Scholarship / Every Human being is a leader in his own right. Chevening Leadership & Influence Question. [NEW]

Chevening Leadership & Influence Question: My Answer is TOO LONG, & I can't short it ?!

Every Human being is a leader in his own right. Whether he leads just himself, or his family, or his group of friends, or a team of people, or an entire company... we are all leaders in one way or another. Whatever the extent of our circle of influence is at the moment, the waves of influence of this circle will propagate through time and experiences. I have been in positions of leadership since early times in my life, during my childhood since I am the eldest brother; I had to take care of all my brothers, through my study at university and eventually in my work both at university and field.

Through my life I have learned the huge difference between a leader and a manager or a boss, some lessons I have learned by the hard way , through trial and error and consequently by the humility that esteemed from overcoming those mistakes. Other lessons I learned through observing those I do believe to be great leaders whose dreams have given the civilization all it has of value and whose examples I seek to follow. Through it all I found the true leader that I do believe lie within myself.

A leader fulfill his goals by putting his plans into actions with these traits: vision, persistence and dedication. First, vision is a trait that every leader should possess, in order to persuade all the people in his periphery with his dreams and he must take on himself the responsibility of initiative and to be ahead in lines to guide because he can see widely not because he wants to. Since the second year of my study the geology course then the drilling course drew my attention. I found myself in my final year picking a graduation project specialized in drilling engineering stated as Casing Drilling Technology, since it was a new, complicated and quiet uncommon technology, I strove to convince my colleagues to join me in this project, the challenges were that the disability to download scientific papers from the internet due to the sanctions on Sudan, difficulty to acquire actual drilling data from companies, engineering design challenges moreover the challenge of convincing the interview committee to accept the project. I suggested to connect with one of our seniors who was doing his postgraduate studies abroad to download the papers, introducing ourselves to one of the oil and gas companies with a formal letter in order to acquire the drilling data and sheet costs, my main part of the project was the engineering design considerations; in which I deliberate all the engineering aspects related to the new technology in contrary to the conventional method of drilling. My perseverance to pick this project and to culminate it to its full potential despite the hardships led to beyond earning the highest degree among the other projects and watching with prideful glee as the project discussion went smoothly, my expectations and goals as a future leader were also evolved consistently during the project process.

Directly after my graduation, I worked as a part time teaching assistant in the petroleum and natural gas engineering department, In spite of I was working on my national service period with a company, I felt that I had a debt towards my university, my faculty, my department and the students of the department of petroleum engineering; so I was working in the field and office of the company and in the same time I worked at the university to give the students the link between the professional life, practical industry and the academic courses. I was surprised by the interest of these undergraduates and students in their future industry, they were keep asking me about the nature of the work and what does it mean to be a site engineer and I was keep answering that it means to be in a multinational environment where you influence and get influenced by the diversity of people you meet.

During my national service period, which I consider the most effective period in my carrier so far, I worked for almost fifty days as a site engineer, it takes both hard work and dedication to enroll in such harsh environment in which you have to keep on good relations with client representative and third party contractors and to satisfy their requirements in both the quality and the quantity of work done every hour, in the same time you have to navigate good manners and integrity with your workers and teammates (I was responsible for a team of 7 people) to ensure the continuity of work, for example we had a very viscous oil in some well and we needed rubbers to wipe the oil from the pipes, the problem was we had a 3.5 inches rubbers while the pipes were 4.5 inches, so we were working against time and the client representative was asking for the rubbers by any means, we are about to stop working and he was about to give us a down time (zero rate), when I decided to modify the available rubber using a cutter to be reconciled with the pipes, during the surprise of all of us it worked well and due to this and the good work of all the rig crew during the month, we were awarded the prize of rig of the month with a financial award and a motivational certificate.

To sum up, future leaders are the people who truly know themselves and what they stand for. They know their values and the rules they abide by, regardless of the hardships they encounter. As a future leader I should allow people around me to shine, and as well as I let my own light shine, I unconsciously let others shine. Integrity is the very core of my influence, that which gives me credibility and allow others to place their trust in me.

