Written by Natalie Mullins
In August 2023 I happened to stumble onto an email in my spam inbox about a scholarship opportunity through the New Colombo Plan to support Australian students to study, intern and learn a new language in the Indo-Pacific region.
With no second thought, I had three days to apply to Charles Sturt University and await a response on being nominated to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
To my surprise, I was one of the ten Charles Sturt students nominated to apply to DFAT and spent hours working on and refining my application prior to submitting. The next stage of the application required me to undergo a police check which should be simple.
However, at the time I was in Timor-Leste, I had no laptop, the Wi-Fi kept dropping out and it HAD to be done in 24 hours.
I spent the next 24 hours on and off the phone to my family in Melbourne whilst I was bouncing around the back of a troopie on a dry riverbed.
The attempt to get all the images with me and my ID’s became a group effort with others yelling out when we were about to hit flat ground, people next to me shutting windows so my hair wasn’t blown across my face, and hoping for the service for it to send.
The next challenge… attempting to remember my address history for the last five years as I have moved around quite regularly. Thanks to the efforts of my mum, sister, and fellow students in the troopie we finally were able to complete the task.
Two weeks later I still hadn’t heard if I had progressed to the next stage of the application process. I had met my mum in Darwin for a quick holiday after Timor-Leste and as we flew back to Melbourne, I vividly remember telling her on the plane that I don’t think I have made it to the interview round.
We land at midnight, when I get service, I check my emails and sure enough I had made it to the interview stage. With a new excitement in my step, once I made it back home in Queensland I started preparing for an interview like never before.
Two weeks after, I sat my interview online around 1pm, afterwards proceeded to my room and cried thinking I had completely messed it up. I had completely wiped the thought of being granted the scholarship from my mind. Fast-forward almost two months, I was hastily working away to complete my Timor-Leste report when an email popped up ‘Congratulations.’
I frantically open it, see what it says and walk straight to my housemate in disbelief to tell him the news. I then facetime my mum who wanted to call me back as she was filling scripts for my dad until she realised why I was calling.
Reality set in when I was flown to Canberra along with the other 2024 scholars to undertake our Pre-Departure Training and attend an awards ceremony.
Charlie is a SSAF funded initiative.
