 Good morning once again. Welcome to Y-54. This is why in the morning and this particular segment is MCM that is Man Crush Monday. We chose not to discuss relationships today so that we focus on other things that are also important in life as relationships and social talks are important. And today we are going to talk about scholarships. How do you get scholarship? How valuable are them? How do you know the genuine ones from the fake ones? And who deserves them? All that we are going to answer in this. My name is Sankara Kaisu and I'm not alone in studio. I am with people who are in this directly. Those who are going to help us find solutions and they are here. This is Purity Kavata and this is Eric Arwa. We are going to start with Purity Kavata. How are you purity? Can you introduce yourself so that we may know you better? My name is Purity Kavata. I'm a student at KCA University in Kampas, Roaraka. I'm pursuing a degree in Accounts. Yes, I'm a third year student. Oh, do you have social media handles? Yup. Yes. My Instagram handle is underscore Kavata and my Facebook handle is pretty humble Purity. Oh, are you humble? We are going to do that. Eric, how are you brother? I'm good. I know I'm calling you brother. We have some history. A lot of brotherhoods. Yes, a lot of brotherhoods. Yes. There are people who don't know who Eric is so please introduce yourself. My name is Eric Arwa. I'm the business development officer at Bafunde. Bafunde is an education technology company that helps teachers meet their students online. So as a business development officer, I am the client facing face of Bafunde. I help Bafunde in customer acquisition, contract negotiations and customer onboarding. And I help clients onboard so that they can make good use of education technology platforms that we have built. Do you have social media handles? Yes, Facebook and Twitter. In Twitter I'm Eric Arwa and in Facebook I'm Odiambo Arwa. That's Bafunde help people get scholarship? No, Bafunde focuses on technology. Technology that enables people meet their teachers online without necessarily having break and motor. That's great. There's a particular reason why I chose you for this. Have you ever got a scholarship? Yes, I've received scholarships at the end. There are some that have not accepted and others that have accepted and taken. I'm interested in the fact that they want to accept when people seek then it's like the one being sought by these scholarships. No, when you are out hunting you look for so many animals but once you have met them you have to decide which one you want to pursue. That's why you are here in this forum. You are an expert in this forum because you are going to learn how to get them and maybe how to get to know the fake ones from the genuine ones. But let's come back to Kavata. Kavata have you ever got a scholarship? No, I haven't gotten any scholarship but I have friends that have tried seeking scholarships. Some have gotten them and some have not. Have you tried seeking? The only kind of scholarship that I have tried to seek is only help, which is not a full scholarship. It is a partial. And did you get help? Are you interested in getting any scholarship? Are you yourself sufficient? You have enough funds? No, I'm not self-sufficient. Given a chance I will want to seek one. So you are our typical example of a student needing scholarship or fee or educational support for that matter and Eric here is going to help us together. So if you have anything that you need to know about this scholarship thing, let's together engage Eric so that he will tell us. Tell us your journey with scholarship. Tell us the types of scholarship you've got so that we know what we're talking about Eric. I just had her speak about help. I got help. I got all the money they can offer. All the help, full funding and they also offer basari. I also got the basari which is not paid. Is help scholarship poor and low? I just had her speak about help. So I just wanted to make note. The other one which is normally called scholarship but is not really scholarship is the Equity Bank Pre-University Program. Oh, that one is not scholarship? It's not a scholarship. What is it? It's an internship, pre-university training or attachment that gives you an opportunity to gain work ethics before you get to college. The wings to fly thing? No, the wings to fly thing is a scholarship. There is a difference between wings to fly and pre-university program. So pre-university program takes the best per district at the end of every KCSE cycle. So those who are taken from that lot, they are employed in the bank as relationship officers. Relationship officers are general term for a tailor, accounts opening, inquiries and all those people who engage clients at the banking hall are called relationship officers. So at that level you are trained on work ethics, how to negotiate, how to serve people whom you don't know and people who are mature than you. And then you are paid some monthly stipend from which you save to go and which you can use during your campus. Okay, now tell us the scholarship that you've got. What do you now call a clean scholarship? You get educational fund support fully and they don't expect anything. Yes, I applied and won the Mandela Rhodes Foundation Scholarship. Mandela Rhodes? That is a partnership between Mandela Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Rhodes Trust. So they sponsor at least 30 students from all over Africa to take any of the courses that are offered by South African universities. So in my year we were about 7500 applicants. 7500? Yes, from all over Africa. But they wanted just 30? They took 34 during my year. And I was the only one from Kenya. How did you know that there is such a scholarship? So a friend told me about it. A friend who had won it who was a classmate called Waswa. He was a very good friend. He told me that I'm qualified for it and I can win it. And that time I was looking for scholarships. So when you want to look for scholarships you start from people whom you think may have received them. And they tell you this one is available and they may tell you more about it. Kabata, are you getting now that you can get clue of how you can get scholarship through friends? Yes, so we are interested to know more about how you can know there are scholarship opportunities from you, Eric. Yes, so normally when you have just graduated and you are seeking scholarships, it's necessary that you know which places you want to go to. Baby you want to go to South Africa, you want to look at the top universities in South Africa. And almost all good universities have funding pages or funding