(Psychological and Behavioural Sciences, m.2021)

Brandon graduated from Corpus with a double first, ranking top of his cohort. He also received numerous awards during his time as an undergraduate, including a Departmental Commendation Award, along with the Corpus Margaret Parker Prize and he was named a Foundation Scholar.

Brandon’s journey to Cambridge began when he stepped out of his lane and took the decision to move away from his “small, under-funded high school, where no one was particularly successful academically”. He wanted to steer away from the cycle that most of his peers were in, staying in the same high school; Brandon wanted to go somewhere different, somewhere bigger. This led him to a large sixth-form college, home to 3,000 students.

“I joked to myself that I would go to Cambridge one day, but until I got my offer, I never really believed it was possible. The whole university application process was alien to me. My parents did not go to university or even sixth form. At every step I felt like I was the only person navigating. It never really felt like it was attainable.

“I picked Corpus fundamentally because it was small. My sixth form was massive and lacked some community. I was there during COVID which made it harder to get to know people, so I thought by going to university I would try and restore some of the community feel, like I wasn’t doing it alone.”

Brandon had never been to Corpus before arriving to start the Bridging Course. “We couldn’t afford to visit before I took up my place and there was no Offer Holders Day because of COVID. I really enjoyed the Bridging Course, it made for a smooth transition, easing me into Corpus and the Cambridge experience.”

Brandon admits he felt the College were taking a risk on him, after what he considers to be a weak interview. “I’d come from a very poor high school, and a very low-income background but had the potential academically, sadly that wasn’t realised in the application process as much as it could have been. I felt they were taking a risk to give me an offer, so for my first year I felt I was proving that I was deserving of my place.

“I did really well in first, second and third year, but I consistently lacked confidence in my own ability. My poor Director of Studies (DoS) had to listen to me go on about how I would fail, that I would have to drop out.

“Professor Pasco Fearon was a great DoS and supportive, much like a Tutor as well. He was also my dissertation supervisor, which worked out really well as I knew I would love working with him.”

Since graduating, Brandon has remained in academia, currently working as a Research Assistant in the Digital Mental Health Group at the MRC - Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. He is also running supervisions for undergraduate students at St John's College in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. 

“I have switched seats. I exited three months ago and now I’m back, but in the chair of power. I enjoy supervising and mentoring because I know what a daunting process it can be. I want to make that feel attainable for the students.”

Looking to the future, Brandon hopes to do a PhD and continue in academia. “I’m aware it is an inherently unstable profession until you reach professorship, so should a role in industry utilising a similar skillset materialise it is certainly something I would consider down the line, but right now research is what I am best at and what I am most interested in.”

We were delighted to welcome Brandon back to Corpus recently to receive his Foundation Scholarship. “I felt very content with how my degree ended and my career started. I was happy to come back to Corpus because I was now confident in who I was. This was a real change for me, during my time as a student, for no fault of the College, I was riddled with feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty. Feeling that my success in first and second year was a fluke, that I never fully deserved it. It felt great to return to the College and be in that room, confident in where I was. I knew I had made the right choice and that I truly deserved to be there.”