Studying at UCL as a Chevening Scholar

By Rafaela Bastidas

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After receiving the Chevening Scholarship, I felt ready to begin a new chapter of my life, far from my home country, Ecuador. London awaited me, along with my Master’s in Data Science at UCL and, though I didn’t know it yet, a profound personal transformation.

An unexpected beginning

I arrived in London in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. My first ten days were spent in a small hotel room, quarantining. I could only step outside for a few minutes each day to walk, and on one of those brief outings, I met my first fellow Chevening Scholars. There, in quiet corridors and short but warm conversations, I realized I wasn’t alone.

It was also in that room that I began my first classes: the famous “Foundation Fortnight,” full of emotion. I felt excitement and nerves, and yes, the sense that I would need to revisit statistics more than once.

When I was finally able to move to Camden Town, where I would live for the following year, the city felt enormous. Everything was new: the pace, the people, the weather (which, just as I had been warned, grew rainier and colder as the weeks went by), and the feeling of starting a life from scratch.

A deep kind of learning

I remember my first day of class perfectly. The room was filled with people from different countries, with different accents, backgrounds, and dreams. Most were still wearing masks because of the pandemic. As I listened to my professors, I tried to process not only the fast-paced English, but something more important: I had earned my place there.

Studying Data Science at UCL meant learning to see the world differently. It wasn’t only code, models, and statistics. It was discovering how data helps us tell stories and imagine solutions. I had to improve my Python skills quickly (which at the time were basic) to complete the Machine Learning assessments. I also had to strengthen my statistics to work through the Forecasting equations.

There were days when I felt confident and brilliant, and others when I had to push myself to keep going. Part of growing was accepting that there were a thousand things I didn’t know, and having the willingness and discipline to learn little by little. That, too, became an essential part of the journey.

The community

My master’s program was demanding, but the people made it beautiful. Friendships were born between stress, laughter, coffee, long coding nights, and endless projects. Friends gave me the strength to continue when days felt never-ending and exercises seemed impossible to solve. They were all brilliant, and their determination, each in their own way, became an example and a source of motivation.

I’m especially grateful for a friend with whom, during the final stretch of the program, I met (almost) every day in the graduate study room at the Department of Statistical Science to work on our dissertations. Showing up, regardless of the weather or whether we felt like going, turned into a comforting routine. We sat down every day to research and, of course, took quick coffee breaks at Pret now and then to stretch our legs.

The Chevening experience

Being a Chevening Scholar didn’t just give me access to an outstanding university. It gave me a community of curious, committed, creative, and deeply human people. Every time I met another Chevening Scholar, I felt a sense of belonging. I recognized the shared experience of being far from home while pursuing a dream and studying what we loved.

The Chevening community became my home in London. It was made of parties and events at Goodenough College, debates, and long conversations over Pret a Manger coffees. It was also made of spontaneous trips and laughter.

I still remember the day, sometime after I had gotten COVID (unlucky enough to catch it during Christmas week), when I met up with a Chevener friend to talk. We ended up planning a trip for the very next day to visit Liverpool and Manchester. That feeling of being far from home, while having friends who become almost family and support your spontaneity, was priceless.

A city that transforms you

London has a curious way of shaping you and teaching you who you are. I learned to get around without a map, walking every day from my home to the university. I learned to love an early Sunday walk along Regent’s Canal to clear my mind before long study sessions. I learned to head toward Oxford Street after a long day, to look at the shop lights and the city’s energy. It reminded me that I was living something I had once only dreamed of.

I remember the study room in the Department of Statistical Science, where we shared silence and equations. I remember the main library before an exam, and a coffee in hand on the way to UCL. I learned to find beauty in routine.

In the endless possibilities it offers, London taught me what freedom feels like. It taught me to enjoy time alone, and to shape my reality with new friends, new adventures, and new dreams. The city showed me that it is possible to build a life from scratch in pursuit of a dream.

Closing a chapter

The day I submitted my dissertation, I was flooded with emotions: happiness, nostalgia, nerves, and excitement for what was next. I felt the same vertigo I had felt when I first arrived: What now? There was pride and longing for the city I had learned to call home. But this time, the question didn’t come from uncertainty. It came with the certainty that new challenges, and a thousand new dreams, would follow.

I said goodbye to the city that had been my home for a year, and to friends who became family. I didn’t leave with only a degree. I left with a different mind, with far more knowledge (and, of course, the new questions that come with it), a new way of seeing the world, less fear of the unknown, and a network of friends who still walk with me.

Now I know who I am. I know what I can build. I know the direction I can move toward.

I am deeply grateful for Chevening and for UCL. The version of me who left London is not the same as the one who arrived.

And to those who are about to begin their own journey:

Allow yourselves to change. Allow yourselves to learn. And allow yourselves to be surprised by who you become, and by everything you can achieve if you dare to dream big.

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