---

This paper will explore how a Clinical Nursing and Midwifery Research Fellowship facilitates the transformation of potential into personal and professional opportunity. The Fellowship is reflected upon and critiqued from the perspective of one PhD student who has completed a 3-year full-time fellowship. The metaphor of metamorphosis as 'change through time' provides a useful analogy of how one research fellow on reaching 'maturity' exploited the potential of new experiences and horizons. Like the caterpillar, the unique journey of self development and personal growth is considered to inevitably prepare the fellow for greater heights.