One small decision can completely alter the course of one's life. This is certainly the case for year 12 pupil Anna. Her family had relocated to Shanghai last year. She was already enrolled and ready to attend another international school in Shanghai. Nevertheless, always curious, Anna began browsing the internet to see what it would like to be a student in Shanghai.

"I was looking at other schools in Shanghai to see who I might be socializing with," she explains. "I discovered Wellington's website and I thought, 'This looks nice!' Then I saw the section about the Academic Scholarship, and I thought, 'This sounds a lot like me!"

That was 16 April. The application deadline for Wellington's Academic Scholarship was 17 April. Anna had less than a day. She got to work. "I decided to see what I could put together in a few hours," she recalls.

When Anna completed her application she showed it to her parents. "I told them, 'This is just an experiment, but could you scan this for me so I could send it?' They thought it was funny. None of us thought I was going to get in. We figured they awarded this scholarship on a first-come-first-serve basis, and here I was filing my application in the eleventh hour," she says.

Nevertheless, Anna proceeded with the application, "I really just wanted to see how far I could get with it, and apparently I went pretty far," she adds. It was not long before she was contacted for an interview.

"I think a big part of what got me this scholarship was my interview," says Anna. "I am very interested in politics, and the subject took up close to 45 minutes of my one hour interview with Mr McCallum. We talked about the Electoral College in the US and eventually went on to British politics and then went to German politics."

Anna was then asked to take an assessment test — which she excelled at — and then to write an essay. "The topic was three notable people in history or fiction whom I admire or compare myself with, so I wrote about Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, Nymphadora Tonks from the Harry Potter novels and Noor Inayat Kahn. She was a double agent in the Second World War," Anna explains. 

When Anna started at Wellington, the academic year was already in progress, so there was some of catching up to do. Adding to the challenge was the fact that she chose to take an advanced placement in year 12. But it did not take long for Anna to adjust. "In the beginning, it was intimidating, but so far, my coursework is giving me just the right amount of challenge," she says.

It helped that Anna's housemates immediately made her feel welcome. "This place is like Hogwarts for me. When I heard they had houses here, I went crazy! I did not know that was a thing," she says.

Since then, Anna has been thriving at Wellington. The demanding IB curriculum teaches her to stretch herself beyond what she thought she was capable. Meanwhile, she landed a major part in Wellington's recent Senior School production of the Broadway musical Chicago. "School was never a full-time job for me before coming to Wellington," she admits, "but I enjoy working. I find it rewarding."

Reflecting on how she earned the Wellington Academic Scholarship, Anna says, "Having so little time to apply was actually quite liberating for me. Of course, I had hoped to get in, but I did not think I would. Because there was no mark I had to hit, I could just be myself."

And while she would not necessarily recommend that applicants approach the Wellington Academic Scholarship with the same degree of spontaneity that she did, she maintains that being yourself is your biggest asset. "Do not try to be what you think they want you to be. Just be you. That is enough."