Welcome to St. Catherine's College in
the University of Cambridge
in true British style it's been raining all
morning but it's stopped now so we're
gonna go and meet with Ruan Hamer
he's a MPhil Masters student in real
estate finance. He's asked us to meet him in his favorite place in the college,
the MCR. It's just up here so let's go for it
Hey Ruan
Hey Will
Good to see you buddy
Yeah how's it going?
Good, good
Thanks for meeting with me today
No problem
So why is the MCR (Middle Common Room) your favorite place?
I really enjoy coming here after lectures because
it's a good place for students to decompress
grab a coffee, read something, maybe do a bit of study before moving onto the next lecture, you know
Yeah a bit of decompression is super important
Oh yeah
So I want to know what do you
think was like the most transformative
or biggest factor in your experiences in
the past that helped bring you to where
you are in Cambridge today? So I had the
opportunity to spend a lot of my youth
and formative years moving around a lot
so I lived in the Ivory Coast, Venezuela
Ghana, Vietnam, the Netherlands and then I
did my undergraduate studies in America
before coming here so just having been
able to see the world and experience
different cultures really shaped me for
what I wanted to do so for example I was in Vietnam
from 2007 till 2013 and just in those six
years the country grew enormously I mean
it went from being very much third world
to now at the forefront of development
one of the fastest-growing economies in
the world and going from there to then
moving to the Netherlands which is one
of the most progressive and advanced
countries in the world is just
incredible to see sort of what a country
starts from and what it could become
and finally moving back to having grown
up in Venezuela I was there from 1997
until 2005 I mean it is probably one of
the most financially unstable and
dangerous countries in the world right
now has highest inflation ever recorded
I mean it is
really an awful situation going on there
but I really loved it I mean the people
the culture is phenomenal so now coming
here to do my MPhil in real estate
finance I always feel like developing
homes and infrastructure is the best way
to reinvigorate an economy and I hope
that one day the experience I have here
at the University of Cambridge helps me
go back to Venezuela and help the people
that I grew up with and the country that
I really really love
Amazing yeah I guess you hear about how different real
estate markets can be on the news and
everything but when you see it firsthand
it's a really different
kind of eye-opening experience 
Absolutely yeah
So I know you've got a busy day ahead so just one last question for you
For people trying to come to the University
of Cambridge or for getting into your
program yeah what would be your biggest tip for them
I mean I definitely feel like the most
important part about putting an
application especially in for further
education like after you've done your
undergraduate is definitely to be
authentic you should present yourself as
who you are on your application a lot of
times people get caught up in wanting to
be the ideal candidate for a university
as opposed to being themselves so they
stick to what are the things that the
university is looking for what are the
results that the university is looking
for what are the essays that the
university is looking for and sort of
tailoring their applications just to be
what the university wants as opposed to
coming to university and saying this is
who I am
these are the experiences I've had and
this is what I want to get out of the
program I feel like that is more useful
than just sort of saying I have great
grades these are my extracurriculars and
this is why you should happen it should
just be like this is my experience so
for example in my essay, the most
important thing that I wrote about was
my experience growing up in Venezuela
seeing how the country is falling into a
state of economic downturn and how I
want to use what I get out of the real
estate finance program to one day
hopefully be able to go back so just be
yourself and the University will really
care about that because they want a
diverse set of people they don't want
every single
person to just be these are my marks
this is my essay this is why you want me
and having everyone be the same the
beauty of this university is the fact
that there are people from all walks of
life and were able to share our
experiences and sort of grow
collectively so be yourself
There you go, be authentic, the university can't tell if you're faking it
