The Interview

But back to my interview. The scholarship program is funded by a generous family whose wealth runs deep and wide (and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be a recipient of a teeny bit of it!). One of the final questions in my interview, administered by a couple of big-wig staff members of the MBA program, was this:

"Say you receive this scholarship, and this family invests, oh, 30,000 quid in you. What will be the return on their investment?"

Yikes.

But I rallied. Made a charming comment about how it's too bad I would never get to meet them because they'll miss out on my fabulous personality (which, now that I think about it, was actually kind of a dumb thing to say. Uy yuy yuy.) - but then -

"Frankly? Cancer." [Ack! Not that the members of this family will get cancer - oops.] "Being a cancer advocate is not easy work. Devoting my life to working to eradicate a disease that has no cure, and that will affect everyone in the world in some way, and to which I have such a personal connection, is not an easy thing for me to do. Each time I read a book on cancer, I have to alternate with an easy beach read to decompress a bit -" [TMI. Damn.] "But there is great work to be done. There are lives to be touched, and changed, and improved, and I know that making those personal connections will sustain me throughout my career. I can think of nothing greater than helping to support those who are faced with cancer while educating others and working to eradicate the disease itself. I can think of nothing I would rather do. It's not an easy route, but I know there are great rewards in store."

Huh. Well, I can't say I nailed it. But I was me. And all I can do now is hope that fam decides to toss a little dough my way.