Why Create This Blog?

Preface

This blog is all about study abroad scholarships and making the international learning experience more accessible.

Yes--I know--the hardest part of applying to scholarships are the essays, period. You never know what the people behind the scholarship want to see. You never know what the decision-makers are looking for, but you DO know why you want this experience so badly.

For any number of reasons, you've chosen the study abroad program of your dreams and you're ready to take your shot. The biggest barrier for many students--including myself--was financing the experience. It can be frustrating when you're put in a position where you have to convey your passion for the potential experience on paper. It seems like the only thing standing between you and studying abroad is the perfect essay. You find yourself having to sort through the jargon in your head and interpret it into a legible statement. Then, at the end of the writing, editing, writing and editing, writing again, and--oh god--editing once more, you hope that the 'scholarship people' get where you're coming from and are empathetic.

So, this is why I've made this blog, not necessarily because I know the secrets to a perfect essay--honestly I have difficulty spelling--but to reveal the truth behind the scholarship process in general. I hope to do the hard job of breaking the facade the UMN makes around the accessibility of study abroad programs for minority and low-income students. Then, I hope to rebuild a different--but hopefully still optimistic--lens of how to overcome the barriers of funding a study abroad experience.

Breaking My First-Year Facade

When I went through freshman orientation and was first introduced to the Learning Abroad Center (LAC), the UMN ensured me that an international learning experience was quintessential to by undergraduate career. The LAC believes "an experience abroad is often the single most important and rewarding activity a student engages in during their academic career" (Career Relevance, 2020). Even before the LAC presented the impressive percentages studying abroad has on employability and the various student testimonials, I was already sold on the idea that I was going to study abroad no matter what, period.

However, I knew money was going to be a major challenge for me. The LAC insists that 'you CAN afford to study abroad' and even holds an info session by the same name, it just takes a little extra work on the student's part (Learning Abroad Center, 2020). Fast forward to 2018 and I decided to do a learning abroad program called, "Solidarity and Community-Led Transformations in South Africa." I began my scholarship application process and was fully prepared to submit as many applications as I could to fund my experience. However, I soon learned that juggling classes and various scholarship applications became very challenging. Also, I began to question just how accessible and friendly these scholarships were to minority, low-income, first-gen students like me.

During my application process, the biggest challenge I came across was feeling like I had to showcase my background and identities in order to justify why I deserved the same experiences as other students who don't share the same identities or backgrounds as me. Why did showcasing my hassles have to be a requirement for scholarships that promoted diversity? Why couldn't my academic and professional goals be enough for these scholarships?

I was becoming frustrated with how the UMN couldn't seem to keep the same promises about studying abroad for underrepresented students. I realized that--yes--they had diversity and financial need scholarships, but as I dug deeper I learned how inaccessible those scholarships really are to students who need them.

As I dug deeper I realized how the Diversity and Financial Need Scholarships can become more of a burden for students than helpful.  As I dug deeper I learned how these scholarship opportunities--that were supposed to serve underrepresented students--stressed equality, not equity.  And that is what I'll be detailing in my proceeding post.

See Maryam Abdul-Kareem's article to get a better understanding of equality vs equity.  It can be found here: https://muslimgirl.com/heres-care-equity-equality/ 

I had two polar opposite experiences in my scholarship application process. I was very unsuccessful and felt defeated one year, but on the other hand I was very successful and felt empowered the following year. I hope to outline the wins and losses in both processes.

Through each post on a different scholarship, I hope to detail my experience, the questions that I had, and what did and did not help me through my scholarship application process.  I want to stress that you don’t have to re-traumatize yourself for a scholarship, and you CAN afford to study abroad and still feel empowered at the end of it all.

I recommend reading Benefits of Studying Aboard--South Africa 2018-19 next, and then reading Benefits of Studying Abroad--MSID Kenya 2019 after. If you don't want to hear about my study abroad experiences and just want scholarship advice, then go straight to the post UMN Study Abroad Scholarship.

Citation:

"Career Relevence of Studying Abroad." Learning Abroad Center, University of Minnesota, 2020,

https://umabroad.umn.edu/students/career-rel

"Learning Abroad Center." Learning Abroad Center, University of Minnesota, 2020, https://umabroad.umn.edu/