Scholarship

Got this in my email on Thursday:

Dear Jin Ming Tee,

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have been chosen by Dr. Joanna L. Groden and Randall T. Moon to receive a Keystone Symposia scholarship up to $1000 to help defray travel and lodging expenses associated with your attendance to the upcoming meeting on Wnt/beta-Catenin Signaling in Development and Disease, Feb 17 - Feb 22, 2008, in Keystone Resort in Keystone, Colorado. The award is made possible through the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant #1R13HD057682-01.

Attached are important reimbursement rules you must follow to receive funding.

I was thrilled to know that I got the scholarship. (Almost couldn't believe my eyes actually) Not because of the sum of money, but more because my work has been acknowledged as being of interest to others and of significant quality. Last year, when I was chosen to give a talk in the Zebrafish Conference in Amsterdam, people in the lab were "gossiping" that I did not deserve it, and I got it merely because ppl in our institute, including my supervisor, were the organizers. That wasn't true because my supervisor said that it was the people outside the institute that were adamant about me presenting, and ppl in our institute were the ones against it. It was quite disheartening, especially since the people who were against it were ppl that I respected. Regardless, I ignored the gossips and spent hours and hours, staying till the wee hours of the morning, to give a good presentation and to prove that I deserved it. It all went well, but there was still a whisper in my heart always that I did not deserve it.

This time, I got the scholarship out of my own ability (and of course my supervisor's help in guiding me). Nobody can say that strings were pulled. Even though it's a Wnt meeting, our director Hans Clevers is not the organizer and neither is he attending, and even his students in his lab did not get the scholarship. It felt good. Really good. Thank you God!! (and my dearie for your support and prayer always) =) I am blessed!