Scholarship / Career plan in diplomacy/legislator in short term and long term [2]

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.

In the short term, I plan to utilize my study in the UK to expand my career as a legislator, especially in the framework of diplomacy in international relations. I intend to return to the House of Representatives of the XXX to develop diplomatic practices and policy-making negotiations in regional, national and international levels, considering that my country is experiencing a national security decline in terms of social security. In quantity, poverty has declined in the past 5 years, but in percentage there has been a slowdown compared to the last 10 years. This trend shows that poverty alleviation and social assistance policies has not had a serious impact on the social problems that occur recently. I believe that there are many policies that can be learned from the UK, such as reducing unemployment by opening jobs, providing education and skills for children in preparation for working age, and distributing social wages for community welfare services.

In the medium term, I plan to get involved in one of the UK government projects, the Knowledge Sharing Program for Infrastructure Development. The purpose of the program is to identify what priority infrastructure projects should be built in a given period. Thanks to the success of diplomacy by bringing useful programs, this project was successfully implemented. This project greatly answers the country's needs in the infrastructure and social fields, considering that my country is currently experiencing obstacles in the forms of numerous of projects that are sometimes not relevant to development goals. Five Case Models, Project Initiation Routmap brought by the UK government is a method for identifying whether a project has priority to social issues in my country or not. This project is able to identify which development priorities will drive aggregate demand and ultimately help boost the economy to address social problems. Thanks to negotiation and diplomacy efforts, this project can be implemented in my country

In the long term the next 15 years, I targeted myself to become a Member of the House of Representatives and become a lecturer teaching Diplomacy in International Relations. Diplomacy is a very important tool in achieving national goals as it is able to develop the country and solve its problems by forming agreements and policies from diplomacy. I will also return to my community to share about what I have learned in the UK. I will emphasize that networks owned by communities can bring their individuals to achieve higher achievements. My target as a Member of the House of Representatives coupled with the experience I have gained in the field of diplomacy and policy making, is that I can apply regional, national and international cooperation to build a more prosperous nation. In addition, I also become a real example for my prospective students and my community to help them build their next future. I believe that fighting for personal dreams is precious, but fighting for many people dreams is much more precious.

Scholarship / Everyone can be a leader -- on stage, in the middle or at the back [2]

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.

attitude and character

I believe that leadership is not about position but more about attitude and character. Everyone can own the character of a leader, because it is not limited to position and power. Far beyond that, it grows deep through the harshness of someone's personal life journey. Quoting Ki Hajar Dewantara, an activist of Indonesian independence movement, leadership is "when you are on the stage you become a role model, when you are in the middle you give initiatives, and when you are behind the desk you give encouragement". Therefore, anyone can have a leadership character.

My own experience started when I became President of Student Executive Board at University. I acted as a leader who led the coordination of all student organizations at University. At that time we carried out Student Summit program, an orientation program for 5,000 new students. I formed a large committee team which combines people from various faculties. The committee had difficulty in inviting national figure as the keynote speaker, thus I led a small team to go around several regions to directly visit these figures. Most of the national figures were unable to attend our program, but I convinced my team that the efforts given will be directly proportional to the results. At the end of our diplomatic efforts with several figures, we succeeded in securing the Governor of XXX as the keynote speaker, succeeded in answering the anxiety of the committee, succeeded gaining full support from Rector of the University, and succeeded in getting the excitement of 5,000 new students for quality programs.

After I got my bachelor degree, I felt that my leadership spirits is still calling for me. During my job in the House of Representatives of the XXX, I am responsible for assisting meeting materials to the Member and connecting Member of Parliament to ministries as working partners. This is where my diplomatic and negotiating abilities are challenged. Not only do I have to identify people's aspirations regarding issue in the field, I also have to communicate with related Ministry about program's allocation to the society. I proposed to my superiors to form a structured team in field and carry out proportional division of tasks at the Regency, subdistrict, and Village levels. We coordinate them to jointly absorb people aspirations, then we negotiate with related Ministry to answer those aspirations. Thanks to my suggestion, we took to the field with the ministry to distribute aid to the people.