sites in their websites. All leading universities? Yes, very good universities that care for their students. They always give a list of all the sources of funding that their students enjoy. So you will find a list of, for example, where I went to the University of Cape Town, you will have a list of all the possible scholarships that their students can apply for. If you go to other universities abroad, you will also find the same. There are universities in East Germany, scholarship, commonwealth, shared scholarship, commonwealth scholarship and so many other scholarships that are offered to their students, even if they are not from within the university. They are just scholarships that their students enjoy from within. You've told us two sources. Are you interested in knowing more? You can actually ask if you have a question. Because you're learning together. You've told us two sources. One is through friends. Two is through university websites. So you just go to their page and see the funding that they offer. Yes. Example, if you are going for a postgraduate program, then you just go to their missions, they will look at postgraduate funding. Almost all good universities will have that portion, that section in their website, postgraduate funding. Now give us the elephant in the room about the scammers. Can't there be just a fake website where you go and get that some university is recruiting or is calling for a scholarship, those who need scholarship? Then it turns out to be fake because in our social media platforms, that is in Facebook and Twitter, we ask that higher education scholarship has come in Kenya and people are crying that they have been scammed. Yes, so normally you can't hear that University of Nairobi is offering a scholarship but they don't have it announced in their own website, official website. It can't happen because universities are corporate bodies and corporate governance is a major part of their operations. They spend a lot of money in public relations and corporate governance. The first thing a university will do when they are offering a scholarship is to post it in their official website and share it in their official social media accounts. That one you are sure it is not a scam. But if it is said that University of Nairobi is offering a scholarship and then the link leads you to another website which is not University of Nairobi's official website, then that is a scam. Have you ever been scammed and covered in anything? In anything, even if it's not a scholarship? Yes. Did you do the due diligence? Like we are saying that if you are getting a scholarship or anything that is offered by any company, then it has to lead you to the official website of that company. How was your scamming history? So my scam was on Instagram. I actually saw an iPhone and I thought it was their official handle, their official page. So I actually paid money. What? I actually paid like half of the money. So that they ship it to you. Yeah. And then after I had paid, I communicated to them for like two hours and then after that I couldn't reach out to them again. So that's where at least they were scammed? How much are we talking about? I had paid 30,000. But are you learning something from Mary? Yes. That you can know if it's true, you can know it's true when it leads you to the official. I don't know how you can know it's official website, Eric, because some people make something that really resembles what is official. It's difficult. Domain names are protected. Domain names are what you call like if you have a website called y254.com, it's protected. There's no other website that can have it in that manner. And then normally if you find the domain name starts with HTTPS, if there's no S, it's just HTTTP, then we have trouble. That S means secured. So they secure the website using certain technologies. So when a scammers website will just appear as HTTTP. Eric, you know you are speaking like an engineer. You are an engineer and you didn't say that during your introduction. So the S in HTTPS is security? Yes, that shows that that site has been secured and it's an official domain for a particular registered corporate body. And it's not for scammers. Scammers will come up and just register a website and do anything with it. So it's like Kavata's website didn't have S, so it's HPTTTP, and then it's iPhone, and then maybe .com or something like that. Yes. Okay, I've learnt that. Normally you will find permen universities will end with a dot. It's rare you will find a university ending with a dot.com. Oh, how does that end? Almost all universities end with .edu, .ca. A.c. means academic, .edu means not education. It's rare that you will find university sites, official university sites ending with .com, or .net. You don't know how to do that? You don't know how to do that. Okay, Eric, back to the scholarship thing. You told me before that you had one scholarship to... around three scholarships to do PhD, two in US and one in Canada, and you opted for the other. I'm looking for the winning ways. How do you just win? Because it's competitive, like the one you told me in South Africa, you have over 7,000 people and only 34 people were taken. What did these 42 people do that the other 6,000 and others didn't do? Every body that is offering a scholarship has a particular selection criterion. The selection criterion is easy to follow because normally it's easy for someone to just read. They need people with first class owners. They need people who have strong leadership background. They need people who are from Africa. There are some who will be that specific. They need women. So those eligibility criteria are easy to get to. Where things... where they separate people is the understanding of their philosophy. Understanding and alignment with their philosophy. Every scholarship is set up for a particular reason. There is that overlying philosophy that drives the founders and the funders. The founders and funders are different. There are people who come up with a scholarship idea and they prosecute it before people and they publish it. And they are the ones that run it. But then they are the funders. There are those who finance the scholarship program. You need, as a person who is seeking the scholarship you need to look at the philosophies that drive these people. If they are interested in women are they posing as people who are showing women that they can take part in STEM or science, technology, mathematics, engineering courses or they are looking for women who are activists who are trying to show that they strengthen women or are these people looking for black innovators? They are