Scholarship / Networking is crucial to developing the economy further - Chevening [4]

Hi guys :). Please critique my essay below

study in the UK - networking essay

Networking is about interacting with the right people and using the connections created for mutual gains and for the good of the community at large.

The development of my professional networking skills started from my experiences as a student leader. I was elected as the Organising Secretary for the xxx Students Association. During this period, I organized sports events, field trips for students and educational seminars and talks whereby I would invite seasoned actuaries as keynote speakers. To achieve this, I was an active participant at the national level XXX Society of Kenya (TASK) where I was able to interact with actuaries and key people from the corporate world. During my tenure, I organized an end of year actuarial dinner that brought together the highest number of students that had ever been achieved by my predecessors. This had required me to raise funds to facilitate the event. Using my networks, I contacted actuaries from several organisations, notably Commercial Bank of Africa and East Africa Re-insurance to negotiate for funding to facilitate the event. In turn, I offered the sponsors advertising space in the annual actuarial magazine. I was able to raise more than the event's budget. The dinner served as a networking event between students and the corporate fraternity whereby students secured internship opportunities. A number of students were able to secure permanent positions in the companies after graduation. To this day, through regular engagements, I still use these networks to develop my career through exchanging information, especially since my job involves sourcing for confidential data from financial institutions.

I am a mentor of the XXXX, a Clinton Global foundation that focuses on mentoring girls through intensive workshops in life skills, financial literacy, reproductive health among others. We hold regular networking events to deliberate on the best courses of action to ensure the girls have a good experience. I recently facilitated a workshop on reproductive health among the girls at Starehe Girls Center. It is from this workshop that I was then able to relay the needs of the students to the other mentors, a result of which led to more regular informative engagements with the girls at the school on their reproductive health. Additionally, we have come together to contribute to enable girls from marginalized communities to attend a 7-month '21st Century Skills Program' in efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM). His program provides them with commercial skills and opportunities for college scholarships. The ripple effect of this is that people from the places they hail from then see the importance of education and gradually do away with FGM. Recent data shows that 92% of families in West Pokot now believe that FGM should be abolished.

An opportunity to study in the UK will help me grow my professional networks across boundaries. I intend to promote the Chevening program among the students at XXX to onboard future scholars. My current networks with influential people in the financial sector will be beneficial to alumni.

Scholarship / Leadership as an avenue to inspire and mentor others [3]

My leadership opportunities

Hi please critic:

As a leader, one should be able to inspire others to do more and even mentor them to surpass their own achievements.

While I was still in my first year at xxx Kenya(big 4) I was appointed a team leader for a consultancy engagement that involved execution of enterprise risk management for an insurance company. As a consultancy that recruited in cohorts, it was rare that an associate in their first year got to lead engagements. The norm was that senior associates led. Being the youngest in the team of four, I encountered opposition from my mates who assumed I did not have adequate experience and the capacity to lead. I contacted the head of risk at the client company to build rapport and request her to brief the staff on the exercise to ensure staff cooperation when we got there. On the first project kick off meeting, the team were impressed by how I already knew key people. At the end of the engagement, we held a training and feedback session in which it was evident many had a good experience with us, the consultants. It was this experience that developed my liking for risk engagements. When the new cohort of consultants were recruited during my second year, I was assigned three new associates and through my influence, they developed a particular liking for enterprise risk management and even went further ahead to take up ERM certification training. At the end of their first year, during performance reviews, they were rated highly effective and continue to be among the best risk consultants even after I left the company.

I was recently appointed the chief point of contact for the implementation of the new business plan and three year strategy at XXX (current company). Working with the different teams involved to drive the project forward has developed my leadership skills further. The project involved engaging business leaders within the company as well as external stakeholders such as intermediaries, banks and the regulator. It was not easy getting especially the external stakeholders to collaborate with the consultants we had engaged to drive the project. Given that we had a month to deliver, I sent communication to ensure that all the parties involved understood the importance of the project. Managing people of different personalities and backgrounds who were not mandated by their job descriptions to cooperate with my project was a difficult task. However, by speaking to the heads of the companies and aligning them on the importance of the exercise to UAP and in turn to the customers, they were able to offer total cooperation. The project and business plan was ready in time and all stakeholders bought in and were excited for its implementation. This led to improved staff morale and customer experience. Revenues for the period improved by 20% as compared to the previous year.

My leadership opportunities have given me a chance to own projects, execute them efficiently by bringing together different parties involved and leave a mark.

Scholarship / My Post Career Plan when I come back to my Country - Kenya [4]

Hi all. Please review my post career plan essay. I am applying for MSc Business Analytics for Chevening

career as a business analyst

My work experience working as a business analyst piqued my interest in analytics. I work with vast amounts of data to create solutions to a wide range of issues, and I would like to build a successful career in this field. I believe this master's programme will help me build a stronger foundation for this while the fast growth of Kenya's technological sector will allow me an excellent path achieve my career plan.

One of the UK's top priorities in Kenya is to improve the investment climate, market development, trade and access to finance. Recently, during her visit to Kenya, the British prime minister announced innovation partnerships between the UK and Kenya to be established to enable UK entrepreneurs to collaborate with the Kenyan counterparts at the cutting edge of technology. As a Kenyan citizen, I am committed to being part of this partnership. The plans to drive the UK priorities in Kenya will involve bringing together the best of British talent to offer tailored support to businesses and entrepreneurs across all industries. In Kenya, as much as there has been production of huge amounts of data, there is limited talent to analyse it and form insights to drive economic development, hence the over reliance on expatriates. My return back home will undeniably add to the pool of analysts in the country.

After graduation, I will apply for a senior analyst position at a consultancy firm such as McKinsey. I will use skills developed from my masters to provide data-driven insights which will help direct new investment to the right projects.

I will leverage on big data to connect global investors and drive investment to Kenya. From collecting and analyzing large groups of data, I will provide transparency to UK companies on the industries in which they should invest and give them confidence to do business in the Kenyan market hence jumpstarting the economic development process. After two years, i would like to work at the Commonwealth Development Corporation where i will continue to use data to drive investment decisions to profitable yet development oriented sectors, as well as recommend solutions to grow and turn around failing businesses.

Additionally, I will work actively with the Global Give Back Circle, in which I am a mentor, to promote technical courses, which are still thought to be a reserve of male students, more so technology and data analytics among the girls. Through the Chevening networks I form I will be able to start an arm to support this.

A career as a business analyst will develop my authority as a leading influencer and contributor in this field.

In the long term, I would like to get involved in policy making either on advisory capacity or as an analyst in the government. From my years of experience, I will have the ability provide leaders with facts on current drivers as opposed to past performance insights, which will elevate public policy making.