Shodona Kettle - UCL-ROS scholar
UCL-ROS scholar, Shodona Kettle, shares the impact this scholarship programme has had on her experience as a UCL Institute of the Americas PhD student.
I am truly grateful to have received the competitive UCL Research Opportunity Scholarship (UCL-ROS), which has been fundamental to my PhD journey.
There are several benefits that make up the UCL-ROS package. ROS Fellows receive mentorship through a variety of avenues - my cohort had the chance to have frequent meetings with the Chair of the Windsor Fellowship as part of this package, for example. Further, we receive early access to opportunities for research students such as the Consultancy Challenge, Brilliant Club and Resilient Leaders Programme. I participated in the latter programme which strengthened my leadership, team-building, and problem-solving skills.
In addition to tuition fees, the stipend, and an annual research allowance, the scholarship enables one-time access to additional funding to conduct fieldwork and attend and/or present at academic conferences through a match-funding initiative with the EDI office and your department.
The Student Funding team works hard to ensure that recipients are up-to-date with programme developments, organizing meetups and annual meetings to monitor and evaluate our experiences. In these meetings we have the opportunity to share ideas on how the scholarship can best serve the community it wishes to engage.
The ROS funding has enabled me to connect with other ROS recipients and other awardees such as those awarded with UCL’s Research Excellence Scholarship. We even had the chance to network with the Pro-Vice Provost of the Doctoral School and learn about the various funding initiatives throughout the university.
Scholarships like the UCL-ROS are few and far between for those who are BAME and/or from historically and contemporarily marginalized communities. I highly encouraged those who are eligible to apply to the fund.