very clear philosophies that drive these people. The people, not the program, the people in the program that are really key founders and funders of the scholarship. If you study that philosophy very well then you can easily align your statements to those philosophies. It will be very easy to identify those kind of people. They will be listening to the way you speak, the things you say about yourself because there is so much about yourself. There is academics, there is your upbringing at home. There is also the networks that you have built from other sources. There is religion, there is politics, there are a lot of things that you have taken part in. How you select those things and how they affect the way you express yourself during scholarship interviews or the way you express yourself in your application documents will inform, will tell those who are evaluating you whether you understand their philosophy and your life in general is aligned to that philosophy. So that understanding is the most important. For example, Mandela Rhodes Foundation is interested in people who can show leadership in terms of bringing people together, people of diverse opinions. They are interested in looking for innovators who are entrepreneurial in mind. They are looking for people who have deep love for Africa and her people. So that they need to establish from the way you speak. Kavata, are you seeing yourself qualified for those? Well, I think from what he has said every organization that is giving you a scholarship has its own guidelines. For example, they could be giving you a scholarship maybe due to your needs or maybe you have to be in a certain organization for you to get the scholarship or maybe you need to have some grades maybe you need to be smart enough like maybe you passed in your KCSE you have nice grades. But you see you can... Yeah, I can. Because it's broad. They can give you maybe because of your needs. You see it's broad, it's giving everyone an opportunity to see where they fit in. But he's saying, he's talking like you study first what they need then you put yourself to be that person like you present yourself to be that kind of person. Yeah, I didn't know that the Mandela Awards is about leadership because I know you are a scientist a smart scientist. So I thought it's just people who are just know a lot of science and know maybe performers and all that. But the Rika Vata this guy was number one in chemistry Kenyam Zema in the year 2012. Was it 2012 or 2009? 2001. 2009, see those NZ what was paraded in the paper. Yeah, this guy was the best countryward in chemistry number one. And I think you were number what countryward like the overall... Yeah, number 14 like was number 14 Kwa Kenyam Zema. So I thought maybe that's what made him qualify for that. And leadership, you are not a leader at the university. I don't know how you are winning this leadership. You are not a politician at the university. No, but leadership when they talk about leadership there is no particular kind of leadership that they are looking for. By starting my own business it means that I'm going to lead people. I had started several businesses and planted 30,000 trees that requires a lot of leadership. I love to learn to negotiate contracts because I didn't have money to land on those trees. There is also self leadership. There are people who come from backgrounds where they have to do so much by themselves. Yesterday I was just commenting in my was up that there is this time when you needed something so bad from your dad and you knew very well if you approached your mom it would be a valid connection that would help you get that thing. There are some of us who didn't have that that basic connection so you start networking from nothing. There are people who are their mothers as a network to their father or a senior sibling. Yes, approach their mother on their behalf. Now, from there they learn that through someone you can get something. When you get out you learn how to make networks so that you can get jobs internships and scholarships and so many other favors. As we had to learn from we had to learn those things by ourselves and that means for you to be able to push through until you finish university and set up yourself as a self-sustaining system without your parents that means you really need a lot of self leadership and that is part of leadership understanding oneself and seeing how you are able to influence others so that your best is used to get the most out of this one. Kavata, are you seeing that you don't have to be a politician to be a leader? It was not a politician at the university and now see how he has led and his leadership has born fruits is an engineer by training but he led people in the agricultural or forestry till they achieved what the Mandela or the scholarship panel would be convinced that this is a true leader. So you can lead even out of politics. Some of us were politicians and we have not been people. There is something about politics where to just make a comment. Running for position is not the only politics. James Mwangi the equity bank CEO is not just an executive. He is actually a politician because to be a CEO of a company a public limited company you need to convince shareholders on so many things who connect the board with shareholders and the staff. That is a political seat as much as it is also a really executive seat it is very political. There are also these people who influence politicians I guess you may not know but I was in the secretariat for some two guys who were running in the KU for chairmanship in Jaiquat and I was very influential in their fundraising in their manifestos and all that. That is politics. Politics is not just running for office. There are people who play a lot of politics. You don't hear that. You just realize that their influence was very important like Chris Kirubi. You don't know that Chris Kirubi introduced the deputy governor is called who? The former Nygadi. Yes. Mike Sonko made him deputy governor that is politics. That is politics. That is a lot of politics. I wish we will create time for that politics out of politics. We will talk about it. There is scholarship. We are interested to know Eric the process of how you follow till you reach now you get the funds or you get the scholarship after identifying the scholarship opportunity what follows? So normally every scholarship will have an application process you will find they have written apply how to apply so that how to apply if possible just print that site out and follow it word for word because if you don't follow the instructions you are cooked so the first thing look at what are