Scholarship / Creating a strong global community for collective impact - Chevening Networking question [4]

Final essay submission for the Chevening scholarship. Would love to see any suggestions for improvement as the deadline gets closer. Thanks so much!

NETWORKING QUESTION

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

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

My commitment to building strong and trusting relationships goes beyond achieving professional success. It is a guiding principle for my desire to be a part of a community that truly believes in the power of collective impact. This desire has driven me to seek countless opportunities to meet, learn, debate, explore and collaborate with like-minded, dedicated, informed and passionate professionals not only from my own sector and home country (India) but also with leaders, innovators, experts and social change agents from across the globe.

Over the past 3 years I have had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of two extraordinary networks that have changed my perspective in a significant way. The ...................... and ........................ programs in the United States have been instrumental in connecting me with some of the world's most intelligent, knowledgeable, talented, humble and open-minded young leaders, all dedicating their time and emotions to making their communities better places. Through active collaboration, listening and asking thoughtful questions, I have been able to gain their trust, develop friendships and genuinely learn a lot from their interests, opinions and thought processes.

It is no coincidence then that I have been trusted to lead the alumni programming for our US based ............... alums. Over the past year, as the US Program Manager for ................, I have substantially increased alumni engagement through consistent personal contact and encouragement. By focusing on concentrated strategies, I was able to successfully design and implement chapter renewal processes for our existing chapters, spearheaded efforts to launch 3 new citywide chapters in the US, and ultimately promote long term strategic thinking among chapter leaders through stronger commitment to events geared towards expanding the ................. community (viz. promoting.......... recruitment through chapter events, collaborating with community partners for greater local impact etc)

In the future, as a Chevening scholar, I hope to leverage these skills to deepen engagement and connections between the Chevening community and my broader network of like-minded social sector professionals from across the world. By overlapping these two networks I hope to draw synergies in developing new solutions to old and systemic problems in my home country through cross pollination of ideas and best practices learned. Additionally, I hope to share opportunities for continued professional and personal development for the benefit of all alumni by tapping into timely professional development skills building sessions, career counseling and resources that maximize our impact as managers, systems thinkers and global leaders. And lastly, I would also like to promote a strong support system within the community that will help us reflect on our sense of purpose and build the resiliency needed to continue to thrive throughout our careers.

Scholarship / Uniting people around shared ideas and delivering results - Chevening leadership and influence [2]

Can you please help with any suggestions on content relevance? Really appreciate any suggestions that will help me improve this essay. Thanks!

LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE 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)

I firmly believe in the philosophy of "Servant Leadership" - a dynamic style of leadership that embodies the commitment to building strong and trusting relationships to unite people around shared ideas and deliver positive results. Being a former athlete (cricketer) and coach, I always strive to create a culture at my workplace that allows subordinates, colleagues and team members to freely express themselves as this helps build trust and makes us committed to each others success. This spirit of collaboration, ability to adapt and innovate, and the life-long commitment to learning are key leadership practices that have helped me a lot to inspire and mobilize my team and to ultimately get things done!

In my current capacity as US Program Manager for ....................... (a non-profit that runs an extremely competitive global health fellowship in the US and Africa), I have been playing a key role in supporting all our partners in Washington DC through regular check-in calls, site-visits and professional development support to our fellows placed at these organizations for a year. Managing these relationships has helped me acquire considerable skills in providing mentorship on how fellows can maximize their impact at their placement organizations while making the best out of a time-bound experience to launch their careers in global health.

In my previous position as a Program Manager for Student Athlete Development at ...................... in Washington DC, I worked extensively on strengthening partnerships with key personnel at partner universities to recruit & train Division-I college athletes for our HIV/AIDS educational programs in DC based public schools. As a direct outcome of my leadership, we were able to successfully recruit and train a record 180 volunteer athletes in a calendar year and engage them in community development activities through our various programs.

Prior to that, as a Manager for .................................. in India (a 360° sports company with interests in Sports Infrastructure, Sports Technologies, Sports Academies, Sports Advisory, Intellectual Properties & Rights Management), I was responsible for sourcing and analyzing partner needs to establish a customer-intimate business environment as well as resolve complex issues for our coaches and client schools thereby strengthening partnerships for our sports education programs. During my time here, a major leadership success for me was conceptualizing and implementing a comprehensive fitness challenge for schools focused on testing health related fitness indicators for over 3000 kids across various regions in India.