Scholarship / "Happiness is only true when shared with others" Chevening Networking Question [19]

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will ...

Please Review my essay?!

"Happiness is only true when shared with others", this quote is applicable for all life aspects. In touched by the death of my best friend, with leukemia, I started searching of what I can do for the people suffering from this chronic disease.

On the Engineering week of University Of Khartoum, I was working as a main organizer of petroleum engineering department fairs, liaising with all departments, coordinating with all presenters, checking fairs content, elaborating improvements and preparing meetings between petroleum and other engineering departments to conceive mutual fairs containing various applications in the oil and gas industry.

On my second year at university, I was introduced to a philanthropic organization called Sharei AL-Hawadith (Accidents Street) by a friend, this organization was collecting donations for cancer patients, immediately I became an ardent disciple to its activities.

Fuelled with emotions, I decided to deliberate a special type of fair with a philanthropic side. I contacted the organization asking them to present themselves at the university during the week to get renowned through a fair. Many people had been introduced to the organization through the fair, many new members joined the organization and huge amount of donations had been introduced to them.

On my fifth year at university, I was a member of the organizing committee of the first Carrier Fair in the Engineering Faculty at the University of Khartoum. Introducing renowned industry companies to the academic life and students, linking and enhancing coordination for the research and job vacancies.

Directly after my graduation I was working as both a part time teaching assistant at University Of Khartoum and an operations engineer during my national service period; to be the direct link between academics, professional life and to introduce students to the oil industry in Sudan. The field work was organized in a hierarchy of ranks, which were multiplied as time went. Instantly, I decided to engage in a critical collaboration instead of giving and receiving orders.

All the work culminated efficiently in running association with the industry; some of my students had the opportunity to do a training in the company; benefiting extensively from the multiple partnerships that I had established during my work at the company. I am also an Elected Young Professional member by the Executive Committee of Society of Sudanese Petroleum Engineers (SSPE).

In hindsight, this experience inspired me to establish my own network in SSPE even though its steep learning curve seemed daunting at first. No different from any other social network, I learned to make, establish, and maintain relations through both social skills and desire to learn. Later, I expanded my network beyond SSPE and, thus, We established the first SPE office in the University linking it to both local and global industry.

There is ambiguity to find any information about scholarship opportunities like Chevening program in Sudan; mainly because of the bad network system. Students do not know how to apply for such programs. By being a Chevener I will work on making an Alumni to gather students from all around Sudan and introduce them to Chevener Scholarship, its prospective and to meet a special share of this challenge.

I conclude by a previous Chevener quote: "Being a scholar for a year and a Chevener for life is such an immense privilege! It changes the way you see both, yourself and the world. It not only makes you realize your potential but also helps you unleash it, and then goes a step further to connect you with a prestigious network of world leaders. With Chevening, the learning never stops."

Scholarship / Being able to collaborate effectively with the development of Sudan and the world. Chevening UK [5]

Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future.

My goal is acquiring strong technical knowledge and substantial networking to be able to collaborate effectively with the development of Sudan and the world.

After earning a first degree honours in petroleum engineering, working as a part time teaching assistant at the university and being a former drilling operations engineer combined with the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, reducing Sudan oil revenue by 75%, I became ardent to the renewable energy resources, having a firm belief in the necessity to keep the industry moving forward and to recognize that an investment towards the environment is equally important and essential to improve the quality of life and achieve a future welfare for both the environment and us. Given the aforementioned, I have selected three courses that have similar continuity of work and will give me the knowledge, understanding, and practical insight required to advance in my career as an engineer.

Firstly, the Renewable Energy Engineering program, this is the only master program in Renewable Energy in the UK that offers laboratory learning on many renewable technologies, this will help me to gain the necessary knowledge, skills and experience. Secondly, location at the heart of Aberdeen, Europe's energy capital, and leading "World Energy City", brings you closer to the industry. Finally, I am ardent to this program because of its international environment. Sudan is prosperous with solar energy, the great Nile (hydro-power) and wind power. A perfect methodology to solve energy crisis of Sudan would require various sustainable technologies to be strongly complementary. But sadly the knowledge to develop is limited by energy efficiency, supportive policies and regulations, market structure, consumer awareness & interest, these are areas to be worked on before renewable energy can become mainstream.

