Nailing That ‘Dream’ Scholarship

            What do most of all of us hope for when we were in Form Five? Simple, go all out to score the most number of As in our exam-oriented country and try to get someone to sponsor your tertiary education. Well, honestly, that has never crossed my mind when I was back there preparing for SPM. Yeah, I studied hard to score as many As as I could but never have I dreamt of being sponsored. It’ll be unjustifiable if I were to be tagged as unambitious. Heck, when my teachers asked “Why didn’t your family open an education savings account?”, my simple reply was “Haha, they didn’t thought that I’d grow up to be this smart.” With my peers applying for scholarships from prestigious organizations such as Bank Negara, Sime Darby, Khazanah, JPA, etc, I stared helplessly on the prospect of enrolling for Form 6. Now that I’m a Sime Darby scholar, I can definitely breathe a sigh of relief and say, “Errrm well, form 6 wasn’t that bad after all.” So, let’s cut to the chase. I’ll be sharing my scholarship experience with the hope that it’ll come good for those of you out there hoping to land a scholarship or those who are still scratching your head thinking why you failed.

           It was an up and down experience for my scholarship success. After I graduated from high school, I applied for JPA scholarship which, as expected, I failed in the very first of a few rounds. You can call this as my lowest point when it comes to scholarships. What next? I enrolled myself into Form 6 and later was offered by JPA an ‘automatic’ conditional-offer scholarship if I manage to graduate with a minimum of 4 Bs. Assured of at least a scholarship, I went on to complete my form 6 and later was back in the scholarship hunt again. There weren’t many scholarships which I was eligible for either because of my parents’ reasonable income or due to the course I was pursuing. At the end, I managed to apply for Bank Negara, Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD) and Khazanah. Gosh! Just by taking a look at the applications, I felt as though I was like Cristiano Ronaldo attracting the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United to sign me.

            I have friends who are scholars of these prestigious scholarships and I’ve always admired them as these were scholarships which seem to be out of reach for many students, at times, even the brightest! Days passed and there was no reply from Bank Negara. Then, I received an invitation to attend for the Khazanah interview which I somehow rejected even before I went for the interview. At that time, with the offer from JPA already in the bag, my mind was set on grabbing that opportunity to be a YSD scholar. I mean, honestly, I’ve never heard of Khazanah Nasional and the prospect of working with Sime Darby is just awesome. That was a very bold decision made between my mum and I and thankfully it paid off. YSD called a week later inviting me to attend the interview and the rest as they say, is history.

            The scholarship process began with the online application where you are required to fill in your particulars along with the list of activities you’ve joined in secondary school. At the end of it, there is an essay question which sounds like this “Share with us your career aspiration in Sime Darby”. There will be a time limit and word count but take it easy and relax. I mean we are perfectly fine with time limit in exams but word limit too? S**t. In order to avoid these restrictions and to allow you the freedom to pen out your ideas, type out your answer in Microsoft Word then copy and paste them there. Heck, you’ll complete it even before the timer hits five seconds (depending on what Microsoft edition is yours). Try to be honest in your answer!

            In the next round, you’ll be called up for the interview. When you’re there, you’ll be able to meet with many other hopefuls from all over the nation. Most of them looked like worthy contenders rather than pretenders, so take note of your “potential threats”. Hehe. In this round, you’ll be asked to sit in a group of ten in a room where you are required to discuss on a general problem which is business related. For instance, my group was given facts regarding the Harley Davidson franchise and how its business has been declining. You have to discuss the identifiable factors of its decline and come up with a strategy to save the business. it was somewhat like MUET discussion. No background business knowledge is needed and even a char koay teow uncle knows how to come up with the ideas. Take the lead (if possible) but never dominate the discussion. Be professional and courteous by addressing your colleagues using Mr. or Ms. followed by the names written on their tags. Try to accept other’s ideas and humbly reject them if you think that it is purely nonsensical.

            Moving on to the next round, there are three stages – individual presentation, role-play and group discussion. For the first, you will be given 15 minutes in a hotel room and you have to come up with ideas and present them on a piece of mahjong paper. Secondly, in the role-play, you will be acting as a manager for a company and you have to convince your ‘employee’ to stay in the company. It is very, very real! They’ll even ring the door bell and you have to say “Come in”. Remember to stick to the objective. Don’t allow the actor to deviate or digress away from the objective. Take charge of the situation but don’t go too hard. Finally, the spicy part of the round. This is the replica of the first interview but the problem question is really problematic. It has maths…..OH MY GOD! Just stay calm for those dreaming of becoming a lawyer. This group interview is different in a way that the people in the group are really, really good but don’t be intimidated. Make your presence known but never get into an argument. Retreat if you need but never surrender. If you totally have no idea what is going on, then just support the majority’s opinion. If there is the discussion is heading towards a heated argument, try to pacify  the parties or else……there’s a very high chance that the whole lot of you will get eliminated.

            In the final round, you will be in a face-to-face interview with YSD’s representative. They’ll definitely ask you the FAQ on scholarships application. It would be good to list out your answers but try not to be a parrot and memorise them. Besides, try to read on current issues and generate ideas from them. The good news is that when you’ve reached to this stage, you can probably put the champagne on ice.

           As you can see, it was an exhausting and long journey for me to obtain this scholarship. However, I could never have done it without the support and help from my family. A big thank you to them and good luck to hopefuls out there. There is however, a reason why there are inverted commas for the word dream in the title but I’ll just keep that for another day. It would be a sequel and maybe a potion for those who failed in the application. Before I sign off, here are some other pointers which might do the trick.

1. Be humble. We all know that the whole lot of applicants are all academically successful but what separates success from failure is just mere humility. Don’t brag about what you’ve achieved but start talking by listening to others.

2. Be honest. Go straight to the point. If you come from the slums and wish to change your family’s life, tell it to them. Never put on a mask and be who you are not because more often than not, they’ll be able to distinguish the pirated from the authentic.

3. Be confident. As I’ve mentioned earlier, you might have 12 As but if you don’t have the b***s to express your ideas, then it is futile. This is the one time in your life where you don’t have to be shy and say out anything in your mind regardless of how foolish it may sound as it is better than keeping mum.