The Rank Foundation – University of St Andrews Summer School 2025: Leadership, Enterprise and Philanthropy in Action

In this blog post, John Hind, Rank’s Director of Education and Leadership, reflects on a joyful and thought-provoking week at the 2025 Rank Foundation – University of St Andrews Summer School. Through creative challenges, inspiring talks, and moments of unexpected insight, the week gave young leaders space to explore what leadership, enterprise and philanthropy mean in action.

For those of you who love puzzles, what do the following have in common?

A shipwreck in fourth century Fife and an engine fire on a Qantas flight; a lovesick turtle; Martin Luther King’s dream speech and a soaking in a rain shower of biblical proportions; an innovative app designed to make bespoke gift making a doddle; eating marigolds and breaking arrows with the softest part of the human body; the good natured love of mankind and the Cookie Monster.

The answer is that each featured in the Rank Summer School at the University of St Andrews organised by the heroic and inspirational Prof Tobias Jung, director and founder of the university’s Centre for the Study of Philanthropy & Public Good. Ten members of the school leadership award class of 2024 spent a week exploring issues of leadership, entrepreneurship and philanthropy in the glorious surroundings of the ancient university town.

Picturing themselves as part of St Regulus’s crew shipwrecked when bringing St Andrew’s relics to Fife made a great first discussion point around leadership as Tobias challenged students to consider how they would make use of scarce resources to ensure their safety. Later, as the transport theme shifted through the centuries, how to react to an unexpected aircraft engine fire stimulated further discussions around entrepreneurship: how does one react in circumstances when plan A fails. Often the answer to that question lies in creativity – the subject of Anna Brown’s excellent Monday afternoon session which allowed imaginations to run wild giving birth – amongst other things – to our lovesick turtle.

Our second day saw begin with Prof Carole Elliott exploring leadership traits and styles and convincing us that we can all be leaders before Prof Paul Tibbert encouraged us both to be reflexive as leaders and to consider the power of rhetoric, ‘I have a dream’ helping to inspire some impassioned presentations on a proposed ban on social media use for under 16s. After lunch a focus on design helped to develop our entrepreneurial spirit further and saw some exciting results around the brief of gift giving – the app (expertly modelled in 3D paper and cardboard) being but one of a range of imaginative outcomes.

Day three saw a change of venue as Kandahar House in Dundee provided the location for a series of talks by members of the wider Rank family. Andrew Muirhead explained his career in philanthropic work across Scotland and the wider world and Kirsty Thomson and Danielle Gaffney du Ploy shared their experiences of working in the city, as did John Alexander. His presentation included the arrow breaking exercise, which, whilst it had not featured in the pre-trip risk assessment, did provide a spectacular talking point. Our Dundee stay ended with a visit to the urban garden oasis that is the MaxWell Centre, ably hosted by Alison Goodfellow who encouraged us all to try the slightly peppery delights of marigold heads. The whole operation was masterminded, with typical efficiency and modesty, by Rank’s Dundee associate, David Dorward who not only drew up the programme but also acted as bus driver for the day.

Day four saw a focus on philanthropy (Dr Johnson’s good natured love of humanity) and specifically on the life and work of Andrew Carnegie, whose Dunfermline birthplace we visited in the afternoon. The educational programme Sesame Street, we learned in the excellent museum, was amongst the staggering range of causes and activities supported by Carnegie – a perfect link to the Cookie Monster T shirt worn by one of the students.

And the rain? We were privileged to be able to share in the evening activities run by the Sutton Trust summer school for their 150 students with whom we shared the accommodation. On Monday afternoon they arranged for all delegates to take part in the pier walk – a long established St Andrews tradition. Sadly, for all their expertise, controlling the weather was beyond them (and beyond the forecasters’ powers too!) and we all took a soaking. Spirits, however, were far from dampened and memories (albeit wet ones) were made!

So what had we learned from this eclectic mix? The well-designed course meant that several themes were emphasised throughout the week. We can all be leaders in different circumstances even if we don’t hold traditional positions of power. Good leaders are passionate and also take time to look after themselves. They are not afraid to fail but rather look to develop ideas with are both innovative and practical. Above all we learned that teamwork is central to success in all the aspects of leadership and entrepreneurship that make for successful philanthropy.

And the last word must go to the students themselves. Equipped with skills to take forward in their different and varied contexts they reflected on how they might look to philanthropic ventures in their own spheres – whether that be through a social media platform to encourage young people’s interest in engineering, or developing existing schemes to encourage reading in their school or considering how they might help to develop community facilities in their home towns.

Both Eliana and Eunice had approached the week with some trepidation, but were both delighted and challenged by their experiences. Eliana was particularly engaged by discussions around philanthropy, which made her ‘rethink what I considered as privilege and helped me understand that philanthropy doesn’t have to be a grand gesture and it can be small, intentional acts that create meaningful impact.’ Nhat was also engaged with the philanthropic content, notably our time in Dunfermline: ‘Andrew Carnegie message “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced” really spoke to me.’ Finally, Eunice’s reflections serve as a fitting summary for what was much more than just an enjoyable week (which it undoubtedly was for us all) as she writes ‘work on leadership, enterprise and philanthropy has allowed me to reflect and recognise my own personal growth and potential, for which I am forever grateful. I have come out with an educated plan for who I want to be and how I’m going to get there – I’ve already taken my first steps here.’

My thanks are due to every-one who made this such a positive learning experience and to our Alumni Development Officer, Rosalie Kerr, for all her help and assistance before and during the week.