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Posted on September 14th 2020
Amgad Wins Scholarship to Oxford University.
Sixth Form student Amgad has won a prestigious Southwark Scholarship to attend Oxford University.
Not only will he go to Oxford after a fantastic A Level results day, Amgad will attend university without any student debt after winning a prestigious scholarship!
Well done Amgad, we are all very proud of you and wish you the best of luck at university.
Amgad writes...
"Finances can bring a lot of stress and uncertainty when entering university.
"Just the thought of having student debt can be worrying, so when I received a full scholarship to attend university, the mental and financial burden lifted was huge.
"I received a scholarship from Southwark Council, and all students who have lived in the borough of Southwark are eligible for this. The scholarship focuses on youth work in the community of Southwark, not just how you've contributed to Southwark in the past, but your work in other communities and your future plans to contribute to Southwark.
"I focused my application on my application around the initiative I co-founded: The Black Excellence Network. I highlighted how we only started five months ago but we've managed to reach around 300 students, partnered with top initiatives and firms and provide valuable UCAS information in our newsletters and webinar series. I also showcased some other social projects I am involved in, but most importantly my desire to keep giving back to communities that shaped my character.
"It was an amazing process to go through, and just like all scholarship applications it was very competitive! A lot of times with these applications it's best to be genuine and to be consistent. Being consistent in the sense that you need to keep applying; it's not unusual to be competing with 300+ other applicants. I applied to four other scholarships before this one. You must be resilient, but also balance it with your school work!
"My top tips for applying would be:
- Get multiple people to proofread your work
- Avoid generic statements ("I'm a hard worker")
- Make sure your references are good
- Stay focused on what the scholarship is looking for (e.g. mine was focused on community work)
- and finally keep trying and get used to rejection!
These are the other scholarships I applied/was going to apply to. They all have different criteria, find the ones for you:
- Credit Suisse: Steps to Success
- Crowd Scholars
- Lloyds Scholars
- IGY Scholars (Linked to Harris Federation)
- Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership
- and Oxford Scholarship (This one was university specific).
I highly recommend this site which gives you monthly updates on hundreds of scholarships: https://www.thescholarshiphub.org.uk.
Also, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn for any more advice!
Amgad
