This is the fifth blog-post from Esther Tot who received the ESOMAR Foundation Scholarship to study at the English based Bachelor Degree program in International Business at the National University of Management (NUM) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

It’s kind of weird but wait until I’ll explain why there’s a baby prawn and an adult prawn! Yes, this is how I see myself! In Year1 I was a baby prawn, which just entered the university. Our lecturers like to call us Year1 students “Baby Prawn” because we are the youngest ones in school and we, baby prawns, are trying to adapt and learn from the adult prawns (Year 2, 3, 4 students). We have to learn and observe from them because when we enter the university it’s as if we are born into a new world or new place.

BUT_ BIG BUT (got this way of saying from my marketing lecturer which everyone love to use), so BIG BUT is that in November I will enter Year2 and I am so excited because I have passed all the exams of Year1. To be honest if people ask me whether it was easy, I would say not too easy and not too hard but it required so much self-discipline as I had talked about in my previous blog about Self-Discipline. What I mean by self-discipline is that we need to commit to having less sleep and more study time because there are loads of assignments that need to be completed and submitted. We have to be committed to school and assignments.

So now I am becoming an adult prawn as I am entering Year2! I don’t know what’s coming next but I guess it might be more fun than Year1 because there will be more and more assignments. But I am ready for it!!!

I can’t wait to finish my university and get a degree so I can have a good job with a high salary, which makes my life worth. It’s not easy but I believe one day I can become a Prawn Boss. There’s still a long way to go…. 2 more years till I reach Year4!

So my message to all the baby prawns is that it’s ok to have a lot of assignments and presentations because it will pay off when you will become an adult prawn. You will gain a lot of experience from your baby prawn year so work hard and if you fail don’t lose hope and please keep trying harder and harder each time you fail even though sometimes it seems that you have reached your limit. But don’t limit your education just keep letting it grow.

I would like to say thank you again to the ESOMAR Foundation for providing me with the special opportunity of having a better education and as well as achieving my dream as a poor kid to become a knowledgeable person.

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This is the third blog-post from Paola Loy Villagran, the recipient of the ESOMAR Foundation scholarship in Guatemala. Paola tells us about her studies and her social life. 

During the last months I started a Human Resources course in which we had to investigate the work climate of some companies in the country and we found that most of them have communication problems and that employees need to have access to all relevant information required to perform their duties, in any job employees must be motivated and they need training programs to constantly upgrade their existing skills. We learned about the term “human capital management” (or HCM) which represents the entire range of practices and processes for managing people in an organization and the drivers they should implement to develop employee engagement.

The key objective of every organization should be to train its employees so that they become efficient resources later on.

Also we received a Marketing Management course in which we learned how to increase sales, strategies to stand out in today’s world, how we can have a quality offering that meets customer needs, understand the market in which we compete, how to build a strong brand. I really enjoyed this class because we had the opportunity to analyze real cases of failure and success, like Blockbuster, Open English, Kodak, Netflix and last but not least McDonald´s. We even saw the movie “The Founder”, the story of Ray Kroc a salesman who turned the idea of two brothers into the biggest restaurant business in the world.

In my personal life everything is good, I’m trying to be focused in my studies, I have new friends from many parts of the country; most of them come to classes from far away places because unfortunately there aren’t good opportunities of study in rural areas.

In my free time I like to spend time with my nephews, I want them to be proud of me and believe in their dreams as I do, and keep fighting for what they want to achieve in life. Hopefully one day they will know about this opportunity and take it as an inspiration to become better students and professionals.

How you can support Paola

If you wish to support Paola and be the donor of this scholarship, we would be happy to connect and provide you more information. Please contact: info@esomarfoundation.org

How you can support in your country

If you are a market researcher, a national market research association, an NGO involved in research or a university interested in a scholarship in your country please contact us at info@esomarfoundation.org

Partners & Sponsors

We are always on the lookout for partners and sponsors. If you are an organisation looking to understand more on how you can support us, please find more information here or contact:  info@esomarfoundation.org 

This is the 14th blogpost from Nicolin Mamuya, the first ESOMAR Foundation scholarship in South Africa. The month of August is women’s month in South Africa!

This is the month where we celebrate all women as well as show gratitude to the four brave heroines (Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Sophie Williams and Helen Joseph) who marched to the Union Building to fight for the equality between genders.

Of course in my life, women’s month is every month! I strive to surround myself with friends who do not seek to compete with other females, but rather understand the significance of encouraging and empowering each other. I believe my obsession with women is due to being raised by a single mother.

My mother always emphasised about female power, which stuck in my head particularly because, I did not have a male figure in my life.
I believe females are slowly stretching out of the box that society has built around us. However, compared to the rest of the world, female leadership may still be considered taboo in Africa, with many males open to expressing their opposition. Therefore, I give credit to African female leaders such as the late Miriam Makeba, a late singer and female activist, Ellen Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president and Wangari Maathai, an environmental activist. Let them, along with other heroines, inspire bravery in many of us females.

