Who am I, and why a scholarship in China?
Hello, my name is Stella Andenyi, I am a
recipient of the Chinese Government Outstanding International Student
Scholarship in 2020, an achievement I am immensely proud of. Straight off the
bat, I can bet you know that feeling of absolute certainty. There are no facts
around it, you simply know that you know. I knew for sure that I was going to
do my Master’s Degree abroad. I didn’t know where, but I was pretty open to
Asian countries. First, I was very curious about the Asian countries,
this was the same time the Chinese started coming into Kenya and were taking up
huge projects around the country. Second, some of my relatives had been to
China, so there was some increased fascination. Third, I did not want to go to
the Western side either Europe or America because it felt too hard, expensive,
and emotionally draining.
My mind had been made up on pursuing my scholarship in
China. At that time, China was also giving out very good scholarships that did
not have too many requirements especially to applicants from Kenya.
Initial process of my scholarship application.
I initially started the process in the year 2017, a friend
of mine who had already gone through this process before, gave me important
guidelines on what I had to do.
The first thing I had to do was visit the Chinese
Scholarship Council (CSC) Website, from where I could pick out the
specific courses I wanted and they would then match me with schools that
offered those courses. I also had to visit the specific schools’ websites and
find out when the application dates were. Unfortunately for me, by the time I
had finished going through the process and narrowing down the 3 courses I felt
interested me, I had already missed the deadline. I resolved not to miss the
next deadline so I prepared all my documents for the next one.
What I needed to do was:
- Write
personal statements to my school and a motivation letter to the Council.
- Get
a health check (strictly valid for 6 months).
- Make
sure my passport is ready.
- Fill
in the forms on the website, download them, print them and send them out.
- Get
my documents notarized – they had to be certified.
I sent all the documents and the waiting game began. The
first response came in July and sadly, it was a rejection but I decided not to
give up. About 2 months later, on the 1st of August I got another response;
this time it was an offer for a partial scholarship but I needed to be there by
the 9th of September, just about a month later. A new challenge was presented;
getting all these things in order and making plans to be there on time.
Getting to China.
At this point, I had already chosen my course, applied,
gotten a rejection, and later offered a partial scholarship and the school now
needed me to report in the next 1 month and 8 days, the chaos had officially
started!
What i had to do in preparation.
First, I started checking what I needed and what I had
to give out. I gave out a lot of clothes. As I also packed, I put the climate
of the school location into consideration. I also considered the location of
the school in terms of security and if anything was to go wrong, I would be
able to safely get in and out of China.
Second, I had to get my Visa. The next available slot at the
Chinese Embassy was 3 weeks away; which would thoroughly affect my schedule.
Third, I needed to look for a flight. We initially thought the airfare was part
of the scholarship, but it was not. I had to sort out my airfare and living
expenses during my scholarship period in China. Thankfully, my family helped
clear my airfare. We had to organize a fundraiser and at that time a lot of
changes were happening in my family. We were in the process of moving houses;
so I had two types of packing to take care of.
We also needed to sort out the issue of Money transfer from
Kenya to China. I had a lot on my plate at the moment, and I was doing several
errands at the same time and a lot had to be done in a very short period.
When my Visa appointment date finally came, there were
hitches. I didn’t have a particular document and I had to book the next
available slot. They also told me to tell my school to resend a document which
would take more time. I was also told to tell my school to send a confirmation
email to the embassy in Kenya to confirm that I was the person invited to be a
student there.
Sadly, my time was not enough to get all that done and
finally get to school. Thankfully, some schools offer a 3 week window period
for reporting. I reported just as the 3-week window was about to end. Now, my
journey to China had started; and as a small tip to flying internationally; do
not lose your Passport and always have copies of it in your email and have it
sent to your phone.
I also had to make sure my phone line would still work if I
ever come back because it just might not work when I am abroad.
My flight was smooth, I did not get airsick and I landed in
good health, but this might be an entirely different experience for anyone
else.
Now, having finally gotten there I also had to deal with new
experiences and culture shock, especially the new level of efficiency and
diversity I experienced there. For example, I experienced that 10-kilometre
roads would be built overnight. I would request for my bathroom handle to get
fixed and it would get done in 7 minutes. Can you imagine!
My experience in China was a crash course in first-world
efficiency and multi-cultural collaboration. There is something utterly
remarkable about studying abroad that I wish more people experienced.
Here’s what I learned from the entire experience:
- Seeking
the valuable advice and guidance of more experienced people
- Dealing
with rejection and moving on from there.
- How to
deal with the pressure of dealing with many things at once stretched over
a short time.
- How to
prepare psychologically for new life experiences.
- Dealing
with culture shock and just basically blending in with a new culture and
getting used to how things are done differently from your norm.
Things I wish I knew beforehand:
I also have some things and important tips I wish I knew or
someone had told me before starting my scholarship application in China. Stuff such
as:
- How to
choose your scholarship, apply and write all the needed essays.
- After
getting the scholarship, how to get everythig you need in order.
- How to
get all your documents notarized.
- Doing
thorough research on your school and the location of the school to get
prepared for the climate, culture and eventualities. Getting everything
regarding any needed finances in order.
- How to
prepare for your journey
I wish someone had told me what to expect before, during,
and after.