Tertiary Application Fees

In 2019, Schmidt Futures co-founders Eric and Wendy Schmidt made a USD 1 billion philanthropic commitment to identify and support global talent. Therefore, Rise is an initiative of the Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust is the anchor program of that commitment. Rise is an online mobile application that is accessible to students who are aged between 15 to 17. It consists of four stages upon which 500 finalists are selected for an opportunity that lasts a lifetime.

The rise application was quite an experience. It marked the first international application I was eligible to apply for and therefore, I was a little bit nervous. The application was divided into four stages and each stage was to be video recorded. As students we picked areas or challenges in our society that we are passionate about and move us the most. We then proceeded to carry out a research to ascertain how our immediate communities felt about the problems we had identified and were then tasked to propose solutions to those challenges.

The topic that i submitted as being the one i am most passionate about was racism and discrimination along racial lines. This passion was fuelled by a personal experience were i was racially abused by a fellow student at a school event. In the research that i carried out for this project, i discovered that there is often a feeling of inferiority among young African Children to other races. Among the solutions i proffered was a strong personal development programs for young people to know themselves, appreciate their uniqueness, embrace their strengths and apply themselves in the best way possible in a given task. Further i proposed that advocacy through Art, Sports and various national and international fora. 

As a first-time applicant, I was afraid to apply because I did not know how to make my work perfect. I was afraid of making a mistake and looking incompetent before the recipients of my application. However, I must state that I am so happy to have successfully concluded the application and being among the very first Zambian applicants.  All in all, it was a great learning experience. It made me deliberately introspect and also learn more and appreciate the challenges that plague the world.