Travel Scholarship: Part One The dreaded imposter syndrome

It seems like a very long time ago now that I first consider applying for a travel scholarship. This was one of those opportunities that I heard lots about and felt that it sounded like an amazing opportunity but not something I could ever see myself going for.

I often find that the biggest barrier to applying for these opportunities is the dreaded "imposter syndrome"! However, I made a promise to myself that I would push myself towards these new experiences and put myself forward. After all the worse thing that could happen is a knock back. So my first venture into the world of applying for a travel scholarship was for a Churchill travel fellowship, I head from a friend that this was a good opportunity and to give it a go. After a lot of research and planning and thinking about where I would like to go and what I wanted to get from it, I put my application in and waited. Unfortunately on this submission I was not successful. However, I learned a lot by going through the process and understanding what I actually wanted to get out of a travel scholarship.

About a year passed from that date and I hadn't thought about going for another travel grant. In that time however I was successful in securing a pre-clinical academic fellowship that allowed me to develop a future proposal for a PhD. This new fellowship had given me a much greater focus on a particular aspect of care that I was interested in and wanted to build future projects around. The more I researched my area of interest in cancer-related pain education the more confident I became in my ability to apply for future projects. It just so happened that shortly after this another travel scholarship was advertised and this time it was with Florence Nightingale Foundation. One of my supervisors knew someone that had previously been successful with these applications and encouraged me to go ahead with it. I felt much more confident in myself in going for this fellowship and I had a much stronger plan and idea for what I wanted to achieve with it.

After completing the initial online application stage and going through an interview I was successful and awarded the fellowship! This was fantastic news and I was over the mood to be given such an opportunity. There was just one small issue and that shortly after I was given the award we entered a period of national lockdowns and travel restrictions.......

To cut a long story short, I did managed to complete this travel scholarship and it was a fantastic experience. As a result of my travels I have been able to build not only my own self confidence but also develop a network of like minded colleagues who share my passion for cancer-related pain. Never underestimate your own ability and when the dreaded "imposter syndrome" makes an appearance ignore it and just go for it! After all the worse that can happen is they say no, thats not a bad thing, as it gives you a chance to strengthen your application and put in a stronger case next time!