Pursuit for opportunity: Venkat Panchapakesan Memorial Scholarship — Part 2

So from the previous part, it is evident that I decided to take steps working towards it. After spending a few hours watching videos where Sijo and Arya spoke to students, I filled myself with the dose of enthusiasm, and decided to research about Venkat Panchapakesan Memorial Scholarship.

So the application process involves answering 3 essay questions, making a 1 minute video explaining yourself, submitting your resume and 2 letters of recommendations. I decided to start with the help of Google.

The first link anyone is likely to find is Felix Josemon’s story of how he made it through. His works were quite descriptive and indicative of how to go about applying for it. A quick sum up would be put in three words: Never give up. He kept trying for what ever opportunity came his way, got rejected several times. Infact, each rejection gave him insights on how to work better, and all those tiny steps summed up to one awesome video clipping that got him through! His dream to democratize opportunities for college students has even helped me today get to know about several opportunities.

I also watched the video interviews that Rethink Foundation had with previous year scholars Felix, Sriparna, Rohan. I made notes on their inputs, and provided me with a lot of insights regarding how to go about with the application process. The key is to write your first draft, improvise by understanding what the reviewers want, and improvise accordingly.

It took me a day to actually get started in writing the essays. My first draft was mayhem, with no sense of direction, sometimes making even me wonder what was the point I tried to convey. I went through the video notes again, and tried to streamline it in a more presentable format. At the moment, I am still working upon it, deciding what is necessary and what is extra, so bear with me for a few more parts before I condense it to the best format.

The next day I contacted my potential recommender's (whose name I shall disclose in a few parts later), and they were agreeable to make a LoR in a weeks time. Thankfully, in the evening I got the news that the deadline got extended by over 3 weeks, thus giving me more time to refine.

All this happened near the weekend when I decided to go for Angelhack Bangalore Hackathon, so I was unable to get back to the application process for about a week. My first hackathon was quite a great experience, and I would recommend anyone to try giving it a shot as well!

More about my application, in the subsequent part.