The Dan Kohn Scholarship and KubeCon EU 2024 (London): Grateful, Then Heartbroken

In 2024, I received news that genuinely made my week: I was selected as a Dan Kohn Scholarship recipient to attend KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2024 in London.

If you’ve ever followed the cloud-native community closely, you know what that means. KubeCon isn’t just a conference—it’s where you meet the people behind the tools you use every day, learn what’s coming next, and leave with a stronger sense of direction.

Why I was excited

I was excited for the obvious reasons—talks, hallway conversations, workshops, meeting maintainers—but also for something deeper:

• to feel part of a global community I’d been contributing to from afar
• to learn how others solve problems at scale
• to bring that energy back home and share it

The part that didn’t work out

I ultimately couldn’t attend because I wasn’t able to secure a visa in time.

It was disappointing in a very specific way: you can do everything right—prepare, plan, get accepted—and still get blocked by constraints outside your control.

What I took from it

Even though I missed the trip, the scholarship still meant a lot to me:

• It was a reminder that the work is being seen.
• It gave me confidence to keep showing up in the community.
• It reinforced how important it is to keep expanding access and opportunity.

I’m still grateful to the program, and I’m still excited about KubeCon—just with a stronger appreciation for the practical barriers many of us face.

I’ll try again.