Scholarship / I am capable of more than I thought I was - leader with networking skills [3]

Dear fellow readers,

Hereby, I attached my essays on two of Chevening scholarship questions: leadership and networking. I would highly appreciate your feedbacks, comments and correction. Thanks in advance!!! :)

LEADERSHIP QUESTION

Chevening is looking for individuals who will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

Reflecting back on my past accomplishments and activities while I was still an event management student, I always believe that leadership should be define as not merely on leading your team members toward the designated goals but also to motivate and empower them as well as, creating a conducive environment that would influence the team to get done what they need to get done and refine their life quality.

Over the length of three years of my undergraduate study, I have been given tremendous chance to lead and coordinate several campus and community events both in Shanghai and Huddersfield. One of the most rewarding leadership involvement I was involved in is when I worked together with a team consist of local Chinese and international students and we were given a project to organize a sport-fundraising event called, Walk for Life. We needed to achieve our target donation of RMB 3000 for a charity association that focused on special needs children in rural area of China. Despite of majority of the team did not have the confident that we would be able to gather enough sponsors for the event, as the project leader I strive to be positive and optimistic in order to motivate my team members. I tried to motivate them by using the idea of the event itself to bring the interest of people in sponsoring our events and believe that persistence pays off. At the end of our project, I received positive feedbacks from my supervisors and team members and we were able to attained sponsorship from big companies such as, China Unicom.

Furthermore, I was part of the event team for Huddersfield St. Patrick's Days Parade 2016 and got selected as the team leader and the main contact for both, the Irish community as the client and the University of Huddersfield as the provider of volunteers. In the first couple of meetings with our client, they have been expressing their desire to expand their target audience toward the international community in Huddersfield. Thus, together with four other members of my team, we came up with events that would introduce the Parade while engaging students at the same time. Additionally, I planned a five days campaign (and a language exchange evening) where I delivered a short presentations about our volunteer program. As a result, there were a total of 42 volunteers, including 34 international volunteers.

In conclusion, leaders, just like a healthy soil, should be able to provide opportunities and support for their team, surrounding and even themselves room to grow. Therefore, although from my past experiences I believe that I am capable of more than I thought I was, I am always eager to learn new things and welcome for new challenges. Thus, with the help of Chevening Scholarship, I am convinced that I will be able to acquire the knowledge that will not only equipped myself to grow within my career future but in developing the education quality of Indonesia.

Scholarship / Seeking to connect with mind-like leaders through Chevening [3]

Hey, guys! Here is my essay draft on the second question for the Chevening scholarship. Feedbacks, correction and comments are highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance :)

2. Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

I am eager to be part of the Chevening international family

During my three years of attaining my undergraduate degree, I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to live in two different countries and expand my networking connections as I used to be an international student representative and actively participated in volunteering activities.

At the beginning of my career, I would use my networking skills to engage potential employers, clients and colleagues to look for job opportunities or projects. One of my earliest event projects where I displayed my networking skills was when I became the event coordinator for a seminar for the Cities of Love Franchise. I was given this great opportunity when I worked part-time as a waitress and my client learned in one of our conversation that I majored in event management. Later, I was introduced to [NAME] , he is the founder and producer of some popular movies such as, New York, I Love You!

Additionally, my networking skill has aid me to create an interactive and engaging lesson for the students. Several weeks ago, with the help of one of my supervisors at [NAME], the students got the chance to listen and ask questions on how does it feels to work as a pastry chef. They were taken on a video tour around the kitchen, shown the uniform and learned how to pick fresh fruit.

Moreover, I strongly believe that possessing strong networking skill will not only have affected my career progression but also contribute to my self-growth as an individual and a leader. I'm a reserved person who used to struggle with public speaking and conveying my thoughts and opinions to an open group. Nonetheless, through various opportunities and each communication that I was involved in, I was able to practice, show and improve my networking skills. I now feel more confident and comfortable in communicating with my team members and the public, thus, overcoming my personal struggle. Meanwhile, as a leader and educator, I see the importance of building a close relationship with my fellow workers, which we can share our expertise and insights to create a conducive learning environment for our students.

I am eager to be part of the Chevening international family, where I will have the privilege to connect with mind-like leaders who also, passionate in growing their networking connections, especially in education. I believe that through Chevening's events and volunteering programs, I will have the opportunity to collaborate, exchange and learn with/from some of the best early childhood education experts either, from the UK or anywhere in the world. In the future, I plan to apply my experience as a Chevening Awardee and fellow educators to conduct seminars and workshops for Indonesian educators or aspiring educators so, they can connect and learn from foreign scholars and experts on seeking sustainable solutions for education improvement and raising the awareness of the critical role of an early education for young children in growing countries like, Indonesia.

Scholarship / My future plans on enhancing the quality of Indonesia's education [2]

Hi, guys! Thank you for your feedbacks on my previous essays. They were all very helpful and supportive.
Here is my essay on the last Chevening's question. I am looking forward to read your comments, feedbacks or corrections! Cheers in advance :)

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country. (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

post-study career plan for chevening

Young children and how they see the world through their eyes has always fascinated me. My motivation to advocate and raise awareness regarding the significance of early education upon Indonesia's young generation and improving Indonesia's educational structures and policies began as a result of my first employment at an international school in Japan.

It was during that period of time where I understood, and saw it first-hand, the amount of potential my country could achieve if only our government pays more attention in accommodating this age group and providing a better educational facilities and system for young learners as young as one years old. From living in Shanghai and Nagoya, there were several realizations that motivated me to make a considerable effort to understand better early childhood education such as, how little values perceived by Indonesians toward teachers particularly, private preschool and elementary school educators. They do not receive any consistent training and enrichment opportunities due to the fact they are not officially working under government institutions and/or live in rural areas. Therefore, as I learned that through British Council, the UK government has contributed substantial programs on enriching Indonesia's education quality like, Teacher Creative Education Program in 2015. I am looking to collaborate with mind-like visionaries from the connection I establish during throughout my Chevening year, on creating a program for regional and national teachers that trigger interaction and engagement among fellow educators which centre on various aspects of early childhood development such as creative, critical thinking for young learners, curriculum design, leadership development, because I firmly believe by empowering my fellow educators and giving them recognition that they are the catalyst of positive change, they will have more confidence in leading and students will learn and engage more with lessons once they find the class enjoyable.

Moreover, another issue that I viewed rather as potential opportunities to grow my initiatives on ECE in Indonesia is the fact that there are very limited early childhood centres around the rural area of Indonesia. I intend on building children centres that not only equipped with facilities that will allow children to develop their linguistics, cognitive, emotion and social skills through playing and exploring outdoor, but also providing local educators and parents a self-access learning hub where they can find learning and teaching materials to help accommodating their children needs.

From my journey in learning and broadening my universe in the UK, I will return to my country, giving back by applying the experience I attained into practice by working with NGO or government institutions in Indonesia and applying the research skills and the knowledge I learned about early childhood development and education. Since I am always open for improvement and feel that learning is a two-way process that happen consistently, I am anticipating the opportunities to develop further research and gaining network on early education and childhood development field with the time I spent working with these organizations, prior to starting my initiatives for better Indonesia.