The Travel Scholarship – Making the most of Oppurtinities at Uni.

Every academic year, around January time, all undergraduate students in their Foundation, First or Second year at the University of Leicester are given the opportunity to apply for a Travel Scholarship. Through this, the University offers students money to contribute to a travel experience of their choice; providing it  has a defined academic purpose in an area of their study. The scholarship is not always guranteed, but if succesful, it enables students to spend a fraction of either their Easter of Summer Vacation, pursuing an academic-related, travelling experience abroad. It is an immensely fantastic oppurtunity, and one that greatly benefited me.

I was fortunate enough to have been awarded £400 for my trip to a Nepalese village called Padam Pokhari in the Chitwan district, where I spent most of July teaching English in a local school. I’d planned this trip long before I knew about the Travel Scholarship, but I’ll divulge more information on the trip in a later blog. Today I figured I would spend some time explaining in slightly more detail the purpose of the Travel Scholarship, its process, and the benefits.

The University offers two scholarships: The Travel Scholarship and The Sheila Spire Travelling Scholarship. However, as I was awarded The Travel Scholarship, I’d like to place more focus on that. As I mentioned earlier, the trip you plan to take must have a defined academic purpose, but I have to emphasise that it does not have to be associated with a particular course requirement.

As a History Student, a field I am heavily looking into is teaching. Thus, I wanted to experience teaching in a country with a rich history, that is not vastly studied in the English Curcciulum; and so i chose Nepal. I had other reasons for wanting to visit this country, however I won’t bore you with them right now. But as you can see, whilst this had a direct link to my future career plans, there is a degree of flexibility, and your chosen desitination does not have to be rigidly defined by your course.

For the scholarship, you’ll have to get a reference from a tutor of your choice, but it’s a relatively simple process. They’ll submit this alongside your application, and if you are succesful, you’ll be called for an interview, where you have the opportunity to explain your trip to a panel of judges from a range of departments. In my next blog, I’ll offer some tips on how to go about the whole process, but for today I just wanted to shed some light on the scholarship, as oppurtunities like this can be so easily overlooked by students – I had no idea it existed in my first year!

Lastly, I thought I would share with you some of the benefits of this scholarship. In the long-run, the £400 that I was awarded covered approximately a third of my trip, which was fantastic, as it took a lot of the pressure of funding the trip away. It allowed me to have an incredible month, and has done a great deal in shaping my intentions for a future career in teaching. Since partaking on this trip, it has inspired me to consider pursuing a career teaching English as foreign language. It’s provided me with a clear perception of where I want to be in the future.

So, if you really have a desire to go somewhere in the world, and it just so happens to be linked to your degree, then I cannot recommend the Travel Scholarship enough. And when the time comes; probably around the new year, I really encourage you to check it out.

For now, here’s one of the many photo’s I took whilst on my travels,

Joe.