The scholarship covered complete tuition fees, lodging, medical insurance, and regular monthly stipends. However the path to the scholarship was filled with multiple rejection emails.
“This journey came with several ‘love letters’– rejection letters. I received many ‘we are sorry to inform you’ emails,” he said.He recalled using to various programs, getting ready for standardized tests, sending cold e-mails to teachers, and often paying application fees while pursuing his imagine studying abroad.During his master’s program, Ibukun enhanced his academic profile and research study identity. His Master’s thesis was released in the procedures of the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing in Italy in 2025, a major scholastic turning point for a young researcher.He also provided research at Deep Learning Indaba in 2023, among the biggest artificial intelligence and machine learning conferences in Africa. Together with his scholastic work, he constructed experience as an AI engineer, information researcher, scientist, public speaker
, and author.In 2025, barely a year after finishing his master’s degree, Ibukun protected another major scholastic opportunity.He was granted the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Fellowship, one of the most distinguished and competitive doctoral fellowships in Europe, moneyed by the European Union.The fellowship supports his fully moneyed PhD research in Computer Science at Aarhus University, providing among the most competitive doctoral research study positions readily available in Europe.Reflecting on his journey, Ibukun credited the mentorship and support he got throughout his master’s program, especially from his thesis supervisor, who assisted him publish his very first research paper and offered a strong suggestion letter.”My master’s degree shaped my research identity and provided me the structure to contend at the greatest level, “he said. He likewise encouraged other trainees seeking international scholarships not to quit in spite of the difficulties.”To everyone trying to get
a completely moneyed scholarship, keep at it. Dreams do come true, we only need the nerve to pursue them,”Ibukun stated.