My Chevening Journey- Part 1

“This is the best news I’ve heard this year.”

Music to my ears. That is what hearing my dad say this was. ‘Twas on the night of May 28. I had just showed him the email which confirmed the beginning of my Chevening journey. Journey is an apt way of describing it. See it took me two years to get to that point –three if I count the year before that since it also involved trying to get into a Master’s programme. I’ll stick to the two.

Discovering Chevening

In 2012, while looking for scholarships for international students in the UK, I came across the Chevening page on Facebook. Unfortunately, applications had closed weeks ago which meant I couldn’t apply if I wanted to start school in 2013. Unfortunate because while I appear to have a carefree spirit, there are some aspects of my life that I plan like crazy. My education was one of them. That plan included starting completing or starting my Master’s degree by the time I was 25. I was turning 25 in 2013 and therefore I was almost desperate to start school.

I looked for courses in my line of interest, found them and applied. Was I excited about the courses I was applying for? As excited as going along with your parents when they visit their friends who have no children your age. It’s not bad but it is also not something you’ll look back on and say, “Those were the days!” I had admissions to universities in the UK from 2012 plus three new ones. But after calculating how long I’d have to work in my current job to save up for tuition alone, I put them on the back burner.

Rejection

I had also applied to Makerere University, our beloved public university, against one of my mentor’s advice. And that’s the year the faculty I had applied to decided to put the programme on hold… what are the odds! Also, another scholarship I had applied for did not go through. Suffice it to say, I was very frustrated.

Chevening scholarship applications had also just opened so I got my personal statement in order and applied. Then waited. Again, with very little passion for it. I just wanted to go school. Nothing interesting was happening in my life and I believed that school would shake things up a little bit –what a nerd! Chevening had given a clear timeline for feedback but I checked my email obsessively. In March, the feedback read:

“Dear Ms Grace Kenganzi

Thank you for your application for a 2014/15 Chevening Scholarship.

Due to the exceptionally high standard of applications, we regret to inform you…”

At this time, God had sent people into my life who were telling me about his timing and how it’s perfect. And how I had to trust in him. When I saw these words, my first instinct was to delete that email and go lick my wounds with a good book. Books don’t reject you after all. But the message about leaning on God was still ringing loud and clear. I want to say that I bowed down and prayed gently to God but I would be lying. Instead I practically yelled at him about how tired I was of being told about this perfect plan he had for me if I couldn’t see it. And that if I was doing something that wasn’t part of that plan, he should show me already so that I stop wasting my time. Thank God I was alone when I was having this mini-meltdown.

After I’d calm down, I was compelled to read the entire “rejection” email. It highlighted where I might have gone wrong with the application and asked me to sign up for a notification when the next applications opened. I did, and fully placed it in God’s hands. In 2014, I did not apply for any other scholarships. I almost applied to a private university in Uganda but felt a strong conviction not to go ahead with it. Painfully, I didn’t.

Submitting my application

Just before applications 2015/2016 applications opened, I’d been praying for direction then it came through what seemed to be a random chat with a friend, Tabu. When I first testified about getting the scholarship, I thanked Tabu and said that story would be for another day. That day is here.

I was congratulating Tabu on being awarded the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship and telling him about preferring the UK to the US, and the conversation soon became about my scholarship application. He asked to look at my personal statement from the previous year, and treated it with the utmost importance. He was candid in his advice, never telling me to do this and that, but getting me to think of ways I could have done things better. This came in handy when some people asked me for advice this year. More importantly, it came in handy when I was completing my application. He didn’t stop there. He kept tabs on how far the application was going. Thanks Tabu.

On the night of submission, about two weeks before the deadline, there was a calm over me that I didn’t trust. I was so scared it was a form of cockiness that I asked my friend Gumi to read through my essays. Thanks Gumi.

After one final review, I clicked submit. Next step was following up with my referees.

I had two lovely ladies for referees. They put up with my incessant emails to reply Chevening and never once made any indication that I was being an irritant. Thank you Carol and Marjorie –I addressed them much more formerly in my request for reference, just so anyone gets any ideas. And in November, my application was complete.

Then the waiting began. And it would till February when the next feedback would be given. That was a wonderful season. More on that tomorrow.