Seoul National University Student, Keity Rose Mendes from Mozambique, Shares Her Journey of Winning the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) for a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering

I am Keity Rose Mendes, born and raised in Mozambique, and as I write this, I am currently in my third year, studying my bachelor’s in industrial engineering at Seoul National University in the Republic of South Korea. I speak 4 languages and have always been fascinated by how optimized and developed the systems in South Korea are.

My decision to take industrial engineering comes from the fact that industrial engineering studies the optimization of systems. All aspects of our lives and all industries are made and based on some sort of system, which means that an industrial engineer can work in any area and field with just a few months of specialization in that area, and that is the flexibility that industrial engineering has compared to other majors.

My choice to come study in South Korea comes from how South Korea constantly strives to optimize its systems, and we can see this in their transportation system, their healthcare system, their immigration process, etc. A good example is seen in their international airport in Incheon, where industrial engineering techniques were employed to make sure that the airport runs smoothly despite any busy international traffic.

Thanks to the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) provided by the Korean Government to international students all over the world, I was able to come study here in South Korea. This scholarship essentially provides for international students to be able to come study in South Korea without having to worry about any financial burden. It is a merit-based scholarship where the government provides a full tuition, a monthly allowance, a settlement allowance for the first month you settle in South Korea, and Health care insurance. For students who have no Korean skills, this scholarship also supports them with one year of a Korean Language course fully paid by the government.

Before I came to Korea, I had also applied to the Russian scholarship provided by the Russian government to Mozambican students, which I got to know about the Russian scholarship and the Korean Scholarship by going to the Russian embassy and the South Korean Embassy in Mozambique.

Educational Background

I transferred to an international school with a Cambridge curriculum to complete my high school years in hopes of better opportunities to study abroad. Because Mozambique doesn’t have English as an official language, I made sure to also take an English proficiency test (IELTS).

My Preparation to Apply to Seoul National University

I applied to my GKS scholarship through the embassy track, and before I applied to GKS, I made sure to do my research on how to apply to the scholarship and make sure that I understood all the documents required to apply to this scholarship. I also made sure that I researched how previous applicants organized their documents, did their interviews, and how the whole process was for them. Moreover, I also took note that although the whole procedure is generally the same, there could be small differences when applying to GKS in my home country, as compared to what was being displayed on YouTube by previous applicants from other nationalities.

Because I knew that I wanted to get the GKS scholarship, I made sure to start learning the Korean alphabet before I had to submit my documents. took a Coursera online course on basic Korean and made sure to submit the certificate along with my application.

Although the course only taught me how to write and read basic 한글 (which is the Korean alphabet), I believe that the certificate and my strong personal statement, which I used to give a strong first impression on myself, gave me an advantage over every other applicant.

The Advice for future applicants

The advice that I would give to future applicants of the GKS scholarship would be:

• Never doubt yourself

You might think that because you have no direct extracurriculars, there’s nothing you can write about on your personal statement, but I believe that there is always something that you can learn and have learned from any experiences in your life. Whether that’s being the eldest in the house and overseeing house duties and your siblings, being the class leader, or if that experience looks like you helping a small or big family business by one of your family members. Small experiences like learning piano, playing football, etc. Also, have valuable lessons that helped build who you are today; therefore, make sure you write about all of the lessons you learned from your experiences.

• Do your research; everything is available online

AI has been a great tool for this generation, so if you feel like there is any question you have pertaining to the scholarship, go online. That could look like you doing your research on Google, connecting with a previous scholarship recipient, or asking Chat GPT. But in any case, make sure to always double-check your resource.

• Go for it

“You never know what you are capable of until you try”, is one of my favorite mottos. Don’t stop yourself from trying, even if you don’t know how it's going to turn out, just go for it

• Remember to write a story in your personal statement and not a list of things you have done

The officials at the embassy, university administration office, and government officials who go through the applications have a lot of applications that they run through, so make sure your application stands out, and the only way for it to stand out is to tell them your story, because only you can be you.