The Scholarship Story by MaryJane: from Nigeria to University of Oxford

I am Nweje MaryJane Ijeoma, a Medical Doctor, Founder of GAMAC Foundation and a public health physician with an interest in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health. The experience of the past few months has honestly been surreal, and I will be summarizing how I scored 3 fully-funded scholarships and 9 Admission Offers across top Universities in the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden.

Over the course of 2 months I received notifications of securing 3 fully-funded scholarship offers; I first got reserved for the Commonwealth shared, then I got provisionally selected for the Commonwealth Masters and then lastly, I received and chose the Exxon Mobil Global Health Scholarships to study the MSc In International Health and Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford (which I chose).

It feels almost like yesterday when the 2019 / 2020 set were getting ready to leave and I was wondering if I’d be able to achieve this feat while reading tips on how to write award-winning essays. I feel incredibly blessed because 2020 has been dark for most of us, but in the midst of it all. God has really showed out for me.

Towards the end of my 1-year mandatory internship at National Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria in 2018, I made up my mind that I was going into the development field as a public health specialist. I didn’t understand the field yet, I didn’t even know what aspect of public health I wanted to focus on, I just researched some schools and decided to apply, all of which I was unsuccessful. I was distraught; and this led me to speak to some people and get some feedback from the universities and it was clear that I was not nearly half-prepared to take on a master’s degree course.

Recently, I came across my personal statement from my first MSc application and I said to myself that even I wouldn’t have given 2018-me an offer of admission not to mention a scholarship! In retrospect, I am glad I didn’t get the admissions/scholarships because I clearly lacked the requirements to be awarded an MSc offer. So, I became more intentional about my personal and professional engagements and network; I engaged in multiple voluntary community service projects, applied myself, took several courses both paid and unpaid, read and researched tips about writing award winning essays, all in a bid to upgrade my skills and experience to that adequate for a master’s degree student.

September 2019 came and I started working on my essays, I wrote what I could and sent the essay to my mentor, the first review was brutal, and I remember thinking what does this person what from me. But I didn’t give up, I made the corrections and sent the essay back, of course, he made more corrections and we went back and forth with it for a few weeks until the essay was ready.

On the day of the final correction, I looked at my essay and I was proud of how much it had evolved. Several people say or believe that they are not good at writing essays, however the truth is, if you have put in the work in personal and professional development, everything you need for your essay is right inside you, and all you need is someone who will challenge you to be the best version of yourself.

Finally, If you are a young person and you are looking to expand your reach, use your social media for your own good and follow and turn on notification post for these pages @opportunitydesk @scholarshipscorner and @scholarship.story. I can positively say that, they changed my life.