Twelve Angry Men at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Hello all!

As part of my Law studies, I recently went to watch ’Twelve Angry Men’ at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. We were all extremely excited as we did not know anything about the performance. It revealed a plot where a boy murdered his father and the jury members are given the testing task of deciding whether the defendant was ‘guilty or not guilty’. Out of the 12 jurors, 11 announced they felt the defendant was guilty whilst the lonely one was on his own and declared the defendant not guilty. As a challenging atmosphere in the jury room escalates, crucial aspects that would typically be unnoticed are exposed and slowly but surely, each jury member retracts their decision and changes it to ‘not guilty.

This valuable experience truly revealed the burdensome task of being a part of a Jury and that making quick decisions on a certain case can be fatal. I hope to one day be called for Jury service as early as possible and as many times as possible. It would really boost my aspiration to work as a Barrister and then serve as a Judge!

Ibrahim

A Moroccan Adventure

In July 2013,  some of our students went on a 12 day expedition to Morocco. The trip involved undertaking a community project, camel trekking and climbing Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in the Atlas mountain range. In his blog below, Alastair writes about his amazing adventure....

Alastair in Marrakech

The scariest thing I’ve ever done, an absolutely massive challenge, an experience I’ll never forget, the trip of a lifetime… all of these are completely accurate descriptions of my expedition to Morocco, yet none of them really represent the whole picture. I can’t say I knew when I signed up, what a range of emotions I was going to feel during my twelve days there, but one thing’s for sure: knowing what I do now, I’d still gladly decide to do it again.

I’m getting ahead of myself, though. Even before the event itself, the trials of fundraising meant that for the first time in my life, I had to go out and (gasp!) get a job. Shocking, I know. The extra responsibility of my paper round under my belt meant I was able to contribute roughly £430 to the overall expedition cost, a sum I’m definitely proud of. Trips to The Peak District and Wales also helped prepare me: of course the climate ended up being rather dissimilar from the expedition itself, but it at least allowed me to get used to sleeping in a tent crammed in with two other boys and to walking for hours at a time!

Rough camping 

 

Eventually, though, the hour was at hand and after escaping the rigorous checks of airport security we were off. In a way I found the beginning of the expedition to be its hardest part: I can’t say I found the dry heat of the midday easy to cope with and our plan to ‘hit the ground running’ ran into problems when we discovered that prices ended up being higher than our budget actually suggested. We managed to get used to this fairly quickly, though and soon enough the expedition was back on track. And as I discovered on my very first night there, the experience of walking through Marrakech at dusk with people still bustling through the busy streets is really not one to be missed.

Next up was Mount Toubkal which definitely gave the initial shock of being in a completely different, somehow far busier environment a run for its money, as being the hardest part of the expedition, not least because of the fact we had to get up at half 3 on some days to avoid the heat. But we persevered (the wonders of Moroccan cuisine being a particularly good motivator for me) and even the torrential rain we faced on the mountains didn’t stop us all from reaching the top. I still can’t believe I managed it, but I’m not sure I can really express in words how glad I am that I did. Compared to this, our project phase was far easier: clearing the roads of stones seems like a piece of cake when you’ve climbed a mountain!

At the top of Mount Toubkal 

Helping some locals build a road 

My favourite part of the expedition was definitely camel riding: not only was it very relaxing but as a bit of an animal fanatic there was something magical about getting so close to animals not normally found in the UK, especially when the desert we were riding them through was as beautiful as it was. After that our trip wound down: we spent the rest of our time there shopping (I’m particularly happy with the teapot and set of glasses I purchased) as well as looking round both Essaouira and Marrakech, both of which, while hot, were honestly very entertaining to get lost in. I managed to look round a former school that had some absolutely magnificent architecture and washing myself with a bucket in the hamam was a wonderfully calming little excursion that, like the rest of the trip, I’ll never forget. We managed to cram so much into 12 days that it almost feels like we were there for months!

Camel trekking

Overall, then, the trip made me appreciate some of the facilities we have at home much more than I did, but when it came down to it part of me was sad to leave, especially when I’d  been with such a wonderful group of people. I shouldn’t be too upset though: after all, there’s always time to go back....

Alastair

View more photos from the trip on our Facebook page. 

Students impress business experts with innovative ideas

Students from Cadbury College let their creative juices flow at a recent fun one-day enterprise event delivered by social enterprise Working Knowledge.

The students were given a unique opportunity on Thursday 28^th March, a chance to develop new business ideas with the support and advice of volunteers from a range of locally-based employers including Jaguar Landrover and Corso.

Here is a blog about the day written by one of the business experts.

One of the winning teams
with a 'business expert'

I spent Thursday last week at Cadbury College in Birmingham, UK with a group of about 75 16-18 year old students that had decided that university wasn't for them or had reasons why they couldn't go to university.  This was also a closed day for the college, so those that turned up must have been motivated!

The event was organized by 'Working Knowledge' in the UK with the aim of providing a bridge between students and industry. The event was slickly run, with myself and 10 other business 'experts' including management teams from salesforce.com, Jaguar Land Rover and other local organisations, being prepped for what was to follow.

The students had been split into teams and had to come up with a business idea which would be turned from a concept to a business during the day.

Students discuss their business ideas

Our first action, was to enter the sports hall where we were descended upon by the students tryng to earn tokens by selling us their ideas and asking for tokens.  A winning team was picked based on the most tokens collected.

Each of the 'experts' then joined a group of students who asked questions ranging from what employers are looking for through to how to write a resume. We then took a break, whilst the students resumed their activities and we prepared for the next session.

I had an operations advisory role in the green team.  over the next 45 minutes, teams of students would approach us in a formal manner and ask questions about their idea and how it relates to operations and ask for advice.  The other experts advised on promotions (sales/marketing) and money.  These were great sessions, and you could see the young adults, changing during the day in terms of confidence, communication skills and open ended questioning.

After these sessions, we graded each of the teams. The next stage was for the teams to create presentations of their ideas.

We assembled as groups of 4 experts to listen to four groups present their ideas in a 'dragons den' type format.  We were given time to ask questions of the groups.

The styles were all different but the transformation from the morning to the afternoon was amazing.  You could see that the students were like sponges and had soaked up everything that was put to them earlier in the day.

The presentations were excellent and we awarded prizes to an 'outstanding individual', who in our case was 'Will', and to team 'c' who gave a great team performance.

This was a fantastic use of one day of my time and something I found very rewarding. 

I will definitely be doing this again.

Martin Owen, CEO Corso

www.corso3.com