the documents what documents do they need make sure that you have those documents in their format they need them physically you need to have two copies of them and if they need them certified look for a lawyer let the lawyer stamp them normally a commission of oaths that can notorize the documents to notorize to attest that they are two copies of the original Oh it has nothing to do with notorious commission of oaths will notorize So after sending interviews like a physical face-to-face interview Yes so in Mandela Rhodes Foundation you have to attend a physical interview in Cape Town go to Cape Town and attend the interview You are in Kenya you are not sure you are going to get that but you naturally want to come back to Kenya No Mandela Rhodes Foundation will pay the full cost of airfare and whatever Okay but if you need a visa it will cost you about 10,000 to get the visa that is if you are starting from looking for the passport then applying for the visa you need about 10,000 shillings and you will get a visa that allows you to get to South Africa and stay there for 3 months but for now you just apply go and take the interview What about the other scholarships like the ones for Canada the ones for USA or maybe Europe are they easy to get? Yes these scholarships are very very interesting because this is a researcher or a professor who has achieved funding to conduct a particular research in a particular field so they are looking for qualified personnel to help them normally you would find them in the departmental websites you will find a list of professors and then when you click the site for that professor you will find the professors as announced that they have funding for a particular research and it will be very specific like the one in Canada was for physics inspired machine learning for wind power looking at how to make sense of wind power using machine learning to predict the output profile of wind turbine now those ones they look for people with particular research qualifications so if they are looking for someone in machine learning they are very specific we want a machine learning person with this kind of background once you prove that you have understanding of that machine learning they will take you through an interview a very technical interview which involves the professor who is the need researcher who will try to establish whether you understand that topic then after that they will ask you to apply for admission if they approve you at that point it's almost a 99.9% chance that you are going to be admitted and admission will come with funding Kavata you are in the middle of attending your undergraduate and you hear the opportunities for postgraduate education you are interested that you will try Ya I will Ya because you see it's bright there are things that you must master now for you to get them like he is saying about master during his undergraduate education maybe no maybe master is your masters has anything to do with the physics and engineering and all that Ya my master shows some artificial intelligence artificial intelligence yes application of artificial intelligence in planning operation and control of power systems Kenya power grade oh so it has something to do with engineering there are so many people telling me here in social media platform and I phone on my ear that they want you because now you are a leader and you are informed about these scholarship things you lead them into getting these scholarships how can you do that they can they can reach out to me yesterday I had a very wonderful day one of my teachers just won the world's most prestigious scholarship that is the Rod Strust scholarship in Oxford wow that is someone who studied in didan kimati and we were trying to get him to apply for scholarships like the master card foundation scholars program in UCT University of Keptau and we also tried the Rod Strust and he had an interview and an interview I connected into some of my friends who had won the scholarship and they guided him offered a lot of support and he was in so those who wish to to get to to connect with you for mentorship yes they look for me in Facebook they can find me in Twitter they can also go to my Facebook page called Erika Roa Education Erika Roa Education is where you ask me questions about scholarships it's called Erika Roa Education yes there is a Facebook page called Erika Roa Education Erika Roa Education Erika Roa Education Erika Roa Education education you will find our post scholarship opportunities there those who wish to apply for them can find me there that is where this guy found me can also find me in LinkedIn can throw me a LinkedIn message and I will take you through any scholarship as long as I I can get the eligibility to criteria and then follow through to help you write the necessary essays will help you purity our time is really up and you are here to learn so can you look at this camera and today briefly in 30 seconds what you have learnt in this session okay I have learnt that when you want to apply for a scholarship you need to go to where it's saying how to apply so that you will know what they need and how you are going to apply for it and then you should also know that every organization that is giving you a scholarship has its own rules and see if you qualify to give a scholarship you have learnt so many things apart from that you are closing remarks Eric scholarships are not one at the time of application one from your lifestyle build a good profile as early as possible then you ensure your transcripts are good your leadership and all those other ventures your curricula are strong you have done so many other things and then after that when you are now applying you just need someone who can help you consolidate those things to orient them to a particular scholarship requirement and that is where you are offering to help Kenyans thank you that's so generous of you you are not selfish with information and with help I think that's so good of you if you need to be president of this country we will vote you in you can serve elsewhere oh yes that's now the connection elsewhere media is about education it's about entertainment it's about information but today was medial about education we've educated you on how you can make it money to make it and how you can get linked and make it regardless like Eri Karwa here has made it and like Kavata now will make it because she has learned and she is confessing so thank you for being with us thank you for keeping us company for everybody who made this possible we salute you for now we are getting to the next segment of the day and that is Tano Kali thank you