TJ is a current Criminology student, transitioning to a new career. He is a retired Commander in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate (JAG) and was a former State Prosecutor in Oklahoma. Jones intends to return to his hometown of Baltimore to run for Mayor and reduce the murder rates there.
Can you tell us about your personal journey to Cambridge and what life for you looked like before you joined the University?
I was born and mostly raised in Baltimore City, MD, USA. When I was in primary school, my mother wanted her children to have a non-traditional education early in our lives. So, we travelled and lived all over the United States, often with very diverse and free-thinking people. Some of the places we lived were in a bus, a cave in California, a hippy community in Arizona near the Mexico border, with bohemians in Canada, a small but very religious town in Colorado, a trailer park in New Mexico, in an abandoned 18th century farmhouse, and many other interesting places before we moved back to inner city Baltimore. I attended undergrad and law school in Maryland but also had very impactful semesters of studying abroad in Ireland and Scotland.
Before coming to Cambridge, I had a career as an Officer in the United States Navy and as an Assistant District Attorney (Prosecutor) in Western Oklahoma. My wife, Erin, and I moved to Oklahoma after living in Germany, to help on the family farm/ranch. Prior to Oklahoma, I lived all over the world and have visited 106 countries. I lived in Maryland, Virginia, Rhode Island, Florida, California, Japan, Bahrain, Wales, and England. My experience of studying abroad earlier in life and living in the latter UK countries, drove my desire to study again in the UK.
After a career in the law, I felt a calling to eventually return to my hometown of Baltimore. Unfortunately, Baltimore has some of the worst murder rates in the USA and I want to do something to change that. So, I researched the best programs for study in Criminology and found the Institute of Criminology under the Faculty of Law in Cambridge. It was clear to me that this was the best place in the world to study the causes (and hopefully solutions) of Baltimore’s murder and violent crime problems. I hope to return home after my studies and apply what I have learned here as the eventual Mayor of Baltimore. In addition, I plan to work with the citizens, governmental entities, and non-profit organizations there to help alleviate the violent crime situations.
Why did you choose to study at St Edmund’s College?
Eddies has the best environment for mature and postgraduate life. It is out of the hustle and bustle of central Cambridge but also close enough to walk into the thick of it. It is a mature college but not stuffy in any way. It is international and welcoming. To me, St. Edmund’s represents the very best of everything at Cambridge!
How did you find the application process?
The process wasn’t too bad and required the right amount of information to show who the applicant is and why the applicant deserves a spot at one of the world’s best universities.
How did you prepare for your admissions assessment?
I already had a few degrees and a lot of life experience. Communicating those experiences on paper and in a limited admissions capacity proved the most challenging part of the preparation.
What motivated you to choose your field of study?
The love for my hometown and knowing how amazing the City of Baltimore can be if we citizens can collectively figure out how to reduce the violent crimes and killings. A lot of my friends think I am crazy for “running back into a burning building” but I am the type of person who is not afraid of jumping into the arena to serve others. If I can make positive change for people in their lives, I will consider my life well lived.
Can you share a memorable experience from your time at St Edmund’s College so far that has had a significant impact on you?
I really enjoyed getting to Eddies a week or two before most students arrived. I walked the grounds, visited the chapel, and got to know the porters and other staff. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. Once most of the other students arrived, I witnessed the culture of St. Edmund’s was also strong in the student body. Our international diversity and small size make for a great atmosphere during our time in Cambridge.
Are there any professors, mentors, or classmates who particularly inspire or influence you? I spend a lot of time speaking with classmates, staff, and porters at Eddies. I get to know who they are and where they are from. They are like an extended family to us here. I care for them and am inspired by many of my younger classmates’ reasons for being here and making St. Edmund’s College and Cambridge a better place while they are here.
If so, how are they impacting your personal or professional development? I’m impressed at not only the intellect of people at Eddie’s but also their compassion and passion for what they want to do in the world.
How has attending St Edmund’s College enabled you to thrive? Can you share a project, research endeavour, or extracurricular activity you are involved in that you find especially rewarding or impactful.
I’m quite involved and busy here with extracurricular activities but being busy is when I am happiest. I row for SEBC, play rugby with the All Greys (combined postgrad college team that includes St. Edmund’s), I coach the Cambridge University Women’s Rugby Union Football Club’s developmental team, play American Football with the CU Pythons, and am involved in several societies while also serving St. Edmund’s College CR as the Families Officer. Meeting and working with all these young talented people in these teams/groups is inspirational for me in that it reinvigorates my belief that the world is in good hands with our future generations.
What values are you learning at St Edmund’s College and how do you think your experiences at Cambridge are shaping you as a person?
I think the main value I have observed is that Eddies people treat each other with such respect and care, that it is a model for humanity on how all organizations should be. I am reminded constantly of how the very intelligent and driven people at Cambridge are often embarking on their education to serve and make their respective corners of the world a better place. Selflessness is a very common trait here.
What are your plans beyond graduation and how do you see them contributing to a better future for individuals, societies and the world globally?
As a leader of Baltimore, I hope the city will one day be held up as an example of how people can unite toward a common goal of reversing decades of urban blight and crime. I can only dream, that sometime in the future, Cambridge students may study the renaissance of Baltimore as a model of urban renewal.
What advice would you give prospective students thinking of choosing St Edmund’s College?
If you want a welcoming, friendly, down-to-earth, diverse, caring, and interesting place to study at the world’s best university, look no further than St. Edmund’s!
