Gates Cambridge celebrated its past, present and future this weekend and raised a glass to Bill Gates Sr. on what would have been his 100th birthday.
Our scholars have a calling, a vocation. Being in a group like this you learn just by observing your friends and mentors across the room and across a diversity of disciplines. That’s why the Gates Cambridge community is so important and Bill Gates Sr. really supported that.
Dr Gordon Johnson
Gates Cambridge celebrated the past, present and future of the scholarship programme this weekend at an event to mark what would have been Bill Gates Sr.’s 100th birthday.
The event brought together two former Provosts, Dr Gordon Johnson [pictured middle front] – the founding Provost of Gates Cambridge – and Professor Barry Everitt [pictured back right] who steered it through its early adulthood. Both shared their memories of Bill Gates Sr. and his vision for the programme while current Provost Professor Eilís Ferran [pictured front left] spoke of plans for the future and 2025 Scholar Shin Zert Phua spoke about his experience as a Scholar.
Dr Johnson talked about the early days of the programme when he was told to recruit up to 220 students with hardly any restrictions on what they could study. Instead of imposing his views on the scholarship programme, Bill Gates Sr. watched how it developed in its own way with a strong ethical dimension. “He was tremendously curious about Cambridge and came every year,” said Dr Johnson.
“Acquiring knowledge is difficult, but it’s even more difficult to use that knowledge for good,” he said. Building a supportive community is key. “Serendipity plays a great part in life and research. We learn things from other people,” he said, adding: “Our scholars have a calling, a vocation. Being in a group like this you learn just by observing your friends and mentors across the room and across a diversity of disciplines. That’s why the Gates Cambridge community is so important and Bill Gates Sr. really supported that.”
Professor Everitt spoke about his regular meetings with Bill Gates Sr. in Seattle and Cambridge. He said Bill Gates Sr. was asked at an event if anything made him speechless and he said the Gates Cambridge Scholars did.
The scholarship programme was the first major gift of the Gates Foundation which was founded around the same time as the Gates Cambridge Trust. Professor Everitt and the Gates Cambridge interviewers would be invited to dinner with Bill Gates Sr. and Mimi Gardner Gates every time they were in Seattle and he would be eager to hear what the scholars were doing and who had won the Bill Gates Sr. Prize.
Professor Everitt said it was very appropriate that what would have been Bill Gates Sr.’s 100th anniversary was being celebrated in Bill Gates Sr. House. He had started searching for a home for Gates Cambridge – a Gates house was part of the original mission of the programme – in his first year as Provost.
Professor Ferran spoke about the anniversary celebrations and plans to strengthen ties with alumni through a new online platform. She spoke of the new leadership programme, Leading with Purpose, and about the upcoming Gates Weekend reunion event. “We are just getting going,” she said. “The best is still to come.”
Shin Zert ended the speeches by talking about how he had been told that he would need a miracle to get a scholarship to Cambridge. Shin Zert is from a small mining town in Malaysia called Ipoh. For most of his life, his education was either supported through financial aid, bursary donations, scholarships and part-time work. His jobs while studying included Chinese seafood waiter, cafe barista and dishwasher. “My journey so far in life has been made possible by many man-made miracles,” he said. “Today I am standing here because of Gates Cambridge. So yes, I believe miracles exist, and I believe I can create more miracles for other people.”
The speeches were followed by a toast to Bill Gates Sr. whose portrait – with his wife and fellow Trustee Mimi – now hangs in the Scholars’ Centre – and a new film about the orientation programme, set up by Scholars, which brings new Scholars together at the start of their studies and helps them to form often long-lasting bonds of friendship.
You can watch the film here.
*Picture credit: Kip Loades.
