By Jade Weiner, Cambridge Executive MBA 2024
We began this journey together, a room of strangers, sizing each other up, wondering how to come across and present ourselves, worried about pronouncing (or even remembering) the names of our new classmates. Cautious. Open. Intrigued. Each of us quietly processing, quietly correcting, quietly hoping we would find our place.
We applied and joined the programme for different reasons, at different times in our lives, but all fiercely motivated to challenge and change ourselves.
I decided to apply after transitioning from the practice of law to the business of law, looking to expand on my Organisational Leadership qualification, completed through an executive programme at Saïd Business School. Despite working in the same industry, I felt the need to justify the move to myself and prove my worth in my role to others (iimposter syndrome, my familiar, uninvited companion). It was also a time I chose to celebrate being single at 35, to exploit living in the UK, and to challenge myself to tackle subjects a younger Jade had disregarded as capitalistic, cold and requiring calculation skills she was convinced she lacked.
We leave this degree, 20 months later, having achieved some, all, or more of what we set out to.
I have watched you all graciously navigate job changes, the loss of loved ones, moving countries, growing your families, starting and ending relationships. Real life, unfolding in real time, alongside demanding academic work, rigorous schedules and conflicting priorities. I saw courage where people found their voices. I saw resilience where people kept going when they had every reason not to. We found comfort in admitting how hard it was, even as everyone else appeared to have their heads above water. Almost none of us actually felt that way, and there was great relief in sharing that.
For me, you came through with my job change, my engagement and my wedding and, please G-d, the growth of my family. Your care, understanding, support and well wishes mean more to me than you know. The effort you made to celebrate my birthday during our IBST in Brazil last year is a memory I will treasure forever, the kind that surfaces unexpectedly and makes you smile.
There are so many moments and lessons to pocket away and return to in times when I need strength, motivation and the feeling that there are people rooting for me. Some silly, like me accidentally scheduling my micro-needling appointment into the communal class calendar. Some heartfelt, like the birthday messages group. Some poignant, like the DEI and panel sessions hosted by our cohort, where I was reminded that a room of people genuinely willing to listen is rarer than it should be.
These communal and individual moments transformed the name game on our first day into a real community. Our selfless class representatives interceded and advocated for us, ensuring the cohesion of the group within the wider Cambridge Judge ecosystem. Watching our cohort graduate and being privileged to meet family members I had heard so much about, helped me see and understand each of you even more fully.
I struggled at times throughout the programme, beyond the academic challenges (Corporate Finance and Business Analytics, I am looking at you). My learning differences, and being the only observant Jew in our cohort, brought with them unrepresented and sometimes invisible trials that were not always easy to articulate.
I accepted my course offer knowing full well that classes fell on Fridays and Saturdays, over Shabbat, stubbornly assuring the Cambridge Judge team, and myself, that we would make it work. We did. But it was not always seamless. I often felt torn between two worlds: wanting to be in shul, missing communal celebrations and commemorations, and also needing to be in class. Torn between being with my husband for Shabbat and wanting to be fully present with our cohort. I felt a knot of anxiety every time I left for a teaching weekend and yet, without fail, the moment I arrived and saw one of your faces, that knot loosened. The anxiety gave way to excitement and gratitude, every single time. And there were moments, small but significant, when I would be standing awkwardly at the electronic water taps or coffee machines, silently signalling for help and, without fail, one of you noticed and made sure I had what I needed. As you did, facilitating photos at our graduation, over Shavuot and Shabbat – without fuss and with care.
That ease, that quiet, consistent sense of belonging, carried me through the two years in ways I could not always name in the moment.
Before our first weekend, I lay awake genuinely worried about what campus antisemitism might await me. I had prepared myself to defend, correct and dispel misinformation and harmful rhetoric. But the Business School, and our cohort, offered something I had not quite dared to expect: a safe haven. The posters and protests on the wider campus were impossible to ignore, and a fresh batch accompanied me to my graduation procession just last week. But within our cohort, I found something that felt like genuine inclusion, not as a concept discussed in a lecture, but as something lived and practised.
You helped restore my faith in friendships beyond my own community because, sadly, many people had chosen to isolate me, withhold friendship, or antagonise me simply because I am Jewish. You gave me a space where I could be fully myself, gregarious social-butterfly wings and all.
This note goes beyond gratitude. It is a heartfelt recognition of basic humanity, decency and camaraderie. In an environment I expected to feel sterile and corporate, I found warmth I did not anticipate and kindness I will not forget. Just as you saw me, I will do my best to continue to see you, support you and cheer you on.
What I am carrying forward from these 20 months is not just a degree. It is the memory of a community that showed up, in the small moments and the significant ones, and a reminder of what it means to truly include someone.
Thank you, with all my heart. x
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