of Whitgift's ACS}, Timi Oke {3* College Football Cornerback & Northwestern commit}, and Alexander Ezimora {final-year Philosophy undergraduate}. The hour-long talk was structured in a carousel format with our four guests spread out across the Old Library. The group of twenty students were then divided into smaller groups of five and were able to spend several minutes talking with each guest before moving on to the next one. 

Oluwani then closed the event by highlighting that the first "greatness seed" was planted over a year ago (when the original mentoring group was formed) and what this current crop of mentees represent are the ripening fruits of the first "greatness tree". A tree which is blossoming beautifully as we are seeing mentees like Sean Kerr (Harlequins professional rugby player) and Tooni Adisa (Northwestern undergraduate) thriving in their post-Whitgift lives. He further explicated that in a similar fashion to which Tooni and Sean are responsible for sowing their own greatness seeds through being examples for others to aspire towards, there will also come a time for these students where they must inspire others towards greatness. Thus, the cycle continues and a "forest of greatness" steadily grows.