The scholarship awarded to Nicolin was sponsored by SSI and in collaboration with SAMRA.

This is the fourth blog-post from Esther Tot who received the ESOMAR Foundation Scholarship to study at the English based Bachelor Degree program in International Business at the National University of Management (NUM) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Wohooo!!!!!! It’s the end of marketing class! Loads of assignments and self-discipline are over. At the same time there is also a year4 graduation party so our last and final assignment of the marketing class was to organize a party which is for all IBBA-er and especially for year4 students who are likely to graduate at the end of this year.

As an IBBA year1 or freshman year or as my marketing lecturer likes to call us the “baby prawn”, because we are the youngest among all the other classes at university, on August 12^th, 2017 all year1 held the task of organising one big event as we called it “IBBA Gala”. We divided into teams: the morning team planned and organized the activities of the event and we, the afternoon class, were tasked with contacting and finding sponsors for our event and we finally did a very good job! Our lecturer was proud of us as year1 students.

The activities and program had some fun features: female students in year1 had to dress like a man and male students had to dress as a girls and there were also some fashion shows as guy dressed as girl and girls dress as guy, as well as singing, and teachers and student awards.

As for me being in year1 and holding this kind of big event is something I will be proud of myself for the next few years because it is a real learning experience and I felt I was in a real world as a business woman and marketer.

I have successfully contacted the sponsor from Hot&Cold Café and my class successfully contacted BreadTalk, Major Cineplex, BOPEA, CAM Paint, and Domino’s Pizza (you can see the company’s logo on our backdrop).

This was the hardest year because it was my first year at university and next year I believe it will be better than this because I will learn to adapt to the university life from this year experience.

Partners & Sponsors

We are always on the lookout for partners and sponsors. If you are an organisation looking to understand more on how you can support us, please find more information here or contact:  info@esomarfoundation.org

The school break is reaching its end and I must admit that I am a bit afraid of returning to school. However, this is the final stretch and I am ready for the victory!

I have recently found myself getting closer to God and enjoying the company of people who share the same love I have for him. I grew up in a Catholic church, which means all I know is Catholic. However, recently I have started attending my friend’s church. I really enjoy their messages as well as the songs they sing. I have had many say I seem confused because, I immerse myself into different religious cultures. It is almost as though there is no sense of direction or stability in how I choose to praise God. I say it does not have to make sense. It is about my relationship with him and nothing else.

The scholarship awarded to Nicolin was sponsored by SSI and in collaboration with SAMRA.

This is the third blog-post from Esther Tot who received the ESOMAR Foundation Scholarship to study at the English based Bachelor Degree program in International Business at the National University of Management (NUM) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

A dreadful accident happened to me in 2011! It upsets me so much to talks about this but this is life and we can’t stop it. On August 30^th, 2011 my right eye got hit by a knife. It was scary and dreadfully painful! It all happened while I was cooking my own food because my mom was busy working till late that evening. I spend most of my time alone cooking and doing laundry and that time I was just about 14 years old and I was chopping a chicken leg with a small and very sharp knife. The knife broke into half and the broken and sharp piece flew up and poke my eyeball and it dropped back very fast. I thought that the chicken hit my eye but when I tried to wash it with water it didn’t go away, the sight was still blurred and I was so frightened when I looked down on the ground and saw a broken piece of the knife laying there on the floor! At that moment I knew what really hit my eyeball and when I touched the eyeball it felt soft like the balloon running out of air. I was so scared, I didn’t even have a phone.

At that time I lived with the neighbors. When they were going out they always locked the gate. I had to stand there and wait for people to pass. I gave them the key and asked them to unlock the door for me. I ran out to borrow the neighbor’s phone to call my mom. She hurried home and took me to Ogdoung hospital. We didn’t have money, my mom couldn’t even afford the 500 riels to park the bike. It was the saddest moment of our life because I had to do an eye surgery or else I would get blind forever. I could hear my mom crying and begging the doctor to please help me, that I was her only child and we were poor and the doctor said he couldn’t do a free surgery, he could only offer a discount. I cried and the nurse told me not to cry because the tears could hurt the eyeball. I tried hard not to cry but I still cried and in my heart I prayed God to help me and I memorized the memory verse of Jeremiah 29:11-12 “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,  plans to give you hope and future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you”. This verse calmed my heart. Later I heard my mom call her boss and the church pastor and a moment later they came and had  a private talk with my mom. Suddenly the doctor called me to the surgery room and did the surgery on my eye.  I could feel all the needle, knife and scissor movements on my eyeball and I kept on praying and memorizing that verse from the Bible. The surgery was successful. They covered my right eye for about one month and I could use only my left eye. Sadly the doctor said that a mistake was made by his training nurse. She forgot to cut out the dead cell and there was still water in my eyeball.

