Scholarship / Chevening: "Helping Others" - Leadership and Influence Capabilities [3]

Dear Comrades,
I would like to share with you my essay regarding Leadership and Influence Capabilities for Chevening Applicants.
Your comments are highly welcome.
Thank you.

I'm always keen on being supportive

From infancy, I grew up seeing my parents passionate and dedicated about helping others. This experience has molded me into someone who's always keen on being supportive to my entourage and the wider community. I always crave for the use of my time, skills and energy to help those who are in need.

It's against this background that I won trust from my classmates and was nominated to lead them in different positions. In 2008-2010 for example, I was consecutively elected class captain at university in a class of about 45 students. In 2011 I was voted an advisor to guild president of the University Students Union. Among the achievements while serving at the position is abolishing the scheduling of exams and tests on Saturdays which affected some students because of their faith.

In 2010 I led a team of four classmates in a business plan competition for mobile applications development, organized by Kigali Institute of Science and Technology in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology through its Africa Information Technology Initiative (AITI). We emerged winners with the most outstanding innovation and a prize money worth USD 2,000.

Carrying on from the gained experience, in 2011 I participated in a global Young Innovators Competition organized by the International Telecommunication Union. During the competition, which took place in Geneva-Switzerland, participants underwent a weeklong intensive training on various skills including writing and pitching business plans, leadership and communication skills, and time management. After returning, I took a mentorship role by employing the acquired skills to empower younger fellow students, mostly ladies. Among the students I mentored, some have gone on to establish companies that are now contributing to the country's development. These include M_Ahwi and Wawili which are currently operating.

After undergraduate studies, I spearheaded an idea of setting up a platform where young people with IT ideas would meet and brainstorm on their project ideas. After a lot of efforts, an open space was provided under the name of KLab, which has become a popular space for techpreneurs in Kigali to meet and collaborate.

In 2012 I cofounded a local NGO called RIDI_Girubumenyi with a mission was empowering the community with IT and entrepreneurial skills that would help transform their lives. We worked on volunteer basis as the organization had no funds to pay salaries to members. During the year I served at RIDI as its vice-president, I provided training to 80 students in schools including Samuduha Integrated College, Kicukiro district. In Southern Province RIDI initiated E_Education project at two secondary schools to improve the quality of teaching English language and practical courses mainly Chemistry using materials recorded on CDs. Here, more than 100 students participated in the project.

Currently, I head a company of five members that specializes in development of innovative web and mobile applications. I also work as volunteer at KLAB by offering coding training to young people.

Given the opportunity, Chevening scholarship will enhance my knowledge and skills, which I will use in development of my country.

Scholarship / Chevening major role in facilitating me to get adequate skills to use ICT innovation for development [3]

Dear comrades,
I would like to request for your comments on my essay about my career plan for a Chevening Scholarship

CAREER PLAN (SHORT AND LONG TERM)

Innovation management is key to industrial development and hence spurs economic development of an entire nation. For instance, according to economists, approximately 50% of U.S. annual GDP growth is attributed to increases in innovation. Rwanda as a country with limited natural resources and high population density (508 people/ Km2), must put in place innovative initiatives in order to respond to the challenges the society faces. The government has invested heavily in Information and Communication Technology as a key driver of national development. With innovation management skills in place, the country is poised to mitigate challenges resulting mainly relying on natural environmental factors that are mostly unreliable.

My short term plan after completing my studies, include completing some web and mobile application projects that I am still working on. I intend to use the knowledge and skills I will acquire to increase the quality of the products. Gained skills will equip me with enhanced critical thinking capabilities hence come up with more solutions that respond to challenges faced by my community. In the beginning, I will rely on financial support from my family and team members. However, I will also participate in competitions organized on national and international level. DFID being one of such organizations that organizes innovation competitions in countries including Rwanda, I will use the skills I acquired to come up with competitive projects that will enable me to win and get grants to fund my projects.

