Scholars tell their stories

Three Gates Cambridge Scholars will speak about transformative experiences in their lives at event next week.

Three Gates Cambridge Scholars will speak about a range of personal experiences which have had a transformative impact on their lives, from having their research used in the US Presidential elections to working with remote tribes in the Peruvian Amazon and setting up a new religious organisation.

Scholar Stories takes place on 19th October. The speakers are Matthew Samson, Jacqueline Davis and Nathan Hawkins.

Matthew's talk is entitled Ted Cruz, Silicon Valley and my four months at McKinsey. In it he will tell how he became embroiled with the Ted Cruz campaign after he and his supervisor were collaborating with Facebook to access all the data the needed to complete his PhD in Psychology. This involved forecasting millions of Facebook users' personality and happiness from just their public Likes. Matthew [2014] had planned all his analyses, found collaborators and submitted a few abstracts. Then, American primary season arrived. Ted Cruz became a front-runner for the Republican party nomination. The Guardian broke an article on how the forecasting method he was using – and which his supervisor had pioneered – was unwittingly being used by the Cruz campaign to identify possible voters. Facebook then broke its collaboration with Matthew and his supervisor which, he says, meant that "one and a half years of my research was embargoed and later deleted".

His supervisor then announced he was leaving Cambridge for Silicon Valley to monetise the forecasting method. "With no project, no supervisor and a real crisis of conscience I decided it might be time to take that well-trodden path from Cambridge to McKinsey," says Matthew. He did a four-month internship which he says was transformational. "I discovered a fast-paced and impact-orientated work environment, which also happened to be prestigious and promised a big salary. It helped me discover that for some the grass is indeed greener in the corporate world, and that my passion will always be for academia," he says.

Jacqueline [2014], who is doing a PhD in Psychology, will give a talk entitled How to talk to people who are trying to run you out of town with big spears: and other learnings from my time in the world's wild places in which she will discuss the process of organising and carrying out psychology research with remote tribes in the Peruvian Amazon and the Pacific Islands. During the process, she learned how to understand very different points of view after some community leaders were hostile as a result of previous bad experiences with foreigners, how to just relax and be flexible after being stranded in the jungle, how to enjoy the little things after taking part in a shamanic ceremony and evening dance rituals, and how important it is to give back. She says the experience "transformed my world view" and that she uses that now to make her life happier.

Nathan's talk, entitled  From holding on, to being held – a journey of faith and doubt, is about the relationship between faith and philosophy. He went through a personal ‘crisis of faith’ a few years ago when questioning many of the beliefs he had held since childhood. Philosophy became the tool of analysis and the result was a faith that was stronger, more robust and ultimately more fulfilling. He will share his story of the transitions he went through during that time as his wife and him left the organised religious institution they were a part of in order to set up something new (although still religious) founded on different principles. Nathan [2016] is doing an MPhil in Philosophy.

*The event takes place on October 19th at 7:30-9:30pm in the Gates Cambridge Scholars Room. It is open to scholars and invited guests.

Picture credit: Peruvian Amazon c/o Wikipedia.