Ana’s global scholarship journey
Ana Luiza Santos de Sa won two of the most competitive scholarships from the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Melbourne: the Len Stevens and Robert Bage Memorial scholarships. This allowed her to upskill her PhD search to the next level with an overseas course about choice modelling and a three-month exchange research at two prestigious Universities in the UK: the University of Leeds and Imperial College London. Besides this, she also attended a conference in her field of research in Canada.
When Ana won the Len Stevens Scholarship in November 2022, she decided to utilise the opportunity to further her research abroad.
"I wanted to do a course in choice modelling to improve my data analysis skills, and this course only happens once a year at the University of Leeds in the UK. As the University of Leeds is one of the main centres in transport research, I also thought it would be a great idea to do a research visit with an expert in my research field."
The scholarship provided financial support and afforded Ana the opportunity to network with experts in her field of research and receive feedback on her work.
"In Leeds, I presented my PhD research to the Choice Modelling group and got valuable feedback. This was especially important because I could include some of the feedback before my data collection, so just came at a perfect time. Besides that, I also had the opportunity to meet students who were not specifically working on my PhD topic but taught me different skills that I will apply in my PhD research, such as tools for spatial analysis."
A few months later Ana was jetting off to a conference, this time in Canada.
"The Len Stevens Scholarship gave me extra motivation to submit a paper for presentation at the World
Conference on Transport Research in Montreal, which only happens every three years. This was a special moment for my career as it was my first time presenting a study at one of the major transport conferences. This allowed me to showcase the latest paper from our research group at Unimelb, now published in a journal. I also had the opportunity to network and attend presentations of the main experts in my field."
Ana emphasises the importance of finding a scholarship and the benefits to procure from this. She utilised the filter tool on the University of Melbourne’s Scholarship website to find the right pick for her, and it was here that she discovered two scholarships that would financially support and academically enrich her research.
When she decided to apply for the Len Stevens Scholarship, Ana’s first call to action was to request the advice of previous winning applicants.
"I reached out to them on LinkedIn, and I tried to get an understanding of what their proposal was like based on the videos that are on the Len Stevens Scholarship website. I saw people doing research visits and attending conferences, which would help them in their PhD or Masters and career."
She then set out to write-up her project proposal and a personal statement detailing how the scholarship would assist her research and future career.
"We have to write a project proposal and personal statement. The project proposal details all planned activities and how the experience can benefit our program at the University of Melbourne. It’s also necessary to provide a timeframe and a detailed budget for the proposed experience. In the personal statement, we can highlight the opportunities that the experience will provide us, not only in the short term, such as potential research outcomes, but also for our future career and long-term goals. In addition, I believe attaching supporting documents can be helpful, such as a letter of support from the expert or organisation that will be hosting you."
In March 2023, she was a successful recipient of the Robert Bage scholarship. To Ana, this was another opportunity to take her new skills and updated research to London by visiting two researchers from Imperial College whom she had entered into a collaboration with.
"We did a collaboration process in London, and we are working together on research papers that will be a part of my PhD and submitted to conferences in the future, so it's beneficial to establish these partnerships."
Overall, Ana believes it was her ability to clearly communicate her purpose for applying and her research intent that won her both scholarships. With the experiences that these have brought her, Ana believes a scholarship can be very helpful for all students, particularly graduate researchers. Here are some pieces of advice from her for someone aiming to get a scholarship and have experience abroad.
"First, make sure that your proposal is targeted at the purpose of the scholarship and adapt your project if necessary to ensure it is a good fit with the funding opportunity.
Second, it’s important that we take some time to write and revise our scholarship proposal – and, if needed, do this process more than once, getting some feedback during the process.
Last but not least, if you haven’t been successful yet, keep trying! I wasn’t successful in my first scholarship application. Still, applying for it gave me the knowledge to have a much better and ultimately successful application in the future. If you don’t get this time, and it still makes sense to yourself, apply again on the next round."