Been helping our smart girls in Kerala apply towards the Adobe Women in Tech Scholarship.
We have been speaking with them in some capacity and today I wrote an email to the girls who are applying.
Some really touching responses came my way. Sharing them here.
And this was my email to the girls
Hello Fathima ,
I’m Arya Murali. I’ve been working with Pheba to help you put in an application towards the Adobe Women in Tech scholarship.
When I applied to the WeTech Qualcomm scholarship, I was super scared, you know. I had no clue if I was doing the right thing. But today, I’m glad that I pushed myself to do it.
Having gone through this experience for a couple of times, I totally understand what you are going through. And let me tell you that it is okay if you are a bit nervous now 🙂 It is okay if you are not sure about this. Happens. Now let’s try to bring out the best in you and give this one good shot 🙂
Oru KKPP attempt? Kittiyal Adobe Scholarship, poyal entha? Oru application alle!
I can see that you have started working on your application. This is awesome 🙂 You have taken the first and the most difficult step of getting started.
We have only 2 more days to put in a good application. By now if you haven’t met with your teacher and spoken about getting a recommendation, you should do it tomorrow itself.
Today I thought I’ll write to you to share some more useful tips.
- Follow the SOP structure prescribed by Adobe and read the tips mentioned to be on point — Tips
- Maintain a semi-formal tone. Give specific examples to help them understand your work better. Instead of saying I’m awesome, you can give them examples and stories that make them feel you are awesome 😉
- To enhance your SOP, you can add in specific examples. If you have a piece of code you have written as a part of a project or if you have a demo of a project you have done, be sure to include the video link/GitHub repo link. This will help them further believe that you have written.
- Although they have asked for technical projects, you may very briefly include details about your other non-technical volunteering initiatives/projects also.
- Always give numbers to help them understand the scale of your work.
Example:
- I have conducted many events in college — bad description
- I have conducted over 12 technical events in my college of which I’m most proud of our recent Android workshop that was attended by 50 students — good description
As the first step to ensuring that you are receiving my email, do reply to this email to let me know that you have received it.
I also understand that you may have additional questions. If yes, you can email me your queries and I shall look to answer them as soon as I can. alternatively, you may also ask these queries in the WhatsApp group created for your college lead by Pheba. I’ll be online from 6PM to 7:30 PM tomorrow to answer your questions in the group.
Feel free to write to me if you feel you can’t do this or if you need any other help. Namukkellam ready akam!
You still have 2 good days. Let’s do this!
Useful Resources:
My learning
Everyone is smart enough to figure out things on their own. Sometimes all we need to do is provide emotional comfort to help them make progress.