You must take all of the chances that fall into your hands and take the ideas from the people around you.

Japan

Hello Hello Phnom Penh. I am Susopheak Sorn and it is my honour to share my experiences about finding a scholarship to study abroad. I am a person who didn’t do well at studying. It took me about six years to get a scholarship to study abroad. Finally, due to a lot of hard work and study, I received a scholarship to study in Japan in the Young Leader Program, School of Local Governance. But I would like to tell you about some of the challenges I faced to get there.

In 2005 I greaduated from the Royal University of Fine Arts in the subject archeology. I tried to find a scholarship to study in France or in countries where English is spoken. I searched and applied for many scholarships in all the subjects related to my background, however I was sucessful.  In 2010, due to the strong support and encouragment I had from my family and friends, I reached my goal. I received a scholarship to study in a Master’s programme in Japan for one year.  

The big challenging for me was that I was poor at my studies as I was a lazy student and I had lost confidence. Therefore, to tackle all these problems I started to build up my confidence and at university and tried to get involved in other tasks to strengthen my abilities and I worked as a volunteer, joined in short course training programmes and so on.   

Then I decided to change from archeology to work as a public administration officer at the Ministry of Interior. I understood that if I worked there I would have a lot of opportunities to get a scholarship. When I worked there, I also had a chance to improve my English at the Australian Centre for Education, or ACE, and studied Social Accountability and joined a course as a senior administration officer at the Royal School of Administration. The courses provided me with invaluable knowledge when it came to re-applying for scholarships for the Young Leader Program, at the School of Local Governance.

After I had this great chance, I searched for support. Before that I did everything alone, I did not accept help from anyone. Because of this weakness, it made me fail exams again and again. So I decided to get help from friends and family or someone who had experience to get a scholarship to study abroad. These people helped me prepare application documents and to search and apply for scholarhsips.

In the process of searching and applying for a scholarship, some of these people shared ideas in the reaserch process, some corrected stories and some helped me in computer technology. They encouraged me and pushed me until I received a scholarship. So I am now studying in Japan thanks to the help I recieved.

You must take all the chances you get in life. If you receive good ideas from people around you, please do not be shy. Just go out and find supporters and build up experiences for yourself to help you reach your goal.

Start now. At least you have a starting point to reach your goal. If you miss it, you will not get what you have wished for.