Yes and no. Yes, because my grades were always very good and my school also suggested me for a scholarship. No, because large parts of my environment were very negative about studying and even about my high school diploma and gave me the feeling that studying or even a scholarship were unattainable anyway.

During my school years, I volunteered for years to tutor children with learning and/or social difficulties. However, the Deutschlandstipendium also takes into account overcoming special biographical hurdles and is thus deliberately aimed at students who, due to personal circumstances, do not have a career with NGOs behind them for many years.

The monetary aspect of the scholarship naturally provides a great deal of relaxation in everyday life. In addition, the scholarship was, especially at the beginning, a recognition and confirmation for myself that I am not out of place at a university. It has also greatly contributed to the fact that many negative voices in my family environment, who thought that studying was unnecessary/impossible/too expensive, have fallen silent.

In the near future, I will be busy with my doctorate and it would be important to me that my work is of a value-creating nature afterwards as well and has a real, not just purely financial, added value. However, what that will mean for me in concrete terms in a few years or decades is something I cannot and do not want to imagine today.

Be aware of the ways in which you outperform others or have to overcome more hurdles than others. Don't be intimidated by the impressive resumes of current or former fellows, but apply with confidence. And don't be discouraged by rejections. A rejection means that the current selection team did not choose you from the current pool of applicants for a specific fellowship. A rejection does not mean that you do not deserve a scholarship.