Miss Willie, a beneficiary of the TotalEnergies scholarship (also known as NNPC/Total Fully funded Scholarship), shares her journey with us on how she secured a fully funded scholarship as a Nigerian. Read the chat below.

Can you give a brief introduction of yourself?
I am Nsongurua Willie, from Akwa Ibom State, and a lover of God. I studied Industrial Chemistry for my BSc at UNIBEN and currently undergoing my Master's studies in Sustainable Industrial Engineering at Grenoble INP in France. Actually, I developed an interest in sustainability, hence the change of course.

Lovely. Sustainability is the future…
Yeah.

How are you funding your master's study?
Good question. I am actually on a fully funded scholarship, thanks to TotalEnergies. In Nigeria, the scholarship is called NNPC/Total Fully funded Scholarship. So that’s the one I am benefiting from. And they cover my VISA fees, including renewal, flight expenses, tuition fees, monthly stipends, etc.

Oh wow...I didn't even realize it covered this much.
Yeah, it does…laughs.

That literally means you're a baller while studying?
I cannot suffer in this life…hahaha

How did you come across the scholarship?
I saw the advertisement on LinkedIn, but I also did see it on other platforms. So I directly applied for it, and it was pretty straightforward cause I had even forgotten about it after applying. I was going through this phase where I was applying to as many applications as I could, so far, no money was involved. Continuation: https://pay4me.app/blog/133/schooling-abroad-how-i-secured-a-fully-funded-scholarship-abroad-plus-monthly-stipend

Oh, you were applying for other scholarships as well?
Yeah. You know, we can't just put all our eggs in one basket.

Does applying for so many scholarships affect the chances of getting any of the scholarships?
I don't think it particularly does. But I always advise we keep our options open, so far as it aligns with what we are looking for. In the beginning, I was all about applying for scholarships in the UK, as those were the ones I knew at first. Then, I later found the ones in US and Canada, but most required some form of exam like IELT or GRE or cold emailing. I knew I didn’t have money to spend or enough strength in mind to start cold emailing, but I had other things.

Or you can just keep applying until one gets accepted…
Apply to as many as you can. Maybe you can have top priorities just to give them your best shot.

I noticed you mentioned "as long as no money was involved.’’ Are you saying you didn't pay for any scholarship application out of the many you applied for?
No, I never did pay any fees for any scholarship.

That's nice but how do you no Guinea one