Statement of Purpose
Hermann Pondy
Double LLM - Queen Mary University of London
Family, a term so simple and yet very profound and much important for both the individual and
society in general. A family is a place where an individual is supposed to feel loved, protected
and cherished. My parents were born in a tiny village called Makonde which is located right
next to the city of Douala in the country located at the border between central and western Africa
named Cameroon. They both grew up in extreme poverty in a country that newly gained its
independence from the English and the French. They promised themselves that their offspring
would not go through what they went through. I was born and grew up on the francophone side
of Cameroon. At the antipode of the cliché portraited by western media, my childhood in
Cameroon was memorable, we were far from being rich or wealthy, but I never lacked bread on
my table or toys to play with or cloth to wear thanks to the arduous work of my parents who
were determined to provide a better life for us children and that shaped my education and my
willingness to succeed.
After acquiring my high school diploma, I was given the opportunity to travel and go to Ghana a
west African country to further expand my knowledge in a field I was deeply interested in at the
time International Relation. Risks are the essence of life. At first, they are our instinct. We learn
to crawl despite the bruises on our knees and elbows. We learn to walk despite the many falls we
suffer. But as we age and gain a greater awareness of the world around us, somewhere along the
way we face failure; at this point, many people try to eliminate most of the risks in their lives. I
would without a doubt qualify my trip to Ghana as a risky adventure that I am grateful for. At
that particular point in time, I was only familiar with the French system and my English was
certainly not great, but I decided that for my future an experience like that is what I needed, and I
jumped right into it I would be forever grateful for my time in Ghana.
For the first time in my life, I realized that it was possible for me to fail too and that I would not
always be among the smartest in the room. I was forcefully thought that failure itself is not what
I should be focused on. What matter the most is what you learn from it and how you use that
experience to grow and become a better person. I did not give up and once I got used to the
system, I was able to keep up the pace with the other student. My bachelor’s degree was a
mixture or politics and some law related classes. And that I remember taking international law as
my first law related class and absolutely felt like I belong in this area. The critical thinking
required for this field is something that I absolutely love and admire.
Later, I was given the opportunity to transfer to the United State and that experience was life
changing for me. For the first time I was able to encounter different cultures and ways of
thinking whose were totally different from what I was used to back home. I think that I truly
became what we called a global citizen. And that experience made realize that I wanted to
expand my knowledge and my experience in law. My lecturer at the time realized the passion I
had in that field and suggested that a post graduate study in a field of law might be something I
would be interested in. And now I am at a critical juncture of my life fraught with difficult
choices.
I graduated from college in May 2022 in the USA and was struggling to know where and what
type of law program I would like to be a part of and then I came across this double LLM
program in Paris and new that this would be the right program for me and that I belong there. I
am confident that by admitting myself to your LLM program, I will add energy, ambition, and
most importantly, a risk-taking attitude to your student body. Take a chance and I can assure you
that it will turn out to be a great choice.
