“I Lost the Scholarship Because I didn’t Ask the Right Questions”
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After School Africa
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Think about the opportunities you might have missed because you didn’t ask the right questions.
Recently, I discussed with a multi-scholarship award winner who initially lost a full scholarship to study abroad because he thought he had it all figured out.
A life-changing opportunity lost simply because he ignored seeking advice from experienced persons.
Chuka Oham
Right after my Secondary Education I got a scholarship to do my bachelor’s abroad in USA. But because I did not ask the right questions I went to the embassy on two occasions and fumbled, and then I wasn’t given visa. I cried but it took my mom’s pacification to make me write Jamb and then I got into FUTO [Federal University of Technology, Owerri] and continued..
Notice how devastating this experience would have been for Chuka.
Today’s article is not about getting and losing a scholarship. It’s about getting the scholarship in the first place.
The people who make the best of opportunities seek out people that know what they don’t know. And learn from them.
“If you want to know what lies ahead, you ask those who are coming back” – Chinese Proverb
At AfterSchoolAfrica, we are curious about what people do with the information we put out.
Scholarship winner testimonial.
On one hand are people who win these opportunities; on the other, are people who are confused about how to make it work.
We wanted to know what makes winners stand out from everyone else. So, we reached out to FIFTEEN scholarship award winners and someone who has been in the selection process.
We invited these award winners across Africa (from Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, DR Congo, Mozambique and other African countries) from diverse background, discipline and level of study to reveal what they have learned in the process.
These people have won awards from the following institutions and organizations combined:
Some of them have won multiple scholarships and awards to fund their education and projects.
Chuka was one of the 15 award winners we interviewed. By the time we spoke with him, he had won multiple awards:
ITS Student Essay Competition;
The NICTA Research Project Award (NRPA);
High Achievers Scholarship and Developing Solutions Award, University of Nottingham (Masters);
University of New South Wales International Student Tuition Free Scholarship, Australia (PhD); and
UNSW International Student Research Stipend Scholarship (PhD)
And more…
Another professional we spoke with had won the Mandela Rhodes Scholarship and the Commonwealth scholarship. And also worked as Scholarship Application Assessor for Canon Collins Scholarship.
And several other young Africans like them.
How do the same people keep piling success upon success, while the majority struggles to get one opportunity?
Were they more intelligent than everyone? Was it about habits? Mindset? Were some people just born luckier than others?
When we spoke to these award winners individually, the similarities in their revelations were astonishing.
One after the other, each of them proved that scholarship winners don’t win by accident; neither are they ‘Einsteins’.
They are everyday young men and women who took deliberate actions and made organized set of decisions that prepared them to win.
Multi-award winners recognize the importance of knowing what they can bring to the table and how to bring it to the table. They don’t rely on luck. They rely on their effort and understanding of the process.
We discovered that what makes these students stand out can be taught and learned.
And if you are as determined and ambitious, you can match their achievements; even better.
So, we’ve put everything we learned from these Award winners and our years of experience into the New Edition ofThe Scholarship Digest 2019 – Includes Over 1,400 opportunities for Africans worth 0.7 Billion USD
You no longer have to keep guessing what works and what doesn’t.
With instant access to over 1,400 carefully selected scholarship and award opportunities in your hand right away… No need to spend tones of time re-searching online and getting overwhelmed in the sea of information. You dive in right away.
Be among the first people to look inside this gigantic resource.