What made my application successful?

You see, this scholarship takes a long time to win.

The Application opened in August of 2023 and so did a conversation with my friend Kimani Samuel. He called to encourage me to apply for the Scholarship though I was reluctant. I knew the intensity of the process; I was afraid of what the future would look like and uncertainty and I do not get along very well.

However, after thinking about it for some time, I made up my mind to apply. There is a difference between trying and making up your mind you know. A made-up mind means, putting in 150% of effort. It is not half-a**ed. There are no lame excuses.

Now that was the first thing that made me a great applicant. When my mind is made up, I will figure it out and jump all the hurdles to give succeed.

The next step was identifying people who I knew had won the scholarship and asking for help. I of course asked Kimani and reached out to a friend in my network, Thomas Odero. He and I were Alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship 2019. I requested for his help reviewing my application essays. The fact that I was an Alumni of a US Government sponsored program should tell you that I was already a leader with impact in my community and field (mental health). That is another trait that contributed to my competitive application. You see, since I started working as a Therapist, I had become keen on sharing about my work on social media with Facebook being my very first platform. Over the years, I have created and continue to share about my professional work on other platforms, most recently including Tiktok. No, I do not make dance videos and post them on Tiktok.

The application process was very intense and I wrote 4 drafts of my application essays from August to November. I strongly believe that the amount of keen attention to detail that I put on my application essays contributed to it being a successful one. There were very long hours of reading, revising and correcting my application essays, line by line. ?After I submitted my Chevening Application, my attention moved to the University applications immediately. The most stressful and studious aspect of applying to Universities was writing the personal statement. I took several days watching videos from the Universities I had selected to understand what they wanted included in the personal statements. I also read very many articles and blogs. You see, since I have been in the United Kingdom for several months now, I understand some of the things that challenge us with these applications. The ability to clearly articulate ourselves in writing is actually a skill developed from writing very frequently. It therefore comes fairly easily to our friends from other parts of the world.

The biggest lesson I took from University Applications was being responsive. How I think about it is that when I receive that email, the person on the other end has sat down to look at my file. The more responsive I am, the more likely they will make a fast decision about my application. Sometimes it was asking for clarification about certain questions. It was negotiating for a letter that showed that I write, read, speak, listen to English at my workplace. This always piqued me, because the same countries that colonized African ones and introduced new languages, wanted you to pay to sit for an exam to show that you spoke and understood the same language they taught you. Please make it make sense. I think that is why Nigeria said no. Perhaps other countries should consider this too.

Well, the Universities were responsive, I told then when I was shortlisted for the Interviews, I told them when my interview would be held, and told them after I had the interview. Remember the idea that someone has your file open on their desk, the better informed they are of your progress, the more confident they can be to make a decision about your application. They could also offer you a scholarship you had no idea existed because it is only offered by the University to specific applicants.

The anxiety during Interviews was brutal. I remember I started attending Mock Interviews from the day I got the interview email all the way to 2 days before my interview. I would join those sessions with a paper and pen and take notes like my scholarship depended on it. Those interviews prepared me, built my confidence, helped me know what to expect, how to carry myself. Every day, I joined them I learnt something new. I credit the Chevening Alumni’s support for how I did my interview.

In hindsight, there is no one specific thing that made my application successful. It was a mixture of personal qualities like dedication and resilience, social and moral support from Chevening Scholars and Alumni, a very strong career and leadership profile, aligned interest in the United Kingdom Government to invest in sectors like Health, the strategy to include a better representation on the counties in Kenya, the fact that I am a woman in this women empowerment era. All this in one pot, plus lots of faith, prayer, lessons in humility and patience. The support of my close family and friends, the reassurance that things would work out. Confidence. The whole pot. This would be the answer to that question; What do I think made my application successful.

We rise above adversity and demonstrate resilience every day. For a Scholarship like this one that is highly coveted, the individual, and the collective play a role.

My challenge to you would be to answer these questions; What more could you? Where could you put in more effort? Where could you change? What do you have in YOUR pot and what do you need?

You are welcome to follow my Youtube Channel and learn more about #mycheveningjourney.