Would you like to follow your passion that is fuelled by a scholarship? Basit Balogun, a Posse Foundation Leadership scholar did just that.

The Posse Foundation identifies, recruits, and trains individuals with extraordinary leadership capabilities. Posse Foundation provides full-tuition leadership scholarships to its scholars from Posse’s partner colleges and universities.

Basit Balogun with his avid love for software engineering and data science is a recipient of several scholarships, one of which is the Posse Foundation Leadership Scholarship. Starting his college career as a Computer Science major, he proceeded to adopt the other fields to explore his passion.

Read on to know more about his journey, achievements, and his experience in the tech field arena.

Included

• About Basit Balogun
• Describing the application process
• Why Basit was selected
• Failures or rejections faced
• Major accomplishments
• Word of advice for budding scholars

Click here to view Basit Balogun’s Linkedln account.

Interview

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am an immigrant from Nigeria. I moved to the U.S. for my junior year of High School and have since continued my education here. I am a tech enthusiast and I have found myself wearing different hats that fall under that umbrella term. I love staying physically and mentally active, both of which I accomplish by exercising, hiking, board games, and playing several sports amongst other activities. I love talking and connecting with people and I would consider myself to be very easy going and highly energetic.

For our scholars who are interested in the Posse Foundation Leadership Scholarship, can you take us through your application process?

The application process requires a nomination that can be received from high school counselors, former posse scholars, and some others. The application is open for rising seniors and it typically opens up at the later end of their junior year of high school. After the nomination and application, there are 3 sets of interviews. After the second interview, you are matched with a school and if you choose to proceed, you are committing to attending the school if accepted.

Why do you think you were selected?

1. I have always been passionate about technology and I believe they were able to identify my passion. More importantly, I think they saw that this passion would fuel my drive to continue improving my knowledge in tech space.

2. I have been genuine in my applications and answers. I think reviewers can see through anything that doesn’t seem genuine.
3. What you have done should translate well into your words and make an impact in the reviewer’s mind. Please do not worry if you are not necessarily fond of writing. It’s a skill and you can nail your answers after some iterations. Getting it reviewed from your friends/mentors always helps. Also, most of the time, there’s a word limit to your answers, so just try to make the best of the real estate you have got.
4. I put in efforts in the whole package, not just my answers. Many times, these applications consisted of LORs, resumes, work samples, etc in addition to essays. So try to share your story through each item in your application.

Any failures or rejections that you have faced?

Many, I have lost count. But I always try to have a zestful attitude towards life, and not repeat mistakes. What is really important is learning from every experience.

Few of your major accomplishments?

• Dyer Center Business Pitch Competition Winner (2020)
• Carolynn Van Dyke Prize (2020)
• Dean’s List (2018 & 2019),
  Dr. Eugene Deloatch ’59 First-Year Academic Achievement Award (2018)
• Tri-Alpha Honors Society
• Upsilon Pi Epsilon (National Computer Science Honors Society)
• Posse Foundation Full-Tuition Leadership Scholarship (2017 – 2021)

A word of advice for our readers?

Try to do good work, be (almost) painfully frank in your applications, get in touch with past scholars to get insights, and make the most of such opportunities that come your way.

While Basit Balogun is currently interning as an engineering summer analyst at Goldman Sachs pursuing his dream, we hope this article has inspired you to follow your passion.