Undergraduate / My path. I am applying for UGRAD, someone review my statement. [7]

I chose the path of volunteerism

While living in a male dominant society, a woman has to face a lot of difficulties, be it your social life or your educational life, challenges are waiting for you at every corner. Being raised in such a society, a sense of independence, overwhelms my personality. To me, Art always seemed a medium to express my independence and various aspects of my life. My drawings are mostly abstract and highlight social, mental, and emotional aspects of human life. To prove myself a worthy asset to this society, I chose the path of volunteerism. It helps me to transfer my skills and knowledge to others.

Being an unprivileged girl from a rural background, parents always force their daughters to choose conventional subjects like Zoology, chemistry and botany. Microbiology, seemed to me an unconventional way to spread freedom of choice among girls like myself.

People of rural areas have no knowledge about modern sciences and its use, so the choice of studying microbiology, can help me promote a sense of development in people of rural areas, and will convince parents to let their daughters choose unconventional subjects as a career choice. As for my research, I intend to go for viral studies, as viruses like Ebola are prevailing and there are no current cure for such viral diseases.

Belonging from a middle-class family, I never got the opportunity to travel outside of Pakistan. My parents can never afford to send me for such an experience, on their own. This platform can provide me the opportunity to make myself a much more independent and socially active person. USA is a perfect place to explore freedom, meet new people from around the world and share something of my culture with other cultures.

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The world limit exceeds than 250, and can i do that? can word limit exceed?

Undergraduate / 'I had to stand strong, Independent and be my own self' - UGRAD statement essay [4]

Hi, please have a look at my UGRAD statement, its exactly 250/250 words,

Personal Statement for Undergraduate School

Being a woman from a middle-class family, I had to stand strong, Independent and be my own self. Having a rural background in a Male dominant society, my potential was always underestimated. But as my university life started, I tried to experience and learn as much as I could. As a strong believer of diversity and individuality, I volunteered for a culture exchange, experienced the Balochi culture, its diversity. It gave me the positivity of a Baloch and the individuality of a Punjabi.

Back in 2014, my close friend was diagnosed with severe form of Tuberculosis. The poor conditions of our medical centers as well as lack of awareness in people, made her two sisters contract the disease. It was a moment of realization for me. Followed by that one year, I sensed similar conditions of disease outbreaks in my area, So I decided to go for Microbiology as a career.

My goals related to microbiology include epidemiological research in Pakistan as well as Biofuels and their extraction from microbes to help in finding a solution for the energy crises going all over Pakistan.

Having no prior out of country travelling experience, this platform will allow me to observe the current microbiological trends in USA. With this platform, I intend to project a strong, independent image of Pakistani women, to reveal our underestimated potential. Moreover, my goals are to meet like-minded people especially women to learn and promote women empowerment and personal development in women, when I return to Pakistan.

Scholarship / LOM for International Masters of Science in Environmental Engineering [3]

Hi Everyone,

I am currently applying to Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in: International Masters of Science in Environmental Technology and Engineering (IMETE). I am attaching the requirements for the LOM and the questions that need to be addressed in the essay.

The following needs to be addressed in the motivation letter:

Reference to issues of Environmental Technology and Engineering in your country and/or worldwide;

Clear description of own qualifications and experience;

Specific reference to the IMETE study programme and objectives;

Coherence of own intended career with the IMETE study programme

(preferably the motivation letter should have a maximum of 1000 words).

My essay is about 900 words. I would like you guys to review this statement and let me know what you think about it. Does it addresses all the questions asked by the program? Is it impressive enough? Lastly, reading this essay what impression it creates about me as a potential student. I personally feel there is coherence related issue in this.

the letter of motivation

Growing up I listened to my father complaining more and more about decreasing crop yields because of polluted soil and water. Coming from a rural community in a small locality called Mandi-Bahauddin, generations of my family depended on organic farming. I grew up witnessing my family making the shift from organic to inorganic. Rapid urbanization led to heaps of solid waste accumulating in ground water. With no facilities of wastewater treatment or recycling, one could see landfills everywhere and 90% of the waste was plastic. I was devastated to see my hometown was slowly turning into a trash town. This devastation projected me to explore natural attenuation means, hence I decided to study Microbiology in my bachelors.

I was determined to create a promising future for my family and hometown, hence I left it behind to pursue my degree. GCU Lahore with its second highest ranking across the country, proved to be a place where I explored my true potential in environmental microbiology. I specifically took courses like Introduction to environmental sciences, Environmental microbiology and Soil microbiology which enabled me to focus on the kinds of clean-tech startups which could be the possible solutions to the plastic waste problem. While doing an assignment in the course management of infectious waste, I collected data on waste management from hospitals in my area, which suggested that most of the waste is wrapped in plastic which is ultimately dumped into water or landfills without treatment. Since then, I dream about running a startup that assorts plastic waste from water and utilizes the plastic for something better. To turn that dream into reality, I decided to begin with researching on a similar prospect. In my final year project, I utilized synthetic plastics to create a natural bacterial polymer that can potentially replace plastics. This research could practically be applied to manage and remove plastic waste from ground water by the production of an eco-friendly product. As the research is still nascent, it needs

further study in order to be run on a pilot scale. The local public, especially in remote areas like mine are unaware of the hazards of plastic waste. Meanwhile, to create awareness about the hazards of plastics, I volunteered with a student run organization called Plastic Free Pakistan. I delivered lectures in public schools on recycling of plastics, alternatives like cotton and paper bags and their distribution among local store owners to promote their use.

During my service as an Office Secretary at the Biological Society and other clubs, I co-organized tree plantation drives, awareness seminars on smog, biodiversity, fisheries and their protection, global warming, world wildlife day celebrations, fund-raisers for recurring flood disaster response and cleanup drive around the university where the waste was collected, assorted and disposed off to a composting plant run by the Lahore Waste Management Company. As a leader, I worked as a team head at TEDxGCULahore where I managed a team of volunteers from non-science areas.

In my masters, my proposed research will be to treat and extract microplastic polluted water streams for the production of a natural bioplastic polymer. Research carried out on green technologies at Ghent university, particularly in plastic waste conversion to quality end-products can be the perfect place for me to carry out my proposed research. With their state-of-the-art equipment and experts team, I can finally see my product reaching a real consumer market. Coming from a rural area where there are no female STEM entrepreneurs, I envision myself as a pioneer of a clean-tech startup in my area. I availed almost every opportunity I could to gain and receive recognition but unfortunately I could not find any entrepreneurial opportunities or trainings specifically designed for women from STEM fields. Through courses, trainings, entrepreneurship and networking opportunities with international experts from academia and industry during the IMETE programme, I might be able to attract funding opportunities for my proposed startup.

IMETE's courses like Environmental Microbiology and Engineering, Waste Management and Treatment and laboratory trainings would allow me to experience the actual applications of microbiology in environmental technologies which I have not experienced yet while living and studying here. However, I am most excited for the course of Wastewater treatment plant design and engineering where I will learn about plant design, its costs and start up. When I will comeback with this knowledge, it will help me to turn my dream of establishing such a facility in my area into reality. My long terms goals include running a wastewater treatment plant in Mandi-bahauddin that can later be expanded to a clean-tech bioplastic production facility. After the completion of this joint degree from three top-notch institutes, I intend to return to Pakistan as a skilled female environmental engineering professional and a creative researcher, who can aspire to drive more local women in science industries and female owned clean-tech startups in Pakistan.

Due to the impact that this plant can one day create, another generation of my family and many more families would continue their spirit of agriculture and female leadership. My city will finally see a greener and an empowered future. Indeed there are many years in the journey to this future, but it will be there. Who knows!