Ignacio is studying for a PhD in History at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom. He is a Chilean academic and lawyer, who completed his MA in History at University College London in 2016 and then returned to Chile to teach and research Latin American 19th-century intellectuals, political thought and networks. He returned to the UK in 2019 to pursue his PhD in this subject at Cambridge University.

What has your Fellowship enabled you to do, explore, or gain that you wouldn’t have otherwise?

The Rowland Scholarship allowed my family and I to stay at Goodenough College during our year abroad in London, while I was undertaking a Master of Arts in History at University College London. Living at the College was a remarkable experience, where we shared and learned from graduate students from all around the world. And we could not have done so without the generous help of the Foundation.

What impact has your Fellowship had on your ability to lead in the 21st century?

The impact of the Fellowship has been crucial. Even for someone who is living in a remote country like Chile, in today’s globalized world we need to interact with people from all over the globe. And thanks to my experience at Goodenough and the Foundation, I was able to get a grasp of different cultures and realities from all my peers at the College, which has to help me in developing and encouraging said global relations.

How do you imagine your Fellowship will impact on your personal and professional growth in the next chapter of your life?

As mentioned above, without the Fellowship it would have been difficult -if not impossible- to undertake our year abroad in London. Thanks to it, I was able to finish my MA in History at UCL, which led me achieved my objective of becoming a Lecturer in Chile, and a nominee for the Fulbright Scholarship to start my doctoral studies in history, in the United States.