Scholarship / One woman's path to academic empowerment: Studying in the UK Question - Scholarship Essay [6]

I'm an applicant of the Chevening Scholarship. Kindly review my response to the following question and provide feedback on whether I answered the question appropriately. Thanks in advance.

STUDYING IN THE UK QUESTION: 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. *Please do not duplicate the information you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

(Note: there is an option to select the same course at 3 different universities)

Chevening Scholarship application

My professional experiences over the last five years have been focused on designing and implementing interventions to influence developmental and social change through communication. During this period, I've worked as a Communication Specialist on two international development projects, and across eight Caribbean countries, with objectives of achieving food, water and energy security for our people. This experience has cemented for me the importance of communication in development and have shown how impactful it can be to lives and livelihoods, and the overall economic growth of our region.

For instance in Jamaica, climate change has posed a fundamental threat to the production of domestic food crops and to the livelihoods of Jamaican farmers and their families. With strategic and collective action we can lessen the impact and educate stakeholders on how to adapt. Applying development communication can assist greatly towards this end and my role on the climate change project in Jamaica involved doing just this. Here, I used various communication techniques to influence the behaviour of targeted groups, primarily farmers and youth - the downstream approach. This involved the formation of farmer-field-schools and included sharing information in a manner that influenced the farmers' agricultural methods and boosted the adoption of Climate-Smart-Agriculture.

While downstream interventions are important for development, I've learnt that effecting sustainable behaviour change often requires action from decision-makers to create the enabling environment. My current work experience in the clean energy sector has helped me to realize the significance of this. On this project I've had more opportunities to design interventions for upstream audiences. This includes the successful launch of an electric vehicle campaign to help governments and other upstream players understand their role in inducing change in the macro-environment to boost deployment in Jamaica.

For my future plans, I see myself as part of the process of sustainable development in Belize and our wider Caribbean Region. Firstly however, I must broaden my academic skill sets and develop an in-depth understanding of how communication can help to guide social and behaviour change to be able to address more upstream and downstream factors. Being able to apply various approaches will help to deliver the desired development outcomes and support our region's growth.

For these reasons, I want to pursue a postgraduate communication programme with emphasis on development, especially in the United Kingdom, given its strong development policies and aid programmes. As such, I've carefully chosen these three universities in England that offer a Master's Degree in Communication for Development that will complement my undergraduate degree in Integrated Marketing Communication. Their track record, and the expertise being offered by these institutions will not only help with exceptional career progression but will be incredibly beneficial towards strengthening my skills in this area so as to foster more meaningful dialogue and action around development issues to effect the change the Caribbean needs.

(Note: The application already has a section that requests the names of the chosen universities and courses)