In long term, I plan to advance my company from an SME to a large enterprise. I will use my platform to outsource skilled personnel from Rwanda and abroad in order to strengthen and enhance the company profile. I will extend the focus of my company's solutions beyond Rwanda and explore other markets on the continent. To ensure sustainable competitiveness, I will establish an Innovation and creativity management center. The center will mainly target women and less privileged youth with unexploited potentials. The center will center embark on nurturing the culture of innovation and creativity and also to increase the quality of innovation.

The center will be responsible for identifying people with innovative ideas, bring them together, mentor them, and organize innovation competitions where the best ideas will be supported for all requirements for them to be implemented. The purpose of the center will be to address the issue of people who conceive ideas that can have a great impact to the society but fail to have them materialize due to financial constraints or lack of technical skills.

In nutshell, as one of the UK government mission in Rwanda is to promote job creation through promoting innovation, Chevening scholarship will play a major role in facilitating me to get adequate skills to use ICT innovation for development. This fits well into the UK mission in Rwanda which includes facilitating transformation of the country's economy from an agricultural to private sector-led growth.

Scholarship / My impact to the community in Rwanda - answering Chevening question [4]

Chevening Scholarship- Leadership and Influence Essay Question

Hi,
I'm applying for Chevening scholarship.
I'd like to share with you my draft essay on LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE question for your advice.

Thanks.
Below is my essay:

One day when I was still young, I asked my father what it requires for one to be successful in life. His response was more precise: "humility, honesty, self-belief, determination and valuing other people's abilities can help one succeed no matter where she/he is and what challenges may be".

Abiding by his advice quickly bore fruits than I ever anticipated. Despite my apparent small size, in the fifth year of primary education, I was nominated to be school prefect. The following year (1998), I was chosen to lead a debate group that represented my school in primary school debating competitions on provincial level.

In 2008 however, after joining university, it's when I truly began to discover myself and taking my potentials to higher heights. This began when I started my studies and my classmates who had just observed me for only a few weeks, unanimously decided to elect me as their class captain. I held the same position for three years.

In 2010 I was elected as an advisor to vice guild president of the University Students Union. In the same year, I led a team of four classmates in a business plan competition for mobile applications that was organized by Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, My team scooped an award and prize money for being the best competitor with the most outstanding innovation.

Building from the experience, the following year (2011), I participated in a global Young Innovators Competition which was organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). During the competition, which took place in Geneva-Switzerland, participants underwent a weeklong intensive training on areas including preparing and pitching business plans, leadership and communication skills. After coming back, I was hired by AITI to use the learned skills to empower fellow students, among them ladies. By applying some of my advices, some have managed to establish startup companies that have grown and are now contributing to the country's development.

After completing university, I joined hands with fellow colleagues that by the time were engaged in IT innovation promotion, and advocated for a platform where we could meet, network, brainstorm and share ideas. Eventually, we formed an organization called The iHills whereby students and fresh graduates with innovative ideas in IT would meet and get to know one another and pitch ideas. This later transformed into KLab that has become popular for being a meeting area for young innovators in the country. Until now I am an active member of the KLab community where I contribute in teaching young children about coding and information security.

To further impact the community, in 2012 I cofounded a local NGO called RIDI-Girubumenyi. Its mission was empowering the rural community with IT and entrepreneurial skills that would help transform their economic activities. The primary targeted categories were women cooperatives, girls in secondary schools and people with disabilities. In the year I served at RIDI as volunteer and its vice-president, we managed to provide training to women and students in schools such as Samuduha GS in Kicukiro district. In the Southern Province we initiated a project of improving the quality of teaching through use of English materials recorded on CDs.

Since 2013, I joined the National Commission for the Fight against Genocide where I serve as Network and System Administrator. Apart from managing the IT infrastructure, I have also served in other capacities where in 2015 I was appointed to be vice president of the institution's Internal Tender Committee.

In 2016, I was chosen by the ministry of Sports and Culture to work as a volunteer in the steering committee for preparations of African Nations Cup for home league players (CHAN). Here I was awarded a certificate of appreciation for the good conduct I exhibited.

As President John. F. Kennedy said in his speech; "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other" (John F. Kennedy Speeches, 1963). I believe that if given the opportunity, Chevening scholarship will boost my potentials trough learning more knowledge and skills, which I will bring back to my country particularly in development of IT industry.