Letters /
ERASMUS MUNDUS Scholarship - great honour, great responsibility and an obligation to work hard [11]
@Holt
Mary, thanks for the wishes. I have thought quite a lot about how I can introduce my familiarity with the European culture, most ideas that I am getting are related to my interests in European literature, history, sports, etc., however I don't see how I can project these on my aspirations in Industrial Engineering or my scholarship application. I tried to combine the "culture part" with the "international mobility", and took them out into a separate paragraph, seems that it settled in just fine into the overall essay. Looking forward to your comments.
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I am writing to apply for the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship for the International Masters in Industrial Management program. I graduated from Kazakh British Technical University in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from which I received a BSc degree in Petroleum Engineering in 2010. This program covered both upstream and downstream operations of the oil and gas industry with more emphasis on the upstream sector, such as drilling, oil extraction, etc. Nevertheless, throughout the studying process I found myself more interested in the downstream operations, i.e. processing of the oil and gas, and was even considering to continue my education in this field immediately after graduation. However, being offered employment by a leading service provider to the oil and gas production and processing industry, I decided to postpone it. And now I am glad that I chose to join Bechtel's graduate program because its flexibility brings great advantages with it.
Throughout my six years in the company I had a chance to try myself in different departments and roles, both in Construction and Head Office. This gave me very comprehensive understanding of the overall EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) projects execution. However over the last year I started feeling that additional education is required in order to sharpen my management skills and broaden my knowledge base in this area. Even after securing the PMP certification from the Project Management Institute I still felt that postgraduate education would serve as an invaluable addition to my professional experience, and together they would form a very strong foundation for a successful career. After coming across the IMIM program and going through its curriculum I realised that it ideally suits my requirements, and also my engineering education and substantial industry experience make me a perfect candidate for this program.
Besides, I perceive studying in Europe as an extraordinary opportunity to interact with students and scholars from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds coming from all around the world. After visiting Europe for couple of times as a tourist I have long nurtured the idea of living there for an extended period that will allow deeper immersion into European culture. The IMIM program provides a flawless opportunity for that, especially because it is conducted in three different European countries. This type of networking is very important for integration of different ideas and perspectives pertaining to diverse issues our industry faces worldwide. Moreover, I will get to know various challenges that other scholars have been through in their industries, and will have a chance to learn some novel solutions they have successfully applied to overcome them.
Certainly I will be able to apply some of these experiences once I come back to my country, whose economy is now going through difficult times. After the oil price downturn of 2014 and overall slump in commodities prices our economy faces big challenges. In response to this and in order to reduce the dependency on extractive sectors the government initiated a new development strategy, Kazakhstan-2050, with focus on innovation and processing sectors. In addition to that, next year our country is hosting the EXPO-2017 International Exhibition, bringing lots of foreign investors to our country which will potentially trigger many new projects. As a result our economy will soon face high demand for qualified professionals capable of leading the transformation of the economy and efficiently managing complex international projects. The Erasmus Mundus scholarship will enable me to acquire the world class education that IMIM program is providing, and adding it to my professional experience will help me to fulfil my potential and make a meaningful contribution to the development of Kazakhstan's oil and gas industry.
Knowing that the selection process is very competitive, I am sure that I will match all the credentials and will be able to maintain high standards set by the IMIM program. I want to make it clear that I would regard the scholarship award not only as a great honour but also as a great responsibility and an obligation to work hard. I will also be proud to represent and promote the Erasmus Mundus community in my country, and really hope that I will be given a chance to do so.
