Name: Chris Goodship
Hometown: Newcastle
Degree: Economics and Statistics
Year: 2nd
This week’s campus cutie is Chris Goodship, who, Her Campus has to admit, was slightly cornered into an interview at the end of the final Christian Union’s Mission Week lunch bar, the event behind the huge sparkly red questions marks that have been dotted around town this week. I began the interview, similarly with all campus cuties, by posing the question of why Chris chose to come to St Andrews. Having originally applied for deferred entry to study Psychology, his father and many others were keen for him to go South to UCL. Yet Chris found his reaction to his acceptance from St Andrews (running around the house) the subconscious indication he needed that St Andrews was where he wished to study for the next four years, feeling now that he definitely made the right decision. After his first year of studying the combination of Psychology, Economics and Maths Chris decided that it was the mathematical root that he wished to pursue, swapping his degree over to Economics and Statistics. In response I asked Chris that perhaps Economics was the vocation he wished to follow in the future of which he was unsure, responding with an open-minded reply of “I will just do what I enjoy most, one year at a time.”
Outside of lectures, Chris is a well-rounded sportsman, having played for both the St Andrews Golf and Football teams. Although he has now given up football commitments due to time constraints, Chris remains on the university golf team, which gives him the privileged opportunity to travel around Scotland trying out the best golf courses. Outside of St Andrews, Chris is also a dedicated windsurfer, describing his plans for the upcoming summer which include going windsurfing for a couple of weeks in Greece. His summer plans also include hopefully working at the Edinburgh Fringe and, rather excitingly, moving to California for a year, where he is taking a short break from the Scottish weather and living in ‘The Golden State’ with the study abroad programme. Though others may be daunted by the prospect of moving away for so long, Chris appears to have had some experience; having applied for deferred entry, Chris spent a gap year mainly in South Sudan for seven months with the Christian centred organisation African Inland Mission International, where he taught and helped out with medical missions.
A recurrent theme throughout the interview was the topic of Chris’ faith and how it defines him as a person. Eloquently Chris touched upon the idea of hope, perceiving that everybody has some sort of hope in their lives, whether that manifests itself in hope for a specific career or simply for someone to share their life with. For Chris his hope is set also in Christ, as he describes, “by being with Him all will be redeemed and be made beautiful.” In reply, I asked how he felt being a Christian affected his day-to-day relationships, to which he answered that he feels they can only be enhanced by his faith, as he believes that the love he feels for others is itself a reflection of God’s perfect love.
Rapid Fire Round:
Favourite Place to Have a Drink? Depends on the mood but for a quiet drink Drouthy Neebors is great or St Andrews Brewing Co.
Favourite Place to Eat? Can I say three? Peat Inn, Dolls House, and Jigger Inn to grab a Jigger burger and ale after a round on the golf course.
Favourite Place to go out: I much prefer to go out in Newcastle; when I go out I don’t enjoy shouting over music or posing for photos, I prefer a few drinks in a semi-quiet place and I really like dancing. I love this one place called Shindig, which is basically just music in a warehouse!
Little Known Fact? I have a lazy eye – it could have been fixed when I was younger but I cheated in the eye test!
If you could see any person or band live? Either Karl Jenkins conducting an orchestra or Ray Charles at a Jazz Club
And if you could have anyone to dinner? My Grandad whom I never met who was a pastor in the Navy. If not him then Bubba Watson, one of the greatest golfers of our day.