UC Workshop

A workshop was held in UC on Saturday 23rd from 8:30am to 11:00am. The workshop was on ‘How to Apply for Overseas Scholarship: Sharing Experiences of Success’, which was co-organised by UC Student Senate and UC Debate Club.

This is the information sheet related to how to apply for overseas scholarship, Organised by UCDC and UCSS. I think I should have taken some pictures of the workshop when it was being held, but I forgot to bring my phone with me, so no picture were taken. You may want to see how the workshop looked like? What a pity!

Four Speakers were invited to share their advice and experiences of applying overseas scholarship. The four now are UC lecturers, namely Dr. Chheang Vannarith (the chairman of the workshop), Mr. Chheng Kim Long (Master Degree in Economics from Japan), Mr. Theang Chhay Heang (Master Degree in Law from Korea), and Mr. Sun Sam Nang (Master Degree in Law from Korea). Each speaker presented their ideas and strategies in how to study effectively, how to be ready for the scholarship, how to ‘sell’ ourselves in the interview, what statement of purpose and research plan are, and so on.

Mr. Chheng Kim Long presented his strategies in applying for a scholarship as followings:

+ 5P’s
-Purpose: we must have desire to win the scholarship.
-Proposition: we must figure out what field of study we are really interested in and what kind of career we want to do in the future.
-Planning: we have to set goals either short term or long term.
-Preparation: we should start to do research on the subject we want to study if we get the scholarship.
-People: we should contact and consult with people who have experiences in applying for scholarship and who have obtained the scholarship and learn from people’s success and failure.

+ 3A’s
-Ambition: the applicant must have a very strong desire in obtaining the scholarship and be persevering no matter how many times you fail.
-Attitude: in addition to knowledge, good attitude and behaviour in class is very important. It effects our recommendations from our lecturers. What is important is that you should behave politely and appropriately in front of those who interview you in the application process.

+ 3G’s
1. Get prepare/Ready
2. Get organised
3. Get noticed

Besides, Mr. Theang Chhay Heang also suggested that we should never say or have these three ideas in mind:
1. I can’t do it.
2. I’ll do it later.
3. I’m bored with the subject.

Planning ahead for what you have to do by the following methods:
- A large monthly calendar: mark down what you have to do for the month
- A weekly study schedule: note down what you have to complete for the whole week
- Daily ‘To-do list’: detail what you should and have to do the next day. Set the priorities for the day. Cross out things you have done.
‘Start planning with simple things, or you’ll fail to do them all.’

Mr. Sun Sam Nang also gave his precious advice:
- Evaluate your own status (SWOT).
- Aimless person is not wanted.
- Failure is guaranteed if you don’t know what you want to do.
- You must be able to demonstrate strongly why you want the scholarship (Tell them what you want and why you want).
- It’s important that how you say what it is.
- Build a strong academic foundation, including academic records and teacher’s statement of recommendation).
- Identify which areas you should improve.

Opportunities are given to the participants to ask questions after the presentations of the speakers. The workshop ended successfully from which I believe that we got much invaluable knowledge about how to apply for overseas scholarship. We know how to prepare ourselves well to be ready. It is very beneficial that we had the workshop, and at the end of the workshop, Dr. Vannarith proposed to the organisers that we should have another one on ‘How to write a research paper’ because time was limited and we could not discuss all things in a single morning. I’m sure that I will attend it if it’s really planned and organised.