My eye has not been functioning well until now. I have to undergo a 2^nd surgery but I don’t have money. I had once asked the doctor how much it would cost to change my lens so I can see clearly again. He said it would be about $5000 dollars which I could never raise but I really want to see normally from both eyes.

Till now no one at school knows that I can see with only one eye and it always hurt when I try to look at something which is too bright or stare at the books or letters too long. My eyeball starts to hurt and I get headache. But I never want to quit my study. No one at school knows I am disabled but I never want to call myself this way. I end up bearing this pain and this pain is what persuaded me to study hard because I want a better job so I can give my mom a better life. I also want to save money to change my lens because I really want to see normally again.

My motto for pain is that, “There are 2 types of pains, the pain that changes you for good and the pain that changes you for bad and it is your choice to choose which pain you want to take.”

At last, I just want to tell everyone who struggles through any types of pain to not giving up and keep on living and changing the world, don’t let the world change your smile but let your smile change the world.

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We are always on the lookout for partners and sponsors. If you are an organisation looking to understand more on how you can support us, please find more information here or contact:  info@esomarfoundation.org

This is the 12th blogpost from Nicolin Mamuya, the first ESOMAR Foundation scholarship in South Africa. It’s school break now. Time for an internship!

I have completed my exams and I must admit that they weren’t as bad as I had feared. I have passed all my modules, which means a celebration is in order. The school break goes on for more than a month so I had decided to keep myself busy by looking for an internship.

Fortunately, I was instantly offered a job and I now work for a property firm not too far from where I live. I will be managing the firm’s social media pages as well as handle all the admin involved in the buying and selling of property. This definitely gives me insight on the processes and possible paperwork that goes into buying property. Buying rental property proves to be a great long-term investment that I will hopefully venture into in the future.

It is June 16 and South Africa is celebrating 41 years since brave students marched against being taught in Afrikaans (the language spoken by the white people). Most of us celebrate this day by wearing school uniform and others have a gathering with friends and family to have a great time. I do believe that those students set the tone for the youth that came after them.

South Africa’s youth is very powerful and united. The students know how to fight for what they believe in. The marches for the university fees to fall and against women abuse exemplify the power they possess. Happy June 16!

The scholarship awarded to Nicolin was sponsored by SSI and in collaboration with SAMRA.

This is the second blog-post from Esther Tot who received the ESOMAR Foundation Scholarship to study at the English based Bachelor Degree program in International Business at the National University of Management (NUM) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Who says education is easy? If education was easy there wouldn’t be many students who quit school. Education is hard, and Yes! Really hard but it is valuable and precious. I remember my marketing class with Ms. Sopornetra. In her class there were a lot of assignments and yes it really was hard for me and many students. We had 3 assignments per class including a presentation and, every time during her class, all the students were required to wear a business suit or, you can say, a marketer suit.

First of all, to be honest, I was not really enjoying the class much but later I found it so interesting because she gave us a real experience to practice as real marketers and business people and we learned how to do a good presentation with customers or our business partner to convince them to invest in our company. The most interesting part was the assignment of  creating our own event as if we were real business people,. The event is coming soon this August and it will be attended by 800 people. The hardest thing is that in my afternoon session together with 16 students we must find cash or coupons sponsors for $1500 US dollars to support the whole event. But one catchy word I remember from my teacher is that “Nothing is impossible to do if you really want to do it” and this word keeps running in my head and I keep on telling myself that I can do it and I am going to succeed, we are going succeed.

Nevertheless, going back to the part about the assignments and presentation: It was so stressful because we had to stay late at night to do the power-point slides and the next day we had to do a 10 pages report and I seriously thought: “why does she have to put so much pressure on us?” But the answer that comes straight in my head is that it is a self-discipline. She does this because she wants us to know and understand that when we step up in a real marketing battle this is what to expect. It could be a success or a failure so we have to learn  and be ready and also we have to think of any alternatives in case something bad or good is going to happen when we enter the marketing field. There are competitors, and if you are not smart enough to understand the insights you will surely fail your business. So in business and market research we have to really understand our competitors and learn about their strengths and weaknesses because if you know what they have or what they lack you could increase your product sales. If they lack something, your company should see an opportunity, and if they have similar products to your company we have to quickly learn about them, strengthen our product and upgrade it to make it better than their product to convince the customers to buy our product. We have to ensure that our consumers love our product and want to be a long term user of our product.

Partners & Sponsors

We are always on the lookout for partners and sponsors. If you are an organisation looking to understand more on how you can support us, please find more information here or contact:  info@esomarfoundation.org