As a result of these experiences and the positive outcomes I have achieved so far I am confident that my personal values, goals and passion for leadership development are now in perfect alignment with the philosophy that I deeply believe in.

Scholarship / Starting a sports social enterprise - Post study career plan question for Chevening scholarship [4]

Hi everyone. Here's my response to another Chevening essay question. Looking forward to your feedback to accurately respond to the prompt references. Thanks so much!

CAREER PLAN QUESTION

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)

One of my immediate goals upon returning home, is to implement an 8-12 month Olympic Values based leadership education program that I intend to develop as part of my Master's degree coursework and exposure to best practices in evidence-based sports interventions. For rolling out this program I plan to initially partner a sports organization/NGO through my network. As part of the partnership, I intend to get access to young people either in schools or community sports clubs, while providing the technical resources, implementation support and training on the curriculum to youth facilitators through the ToT (Train the Trainer) model.

Once proof of concept is established, my long term goal is to amplify the impact of this program by integrating it into the work of some of best non-profits who have been working relentlessly to address youth development issues across India. I aim to do this by launching a fellowship program that connects young talent with high impact sports and youth development organizations in India. The fellowship will be based on the co-fellow model pairing a young sports coach or physical education graduate in India with a development graduate from the UK (including my alma-mater). By including local voices and integrating cross cultural collaboration into the fellowship I am sure we will be able to provide critical capacity building support to these non-profits and create sustainable change.

Since my career goals are perfectly aligned with DFID's current priorities and strategic objectives as part of its new development relationship with India, I would like to actively engage DFID and its partners to help India achieve the full potential of its demographic dividend by focussing on two major areas where I want to make an impact -

1. Improve the lives of young women and girls (through life skills and health training)
2. Create jobs and opportunities for the youth (the fellowship will provide critical employability skills training in addition to the immersive field experience)

As such, the Chevening scholarship is going to play the role of a catalyst in kickstarting my ambitions of establishing a sports social enterprise. By leveraging the knowledge and network of Chevening, I am sure I would be able to make a significant contribution in educating, inspiring and mobilizing the youth in India to overcome their biggest challenges, live healthier, more productive lives, and be agents for change in their communities.

Scholarship / University of Brighton, Edinburgh and Loughborough University - UK courses related to sport [3]

Hi, I intend to apply for the Chevening 2018-19 scholarship and I was hoping to get some feedback on my response to the essay question below. Thanks!

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.

Over the past 10 years I have made several career transitions with the sole purpose of gaining vital experience and skills necessary to set up and run a successful social enterprise that will combine my passion for sports with the experience of managing youth development programs. The final piece in this puzzle for me is to supplement my field experiences with in-depth, sector specific knowledge and training in the effective use of sports as a tool for development.Hence, I am interested in pursuing a master's degree from either of the following 3 world renowned UK institutions -

1. University of Brighton - Sport and International Development MA
This MA is a concentrated program on the use of sport as a tool for social change that is perfectly aligned with my intended educational outcomes. At Brighton, I can learn sport for development methodology, curriculum and training from internationally renowned faculty while simultaneously being able to apply theory to real world problem solving through practical experience with INGO's built into the design of this course. Of particular interest to me is the opportunity to learn and model success strategies for effectively transferring research into practice. The program offers a wonderful opportunity to study the successful implementation and scaling of projects such as the Football 4 Peace Initiative that have created significant social impact in various parts of the world.

2.University of Edinburgh - Sports Policy, Management and International Development
One of the major challenges that I have faced while working on sports based youth programs relates to a dearth of strong evidence based interventions in India.Hence my educational goal is to learn more about how to successfully incorporate some of the best practices as informed by research practitioners and backed by proven data into sports based interventions that yield tangible long term results.This programs focus on teaching informed by latest research in the intersection of sport and development coupled with the ability to access a network of researchers through the Edinburgh Sports Research Group will serve as an incubator to successfully launch a sports social enterprise which is my ultimate career aspiration.

3. Loughborough University - Sport Management Msc
Loughborough is by far one of the best universities when it comes to studying sports related subjects in the UK. This Msc in Sport Management covers a wide range of topics which will allow me to learn and apply management theory from an entrepreneurial perspective. My goal of establishing and scaling sports based development programs requires deftly engaging the government, various sporting associations and community based non-profits. The mechanisms for this interconnection are best learnt at Loughborough through the strong links it has established with some of the best practitioners in sport as well as with the various national governing bodies,regional and local sports associations and clubs in the UK.