School is tough. Being a bush foundation fellow, some of the tangibles are taken care of. School fees, living expense, and that greatly improves your quality of life. The relationship between your activism, work, passions and getting educated is balanced out. a very good feeling. You don't have debt at the end of process, you are more sane than the individual who has to juggle so much to make things happen. I used my Bush fellowship to pay for my University Education. I can tell you as a student I have more leeway, no need to get an extra job. focusing on my education while pursuing our passion. My passion is the promotion of values. the values of Democracy, Peace and Anti Extremism. I run a non profit, and it is rather new, four years old I have to have time to hold hands, go to conferences across the country, abroad and even travel within state. I have to increase awareness, meet funders, lobby our congressional leadership on those values. keep creating products that not only promote those values but also keep expanding the horizon.
If I were not a Bush foundation fellow, my life would be working a great job earning enough to pay bills, get in debt for school fees and do my non profit work. I tried that once, and 125 hour work week will burn you out. Dazed and constantly behind. Your work suffers, your academic suffers even your home life suffers.
The very first thing Bush foundation taught me was self care. Lined up a brilliant coach who broke it down for me. before Bush Foundation I believed the concept of self care as non sense. but with some persuasion, who am I kidding a lot of persuasion, it finally made sense. that has automatically kicked up my productive level, my home life balance and even brightened my outlook. My work weeks are only 80 hours a week coming down from 125 hours a week, much better, balancing school and activism. I get to see my kids more, engage with them more and even time for friends and extended family.
Bush foundation changed my life. my outlook and now directly impacting my output into my community, country and humanity. when I was applying they kept on saying you are a leader, I kept on telling them I am an activist. I now see myself as a leader, learning new skill sets at school, then directly applying them into my community, country and humanity. I have time now to read books which I have been collecting and piling up besides school books.
Get ready to self explore, expand your horizon, and impact even greater your community. That my friend is what it means to be Bush Foundation Fellow.