| It is not a coincidence that when I look back at my school days and
I think about who did what with their life. I quickly realize that
those who had few false starts with their education had a member in
their family go to college before them. Some people are lucky if
one of their parents, aunt or uncle had trod the path before them and
can hand them over the treasure map. Perhaps the treasure map is
outdated but it will have enough landmarks for them to find their way
through the labyrinth of graduate education that include things like
how to carry out a college scholarship search and how to search for
your college of choice . If you are the first in your family to
go to college sometimes you have only second hand information to go on.
But second hand information can still be good enough. My defining
moment was when I found out from the friend of a friend who
incidentally heard from the son of our careers officer that they had
been able to find money to go to college. Interestingly he didn’t call
it money those are my words. He called it “A Scholarship” I later found
out that this was “Free Money”. Yes free money. As in, you don’t have
to pay it back. Here my story begins. I asked around to
make sure that what I had heard wasn’t gossip and yes it was confirmed
by some of my teachers. I suppose the moral of the story at this point
is that if you don’t ask you don’t get. I found the office. It
was a charitable organization based in the main library of our town. I
had been to the library many times before. I had even seen the closed
door to the scholarship office before, but because there were no signs
on the door I had always assumed it was access to the library store
room and guessed it was kept closed for security reasons. Nothing is
what is seems, so be diligent.
A quick chat about eligibility followed. Application forms were handed
over. They were promptly completed and returned to the office and to my
amazement within a month I was called for an interview.
I can tell you now that my academic record was not responsible for me
getting the scholarship. It was just above average with some false
starts. Startled by this I hand to find out. So I asked. Their response
was. “You
were so enthusiastic about your subject during the interview process
despite your false starts that we were confident that you could
overcome any problems in the future.
We like to support people that can overcome obstacles as you will
encounter many in your life. You have shown that you can, with some of
your false starts.” Thanks
to this charitable trust I was able to go to college and study Applied
Biology on a four year scholarship. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet
here because that is not what I am about but bigger and better things
followed. That is a full time job with a biotechnology company with a
two year grant to study for a master’s degree in molecular pathology in
part time mode. I graduated with distinction and this led to an offer
of a three year grant to study for a PhD in chemical pathology. All
this from the humble beginnings of a visit to a charitable trust in my
local town library that I had always thought was a store room. Be
diligent and persevere. Kenneth Harrison is the author of the report Find Scholarships Fast. Drop by http://www.learnaboutscholarships.com/report.htm for your free copy whilst it is still available.
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