Moving to Cambridge from the Netherlands after completing her undergraduate and Master’s degrees at the University of Utrecht was a pivotal decision for Cherry Muijsson. The welcoming and diverse community at Darwin instantly made her feel at home, and the connections she formed there sparked her passion for integrating nature conservation into the world of economics and finance.
“Darwin is the home for a diverse group of people, which really enables those important interdisciplinary conversations. The setting feels a little bit more informal than what you see in other Colleges, with students and fellows being part of the same community, which I always really appreciated.”
Applying to Cambridge from overseas, choosing a College was not high on Cherry Muijsson’s list of priorities.
“I didn’t have a College preference on my application, so I was very fortunate that I was allocated to Darwin,” she says now. “I was honestly just so focused on getting in for the PhD that I didn’t think about it. But I’ve been so lucky, because I would have selected Darwin as a College, just from the experience I’ve had.”
After taking on the role of Admiral of the Punts in her first year, Cherry found Darwin’s approach to student engagement in College life so appealing that she ran successfully for DCSA President.
“It wasn’t something that I was naturally considering – in fact I was never really that active in student life before coming to Cambridge. But the Darwin community struck me as something so special that I really wanted to contribute to.”
As President, Cherry focused on engaging PhD students to remain plugged into the community while living off site, so that the more regular rotation of MPhil students didn’t result in the College feeling unfamiliar whenever they returned. She also emphasised the importance of maintaining Darwin’s diversity through admissions, and campaigned for affordability of student rents, as well as working with Catering Manager Ivan Higney to promote sustainability in the College kitchens.
‘I celebrated my birthday in College in 2022 and Ivan did the menu, and I loved that it was all vegetarian and I could say to my guests ‘this is the default at Darwin, that’s what we stand for.’ It’s great.”
Cherry’s PhD in Economics focused on macroeconomics and finance, and she now works as an investor at Blackrock, where she applies her commitment to a sustainable future to financial services.
“I invest and allocate money for pension funds in the UK, Netherlands and the Nordics. I am granted a fiduciary duty where I am responsible for their investment performance but also thoughtful that investments align with their values and consider risks associated with the climate transition and biodiversity crisis. I’m very passionate about nature conservation, and I’ve been working on how we can bring nature to the finance world, how can we unlock private capital for nature-related opportunities and help fund the critical conservation work required to reverse biodiversity loss.”
But in addition to shaping her career trajectory, Cherry also has more personal reasons for enduring loyalty to Darwin, having met her partner, Julien Gagnon, in College during her third year.
“Despite having studied at the Other Place and being a PhD student at Trinity, he was warmly embraced by the Darwin community and became a regular at Darbar.”
Cherry returns regularly, and particularly treasures her recollections of the year she spent living in the President’s accommodation, in the Old Granary.
“It was gorgeous, and some of the best memories are when we hosted our committee events on the Granary balcony watching the punts go by. I always loved doing that. Looking back on that I’m still sort of pinching myself – was that actually a dream, to be able to live like that, in a place with so much history?”