When I came to college I had three goals that I wanted to accomplish.
1. Volunteer more
2. Become somewhat social
3. Travel abroad NO MATTER WHAT
So for the first thing, I have always loved volunteering but I never did everything I wanted. I was always too focused on school and getting into college and getting scholarships to take the time to volunteer. Once I got into college I said I would finally start to volunteer like I wanted. Before starting classes I was involved in the ROCK Camp orientation focusing on volunteering, we picked up 11 pounds of cigarette butts around downtown Fayetteville. Right then I knew the University of Arkansas was a great resource for volunteering. My first semester I signed up to be a make a difference day leader, which meant organizing 30+ volunteers to clean up Ozark Folkways in Winslow Arkansas. This task helped me volunteer and start working on being social, because I didn’t know any of the volunteers. Throughout my college life I have done many more volunteering events and if you need help getting involved in volunteering I can point you in the direction of great things to volunteer for!
Now for the second thing, if any of you knew me before my freshman year of college you know that I was the most socially awkward shy person. For those of you that don’t know ask my mom, I get it from her (Love you mom!). While at the freshman engineering welcome carnival I ran into a table that changed my life. That table had members of Phi Sigma Rho recruiting new members. I later found out that my peer mentor was the current president of said sorority. I was very hesitant at first because I was completely against the whole Greek life idea. I quickly learned that Phi Sigma Rho was a S.T.E.M. sorority, which means it was a bunch of nerdy girls that I would fit in with perfectly. The top photo is an example of what being in the sorority is like. I am dressed as a toilet paper penguin (if you couldn’t guess). At the beginning I was super shy and it took me a while to finally get use to the idea that I had 60 sisters that I could call friends. Now a plug for Phi Sigma Rho- If you are a S.T.E.M. major and need friends or want to be part of a great organization look into joining! We take new members each semester, and if you are worried about time commitment we completely understand that academics come first and we help you work around that.
Now to the goal you are probably most interested in. Once I felt like I had a good start on the first two goals I knew it was time to look into studying abroad. The first question was figuring out where I wanted to go. Language was a barrier for me because I suck at learning languages. So I narrowed it down to places that speak some form of English. After thinking about where I have always wanted to go it was obvious I was meant to go to Australia. The next step was figuring out what I needed to do to ensure I could actually make it to Australia. I started this process my freshman year, which I would recommend. To figure out what I needed to do I scheduled a appointment with the study abroad office. The first visit was slightly pointless for me because that meeting is to help you figure out where you want to go and talk through it with somebody that has traveled abroad. I later scheduled another appointment which allowed me to meet with a study abroad advisor. The task I was given next was to find if the schools that we have a exchange program with had any classes I needed and if not I would need to find a school that had classes I needed. I found out that the schools in Australia the University of Arkansas already had as an exchange program did not have Biomedical Engineering classes available. I decided to look at other school in Australia that offered the classes I needed. I stumbled upon the University of Technology Sydney. This university offers a wide range of engineering courses which includes biomedical engineering. I was able to find classes that looked similar to ones that I needed to take at the University of Arkansas. My next step was to meet with Dr. Bryan Hill to figure out how we could get me to go to Australia. Since I already did my research on universities that offered biomedical engineering I was very prepared for this meeting. We talked about the process of getting the classes I needed approved so that the credit would transfer. He had already been working on getting an exchange program with this school, which meant that everything fell into place. Once the classes got approved we sat down and looked to see when would be the best time for me to go, we decided on the spring semester of my sophomore year. All of the hard work was done and figured out by the end of the fall of my freshman year. Spring semester I just reached out to Dr.Hill and confirmed that everything was still on the right track. Once my sophomore year rolled around I still hadn’t heard if I was able to travel abroad or not. I emailed Dr.Hill again and I finally got the conformation that I could apply to study abroad!
The next part of this journey got very complicated. I had to apply on hogs abroad for my trip, apply for scholarships, apply to the school, get EVERYTHING I needed. Going into detail of everything would be outrageous so I’m just going to touch on the most important thing… SCHOLARSHIPS: (but if you want more information email me!)
My advice for scholarships is to apply for all the ones you can find! I was on a time crunch because a lot of the scholarships i found needed me to be approved for the trip, which i was not yet. I found scholarships on the U of A website and just by doing google searches. I received two scholarships from the U of A and one from Gilman. If you haven’t heard of the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship I definitely recommend looking into it and seeing if you qualify. The main points to qualify are:
You receive a Pell grant
You are a minority
Receiving a Pell grant is pretty straight forward. Being a minority can mean a lot of different things. For me it meant being a female in engineering with anxiety. While being a minority is not a actual requirement, showing how diverse you are is on the selection criteria. At first I was nervous about just putting all of my weaknesses and bragging how I have overcome them in my essay, BUT that is what they wanted. If you apply for this scholarship and want help please reach out to me!
While writing these essays I sought out help. At the University of Arkansas they have class+ writing support. It is super easy to schedule a appointment and meet with a tutor. For my Gilman essay I met up with a tutor once, then after taking his revisions into consideration I scheduled a appointment with him again and looked more closely at my writing. After that second visit I felt very confident about the essay I was about to submit for a chance of up to $5000. I apologize for the really long post, but I hope you enjoyed it and that it was helpful! I am leaving in 8 day and my next post will be from Australia!
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My name is Megan Davidian. I am a sophomore Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Arkansas. I am going to be studying abroad for a semester at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia.
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Megan is spending the spring 2018 semester in Australia with our U of A Exchange program at the University of Technology, Sydney with the help of the Gilman Scholarship and our Office of Study Abroad Scholarship.
Read more from Megan at arkansandownunder.wordpress.com
Don't miss your opportunity to study or intern abroad! Start your search at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/search/
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About the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program (http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program) offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad. Such international study is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world.
About the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program (http://www.iie.org/Programs/Gilman-Scholarship-Program) offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad. Such international study is intended to better prepare U.S. students to assume significant roles in an increasingly global economy and interdependent world.