Secondly, the Safety and Reliability Engineering program, given the increasing complexity in the world and the required high technology to serve society's needs there is a dire need for advances in reliability engineering. Two noteworthy incidents intrigued my attention to this program during my oil field work, the tremendous amount of oil spill to the environment and the millions of cubic feet of gas vented to the atmosphere, prompted my decision in favor of high risk solutions and new safety standards which must be enforced. The safety and reliability engineering program will provide me with the means of creating high integrity engineering systems in many industries.

Finally, , the Safety and Reliability Engineering Oil and Gas program, is very relevant to the second program but in addition to safety, reliability, quality and risk statistics and management, there is a course for Offshore Oil and Gas Production Systems to have a full insight in the system and its possible risks.

I do believe that studying at University of Aberdeen any of my selected courses will complement my professional background and help me fulfil my desire to contribute to confront the energy and environmental problems existing in my region.

Scholarship / Renewable Energy is not only to fight climate change but also to create more jobs - Chevening career [4]

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.

APPRECIATE ANY HELP, ESPECIALLY ON WHAT TO CUT!

At university, I was rather intrigued by the theory of resource curse due to its conflicting portrayal - either a gentrified blessing or a desolate curse - which eventually led me to work in oil field, one of the most established energy industries. I have worked in the oil industry for two years, having the belief that oil industry would secure *****'s ambitious development goals, but conflicts, wars and environmental issues raised to the surface.

I plan to ensure that *****'s other resources wouldn't go in vain, by understanding how energy policy can encourage energy access, infrastructure development, and financing in *****. My immediate plans are to focus my career on creative and pragmatic energy policies and legal practices which foster efficient markets for energy without sacrificing the environment and hone my awareness of the global energy system and how energy policies and laws can encourage or thwart innovation and financing. This mainly will be through working with DAL Group as a project engineer, which is the country's largest conglomerate, that operates across multiple sectors, including agriculture, engineering, real estate, medical services, education and automotive. I do believe that through the master's degree I will be able to convince them to invest in renewable energy resources, by focusing on themes such as innovation and technology that provide scalable, secure, and environmentally sustainable energy; policymaking such as government accountability to its citizens, evaluating the environmental sustainability of policies and international legal framework; and financial management such as using the energy sector to grow African economies, ethical stewardship of public funds, and engagement of private sector for infrastructure investment. Moreover, this position will allow me to broaden my network with many influential people, including business owners and government officials. After two years, I aspire to grow with the company and move into a lead position where I can lead renewable energy portfolio projects as well as lead and coach teammates.

In five years, I plan to establish my own company, equipped with the strong network that I will acquire through my studies in UK and my professional experience, Building a strong team spirit and an organization that shares my desire, commitment, values and beliefs. I will seek funding using the Chevening network, especially from organizations such as the Africa-EU Renewable Energy Cooperation Program (RECP) which is a multi-donor program that supports the development of markets for renewable energy in Africa. Since Africa is the sunniest continent on Earth, I intend to focus the scope of work on solar resources,. A recent study indicates that a solar generating facility covering just 0.3% of the area comprising North Africa could supply all of the energy required by the European Union .

In seven years, my company will be the leading company in renewable energy in *****. I don't only want to foster my country's energy, I am also eyeing opportunities overseas; I should use the knowledge I will acquire of operating in a challenging environment to develop businesses in countries similar to mine.

In ten years, I will embed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the company's way of doing business. I do believe it's a way of creating uniqueness, and there's a good feeling when you create a business with ethical values. One example will be to provide power on a smaller scale and to use this energy to help with day-to-day needs such as small-scale electrification, water pumping and water purification in rural areas.

To conclude, Renewable Energy is not only to fight climate change but also to create more jobs, prevent wars and underdevelopment and help the peace prevalence in ***** with its self and with its neighbors, by satisfying the need and aspirations of its people which is one of the main UK priorities in *****.