Deciding on your Focus Point

Once you finish thinking through, you need to decide on the main focus of your application.

Which is that one skill you possess that the reviewers are looking for in their ideal candidate?

Which is that one goal of yours that aligns with the vision of the opportunity?

Let’s take the case of WeTech Qualcomm Global Scholarship.

The WeTech Qualcomm Global Scholars Program awards scholarships (2000$ grant) to female students in STEM from China, India, Taiwan and South Korea and matches each scholar with a mentor from a Qualcomm global or U.S. office in order to support and encourage the young women to succeed in their chosen fields.

Now who are they looking for?

A female student passionate about STEM. So here, your skills in technology and how well you leverage technology to solve problems come in to picture.

What is the vision of the opportunity?

To empower young women in STEM by supporting and encouraging them to succeed.

Let’s take two cases of applicants here and see how answers to our two questions fit in.

Applicant 1

Which is that one skill you possess that the reviewers are looking for in their ideal candidate?

This applicant focuses on her technical skills. She emphasized on the projects and research she has done. Her letter of recommendation comes from the professor who guided her on one of her projects and further strengthens her point.

Which is that one goal of yours that aligns with the vision of the opportunity?

This applicant’s goal is to become a leading female researcher.

Applicant 2

Which is that one skill you possess that the reviewers are looking for in their ideal candidate?

This applicant focuses on her leadership skills. She is building a community of women in tech and empowering these women. Her application focuses on the impact she has created through her community and her letter of recommendation comes from an advisor to her initiative.

Which is that one goal of yours that aligns with the vision of the opportunity?

This applicant’s goal is to build out her initiative into a full fledged organisation.

Do you see how these cases fit in well with who WeTech scholarship Reviewers might be looking for?

This is how you will also have to narrow down on your skills and goals. Once you decide upon what to focus, you should be using your personal experiences to point deeper towards your focus point.

For instance, in the question that asks you how the scholarship would help you reach closer to your goals, Applicant 1 might write that the financial aid will allow her pursue her research and the access to mentors from Qualcomm will open up more resources for her to understand the cutting edge research happening in companies like Qualcomm and eventually be a part of it.

While, Applicant 2 might write that she would open up the learning she gets from the network of technologists and leaders to her entire community of women, which in turn would help her strengthen her community.

Likewise, you will have to keep tying each answer of yours back into your focus theme using specific, relevant, personal experiences as examples.

If the dot is your key focus theme, you use everything else to reinforce it.

Why should you have goals?

Well, if you feel “I don’t have any goals”, then it is time you start thinking about it. It is quite natural to not have thought about it. Everyone begins there. But at some point we all should and this might just be the first time you get yourself to have the serious talk with yourself.

It’s not like the goal you decide for yourself now will be what you will have to do in your life. People change and so do their goals. As you evolve and discover more about yourself and the world, you’ll have new challenges, new interests and even new goals.

And that is perfectly fine!

But what’s important is that you have some goal at every point of your life. Goals give you direction and always having something larger than you to get to and working towards it will ensure that you keep making progress.