• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Choose

Published: Friday, 05 April 2013

When I was in my final year of high school, my family couldn't afford to send me to university, so I looked for scholarships that would enable me to go.

Trawling through websites, I found:

  • A $9000/ year scholarship to study civil engineering, which also included all university tuition and return flights home every year that would require you to do 12 weeks of work experience at the company every year, then work there for another 4 years afterwards.
  • Scholarships of $6000/ year at a water facility with an internship and work contract afterwards.
  • $2000/ year scholarships that would require you to join and be active in the organisation.  An exclusive scholarship - meaning you couldn't get any other.
  • $8000/ year scholarships where you would have to work in a mine 10 weeks of every year.

I never got any of these, because I never applied.  They weren't aligned with the kind of engineering I wanted to do, the way I wanted to spend my university life, and what I wanted to do after university.

One scholarship that I did receive was for full tuition to finish my undergraduate degree and my masters in an accelerated programme of electrical engineering in 4 years.

That seemed like a lot of work and studying to me.

I decided that wasn't how I wanted to spend my university years.  I wanted to do more than just study and learn more than what I could from books.  So I turned that down too.

And I went to Melbourne University to study Mechatronics Engineering and Computer Science, with no scholarship and not enough money to live for a year.

In my first month, I found the Paterson Scholarship, applied and became the inaugural recipient of the perpetual scholarship.

Don't just follow the waters where they may take you.  Choose a path and things will pop up along the way that help you get to your destination.

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Shell Eco-marathon Asia Wrap-up

    It was a whirlwind of a week in Malaysia at Shell Eco-marathon Asia. The air was constantly buzzing with intense excitement and anticipation, mixed...

  • How in(credible) are you?

    In order to be incredible, you first have to credible - to have people who trust you and your ability.   The winner of the 2007 TED Prize was awarded $100...

  • Choose Maths

    Choose Maths is an exciting 5 year, national project designed to empower and encourage Australian students (in particular girls) to pursue...

  • The Sandbox Global Summit

    How to create a Sandbox Global Summit Carefully select over 4 years, a group of 650 under-30 year-olds from around the world and cultivate...

  • Speaking with Teleport

    I gave a speech with my robot on stage at the Australian Water Association’s National Conference.  It was super cool!  My engineer Mack drove it from...

  • Teleport In Action Video

    After months of careful, hard work by the team, we have launched a new Aubot website!  Have a look at our new website here! In addition to that -...

  • Unless people you’re working with support you, you are going to fail

    Who are the guys that you are going to have pizza with when you successfully raise capital? Who are the guys that are going to inspire you? Who are...

  • Daily plan

    My most productive days, the days I enjoy the most, and the ones that inspire me the most are the days where I have an extensive pre-written to-do...

  • Robot repairs

    Robot troubleshooting on the fly in Sydney.

  • Future is fuzzy

    I used to get anxious about the future.  Whether I could get a good job, where I would live, if I would have enough money to survive. But then I...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top