Experience & experiments
Marcell Hunyadi
(2020) Medicine
Cambridge Bursary Scheme
I matriculated at St John’s in 2020 to study Medicine after graduating from an excellent grammar school in Szeged, Hungary. I could never have afforded to study Medicine at the College without the financial support I received in the form of the St John’s Studentship and the Cambridge Bursary. These sources of financial support meant I was able to have an amazing time here over the last five years.
Ever since arriving at St John’s, I had the idea at the back of my mind of cycling to Hungary. As my penultimate year started and my final year quickly approached, I realised that the opportunity might escape me if I didn’t act soon. Therefore, instead of taking my usual flight home over the summer, I decided to traverse the continent on two wheels before starting my medical elective in Hungary. The route had been obvious to me ever since I first saw a ‘Welcome to Cambridge’ sign declaring that Cambridge is twinned with Heidelberg in Germany and my hometown, Szeged in Hungary. I therefore planned to cycle from Cambridge through Heidelberg to Szeged to visit both twinned cities in one go.
As I had never before done anything similar, the days and hours leading up to setting off were the most stressful part. What to bring and what to leave behind? I had to leave Cambridge eventually, though. Once on the road, I felt much more confident because it was clear what I needed to do. After staying in London for a night, I crossed the Channel at Dover, and by the third day of my journey I had already visited three countries as I crossed into Belgium from France and stayed in Ghent for a night. I reached Heidelberg on the eighth day and Szeged ten days after that, covering 2,330 km (1,450 miles) and visiting eight countries. I set off a few days after finishing my fifth-year exams, and I was still en-route, descending from a hill somewhere in Germany, when I got a notification that I had passed all of them.
Sohan Kalirai
(2022) Music
Cambridge Bursary Scheme
I studied Music as an undergraduate at St John’s from 2022 to 2025. Alongside my academic work, my three years at the College were shaped by organising a series of experimental, multi-media concerts with fellow musicians and friends.
What began as a desire to participate more fully in Cambridge’s vibrant student-led music scene by organising small orchestral concerts gradually evolved into something more ambitious. Early experiments in concert programming developed into full collaborations with theatre directors and actors, culminating in multimedia performances that brought together my interests in performance, composition, arranging, and musical storytelling. These projects have woven together a range of styles, from lounge muzak and Piazzolla tangos to French Baroque keyboard works and avant-garde twentieth-century music, integrating narrative and images into eclectic programmes.
Highlights included large-scale performances in both St John’s and Trinity chapels. As I move beyond my studies, I am committed to continuing to explore new ways of presenting music to audiences with upcoming concerts in London and Cambridge.
The bursary played a vital role in enabling me to make the most of Cambridge’s rich musical environment by pursuing these opportunities outside my formal studies. As a pianist, violinist, tuba player and composer, I appreciated financial support for lessons as well as essential equipment, including a new laptop and keyboard setup that could run professional software central to the creation and organisation of concerts.
Now I have left St John’s I recognise even more clearly that, without the bursary, the financial pressures of day-to-day life would have made it far harder for me to devote the time needed to begin this creative journey. I am deeply grateful for the freedom this support provided.
