I'm Luke MacLeod. I'm a fourth year, final year student here at the University of St Andrews, and I study Computer Science. I come from the Isle of Lewis, a small island off the west coast of Scotland. Coming to St Andrews was at first off the cards, I didn't really know about the opportunity, but a Maths teacher said “Luke, there’s a scholarship available for St Andrews, would you think about applying”, and I went for it, and here I am.
What I like most about my course is the freedom to follow what you are most passionate about. it's not been one course for everyone, one size fits all. You choose it as your own course from day one. For my dissertation what I wanted to do was bring Gaelic and its culture to our young people, where I'm from, to the islands through a game experience that would make the proverbs and stories of where we're from engaging in the same way that they might engage with their other content or games online.
Music is by far my biggest outlet, and that takes me back home to Lewis, where I was handed an accordion, I think, I was about seven or eight years old, and I've been playing ever since.
My biggest passion since I was young was planes, and I've had the very lucky opportunity to join University Air Squadron here at St Andrews. I might have a met brief in the morning, go flying, and then a lecture in the afternoon.
My degree is so much more than a piece of paper at the end, it's an evolving story, and one of my biggest questions arriving at St Andrews was ‘where in the world is there an island like Lewis that speaks different languages, but might be further ahead, might think differently than we do’. And I’ve had the opportunity to study at the University of Hong Kong. I was in the centre of a place managing three official languages across media, education, and culture, and that was so much more than an exchange, it was an exchange of friendship, of learning, and lifelong characteristics that I will now hold true to myself.
From my first year I hit the ground running coming out of St Andrews, so my first summer I interned at the BBC. In my second year I travelled with the Air Force to France, Malta, Italy, and then in my third year I interned with Baillie Gifford in Edinburgh and worked on some really interesting projects very closely relating to what I've learned here in Computer Science Now that I'm leaving, I'm going to Harvard University in the summer to study AI negotiation strategy and simulations.
This town here is beyond any other place for opportunities, and for me going out there, putting yourself out there makes all the difference.
Having a scholarship here at St Andrews was enabling, and it taught me that one door can open many others, but you must knock on that door before it is opened. I've been supported by the Dr Donald Malcolm MacArthur Scholarship, and that scholarship tells a story of somebody just like myself who left the Isle of Lewis and came to St Andrews, and from that opportunity wanted to support people following his footstep.
That story tells something about what Saints are after leaving St Andrews. They're generous people who always want to give something back, and that philosophy and mentality is something I want to adopt and hold on to and bring with me forward into my life, and hopefully one day do the same,
