Alison Boulton digs beneath the city's dreaming spires

All young life is attractive,’ my mother used to say – and she’s right. We should celebrate youth. The young are the future, and this city is blessed with many of them. Two universities bring in fresh faces and new ideas. Schools abound with initiatives and talent.

Three events in three days illustrate youthful achievement.

Oxford Fashion Week’s spectacular Couture Show in Malmaison’s Oxford Castle Quarter ended a celebration of vibrant young designers, poised student volunteer models and ambitious organisers in their twenties. It was a youth-fest in what was once the old City Gaol. A sorrowful procession of naked-torsoed young men, roped together and penned in the middle of the catwalk alluded to the location’s dark past. It was certainly arresting.

Strikingly beautiful men and women sashayed up and down, the girls balancing on precipitous heels, the men in snow white sneakers and polished leather.

There was no repeat of a price tag reportedly seen attached to a model’s shoe – and no prices in our programmes to deflate the immediacy of the dream.

Next, a visit to OxHub in Turl Street. Here student volunteers learn how to ‘do more good stuff more effectively’, according to president Henry Owen, a second-year student at University College.

From One Hour a Week to internships and international conferences, students catalyse others to become socially active citizens – hopefully for life. They learn to effect change, for the good of the community and possibly the world. Many will have aspirations to become future civic leaders.

At OxHub, a huge range of social and environmental challenges both locally and around the world are tackled. “We aim to help people channel their good will in the most effective and rewarding ways possible,” Owen said.

If the life-enhancing quotes on the white walls of the OxHub loos are anything to go by, idealism is still engaging the young.

Lastly, students were responsible for bringing together a remarkable group of women at St Anthony’s College during this month’s Oxford International Women’s Festival. Film makers, researchers, activists, doctors and charity workers shared their stories in Women who Live their Dreams.

While their contributions were powerful and inspiring, their work has given opportunities to countless others who have had neither opportunities nor a platform. What they have had, through the courage and commitment of these women speakers, is an opportunity to cut through the stigma, silence and isolation of their lives – to find their voices – often for the first time.

It was students who made it possible for the rest of the city to engage in this fascinating event.

It’s the privilege of many in this city to ride the wave of energy, enthusiasm and achievement our young people manifest daily, and witness with pride and awe their commitment to making things happen.