It has come to my attention today that scholarships extend beyond your education. The corporate world also offers scholarships, including paid travels, accommodations and such at industry events, conferences and trade shows.
Excited by the opportunity to travel yet again, I am applying for a scholarship offered by PWH - the Professional Women in Healthcare (http://www.mypwh.org/) to attend this year's HIDA (Health Industry Distributor's Association) conference in October. It would take place in Chicago and is one of the largest conferences of its kind in the world. The application is done strictly by e-mail, only asking applicants to describe their interest in PWH and what PWH can do for them.
I have always been fond of writing, but writing open-ended applications like this one always strike me as difficult. What is enough? How much is too much? Do they want an essay-like submission or simply a few descriptive paragraphs?
I have decided not really to worry about length right now and just start writing. I will write what I feel is appropriate and edit when I am said and done. It's always easier to cut back with tons of great material than try to beef up crappy material. Though of course none of my material is crappy.
That said, I am already pushing two pages of work and still haven't said exactly what I want to say. The applications aren't due until the 20th of August, so I think I will stop where I am today and revisit this again tomorrow. There is still plenty of time to finish and polish this off. I really want it to be great though, so my chances of receiving the scholarship are high. I have always been extremely competitive so I taken things like this to heart very quickly.
Therein I am posting an excerpt from my application in hopes of getting some feedback / reactions to work with. Read it, let me know what you think and most importantly keep your fingers crossed for me... In great shoes.
*So just over four months after my degree was awarded to me, the annual HIDA conference takes place. As a new (and formally inexperienced) employee, I was not offered a spot among the attendees the Stevens Company will be sending this year; though in truth it would not be my first conference, not even my first HIDA conference. In fact, I have been attending industry shows and conferences since I was roughly six years old. Wide eyed and with a bag full of giveaway pens, stress balls and other promotions materials in hand, I followed my father through the maze of booths, showrooms and banquet halls. As daughter to the President of the Stevens Company, granddaughter to the Chairman of the board, I have been involved in the medical supply industry for at least sixteen years now and I’m only freshly 22.
I am the sixth generation of Stevens to take part in our family business, though true to my personality I am already breaking moulds as I am the first woman to actively peruse a position in this company. It is that fact that draws me to PWH and the many opportunities it offers.
My grandfather is a traditionalist; my father a baby-boomer, my uncle born of the X generation and now there’s me…a member of the generation they call Y. Personally, I prefer to think of it as Y not. *
If you were following my footsteps today, you would be following a black patent pair of chunky heels I bought in Brussels. I generally don't like chunky heels, though with the cobblestone everywhere in Europe, my regular thin heels simply didn't survive.
