Jacob is a professional rugby player, a budding anthropologist, and an active advocate for improving cultural intelligence. Jacob has represented Australia for the past four years in his chosen sport of Rugby Sevens (the 20Twenty Cricket of Rugby Union). Alongside rugby, Jacob is fluent in Chinese, having developed a strong association with China through study, work, and sport. In 2010, Jacob completed an Arts Languages degree at Sydney University, receiving the University Medal for his honours thesis in social anthropology entitled ‘Tackling Rugby in China’.

In 2011, Jacob was a delegate at the Australia-China Youth Dialogue, before joining the organising team in 2012. In 2012, Jacob also co-founded the Engaging China Project, a national, youth-driven China-literacy platform designed to ignite the idea of China in Australian high schools. Within academia, Jacob is interested in how the human body and mind play a central role in cultural, social, and political interactions. Jacob is bound for Oxford University to pursue these questions as the 2013 NSW Rhodes Scholar-elect.