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The Grateful Excellent Mind

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Today is the grand finale of scholars spotlight 2.0 and we will be ending with a grateful scholar. Achieving your goals of academic excellence is worth being grateful for. There is more that accompanies gratitude. In as much as you are applying for scholarships, jobs or pursuing a career part, be grateful during the process because the process is the journey. We have a grateful scholar in the house who is grateful for the process and accomplishments thus far. Lets get to meet her.

Welcome to honournaija_blog, can we meet you??

Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be part of scholars spotlight and I am quite excited to be here. My name is Kalenikanse Omobolanle Blessing . I am an awardee of the prestigious OKP scholarship and currently, pursuing my masters degree in Animal science at Netherlands.

What inspired you to seek for scholarship and to study outside Nigeria?

Hmmm, the question is deep. I actually have a lot of things that inspired me to seek for scholarship and pursue my masters program outside the country. First and foremost, I’m an academic oriented person with special interest in working in a research environment. Upon the completion of my undergraduate studies, I desired to proceed with my masters program,but I was not financially capable to do that. Along the line, someone introduced me to international scholarship opportunities and I decided to give it a shot🙈 knowing fully well that the education system over there is more structured and conducive for research activities than ours in Nigeria

Impressive. Were you rejected?? how did you handle it? share your experience.

Scholarship application is a full job on its own. I started my scholarship application immediately after my undergraduates in 2019. I started with MasterCard McGill, then Commonwealth and really I can’t count them all. I will say I put in for about 20 scholarships and I kept on getting rejections every time. During the rejection period, I was frustrated and depressed. The very critical frustrating period was early this year when many of my colleagues was getting the scholarships. I had a close friend at my work place who I introduced to a particular scholarship, we both applied and he won it whereas, I didn’t. I almost cried that very day but despite putting in serious handwork, I kept getting rejections. I had so many encouragements from scholars and that kept me going.

Tenacity. Did you feel excited after getting one? Share your experience?

After putting in for many scholarship with rejections here and there. I decided to put in for OKP scholarship of which I was nominated by the University I chose. On 4th of June around 1pm, a friend of mine we were both putting in for scholarship,just called me to check my mail. At first I was reluctant to check my mail, after a while I did and I just saw congratulations bla blah…I just jumped up and started thanking God. My happiness knew no limits that day, I just had to start reaching out to my scholars to tell them the goodnews. I was so so excited that day

Exciting. How many scholarships did you apply for before hitting the jackpot?

I applied to about 20 scholarships before getting a YES.

From your experience, what are the needful things to be done before securing a scholarship?

Like I have said before, scholarship application is a full time job. You have to build your profile, have a competitive essay.  Have a competitive essays and reach out to other scholars to help review your essay. please endeavor to have a genuine motivation for scholarship,not just because you want to japa. This will definitely help you in aligning your essays to your motivation. One more thing,be intentional with scholarship application,give it what it takes, your time, energy, resources to make sure you get it. Most importantly, don’t forget the God factor.

Any platform that students can get scholarships from? please share.

There are different platforms that one can get scholarships from. Social Media is the number one platform. Masterportal.com, LinkedIn and scholarships portals. You can join other groups on WhatsApp like the Potential scholars platform and International Scholars Forum (ISF). You can follow scholars on Twitter and LinkedIn too.

Studying outside Nigeria, how does it feel?? Stressful, tasking or quite with ease? Share your experience.

It has been an awesome experience but quite different form the Nigeria system. The way they run their academic calendar is quite different, we do a lot of presentations, research and also we work with deadlines. We do a lot of report writing too. It is an environment to build oneself to fit into the system. The academic system here also give room for flexibility, we can approach our lecturers when necessary for assistance too. You just have to keep on pushing and be on your toes.

What are your words of advice to intending scholarship applicants.??

Have a genuine reason to apply for scholarships. Define why you want a scholarship. Once that is defined, start preparing; let scholarships meet your preparation. Also, don’t work in isolation. Seek for assistance, work hard on your essays diligently. I want you to know that the people that wants to award you the scholarship will be investing to much on you and they can’t waste that on unserious people; therefore you need to put in your best. Build a good relationship with your lecturers too because they will be the one to recommend you for the scholarship.

 

Wow, it has been a great time with you. Thank you so much for coming. Your story inspires. Thank you for pouring so much out.

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