Based on problems in field, I provide input to the Member of Parliament to draft the concept of social assistance to the poor as outlined in the form of the Social Worker Bill which is currently being discussed. For me, existing regulations must answer the problems in the field, and I stand to give my input and ideas to the Member of Parliament as a form of affirmation that good leadership can means that you stand at the front, in the middle, or at the back.

Scholarship / Networking essay - worked at the student executive board [2]

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

my strengths and weaknesses for networking

At this stage of my life, I already know well of my strengths and weaknesses for networking and how to manage it. I excel in organizational network but I am a bit weak in other aspects. I realized that this network was gained through my long journey until recently. For me, networking is a source of wealth of information that we can discuss things with a very broad perspective. Moreover, to expand networking is a necessity to gain broader knowledge.

Organizationally, I am President of Student Executive Board and also Coordinator of Student Executive Board Alliance in the XXX Region. I was connected with all Universities in XXX with a total of 130 Universities. We often hold National Consolidations and National Working Meetings, discussing various issues through debates and negotiation between Universities. I learned how to diplomate; how to make international relations issues as one of the issues discussed at national forums. Through the National Working Meeting, I got various point of views and a wealth of information from all student representatives throughout Indonesia. For me, joining this alliance is a priceless network, because these networks are not only connected when I was a student, but also until recently at work.

Professionally, I have the opportunity to connect with high-ranking state officials as policymakers. My work at the House of Representatives of the XXX made me meet Member of Parliament and State Ministers for almost every day. With this professional network, I can get important information and conduct regulation discussions which implementation will affect all people. I was placed in Commission XXX which deals with social issues and community empowerment. Every day, we negotiate regulations in the social field and do diplomatic practices among factions in Parliament in ratifying regulations. Every important decision that was reached by Parliament and Government will be stated in regulations and will affects the entire people. I realize that the ability to negotiate and to diplomate is needed in this job, considering all political decisions which were resulted from very tough negotiations between Parliament and Government. Everyone there has ambitions and qualified experiences.

One of my excellence point is that my networks in organizations and jobs have both became an interconnected network. Many of my friends in organizations are in the same work environment as me, but in different areas. Whereas I work in central Parliament while they work in Government, Ministries, Institutions, Agencies, Central as well as Regional Organizations which all are very closely related to my current job. In fact, my network has increased a lot when I worked at this institution. It makes me easy to exchange point of views and information that will give me future benefits.

Scholarship / Study in UK - Why I choose international relations course [3]

Hi, I need help for my Chevening application essay. Thank you!

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)

Currently, I work as an Expert Staff for Members of Parliament in the House of Representatives. However, I realized that a bachelor's degree is not strong enough to provide various inputs and suggestions to the Member to use in national policy making. I believe that continuing my study will make my future steps more feasible to go into the portion of public policy making.

The concentration of my research comes from my own interests, namely diplomacy as the prevention or conflict resolution. I realize that almost all national and international policies are resulted by political decisions, and every political decision always comes from negotiation and diplomacy among the actors involved. Quoting Berthold Brecth, a German poet, the worst illiterate is the political illiterate, that the cost of living and the prices depend on political decisions. A political ignorance can cause the prostitute, the robber, and corrupt officials. Given that almost all policies were resulted by diplomacy, those who have strong diplomatic power will win political decisions.

Based on my experience of working in the field of policymakers, diplomacy between policy makers depends on resource of information, support of others, and the power of diplomacy. Many state welfare policies are lost to outside party negotiations during international, national and regional negotiations. There are not many Universities offering Diplomacy in International Relations as a major. With careful research, I found three Universities for my purpose :

1.MA in International Relations (Diplomacy) at Univeristy of Birmingham. This program is placed under School of Government and Society. University of Birmingham provides study in a supportive environment with research-active staff working on diplomacy and internationals relations. I found the curriculum that is just right for me in the program module. One of them being Diplomacy and Statecraft which is my favorite curriculum considering I am currently working in state institution.

2.MA in Diplomacy at University of Nottingham. This program is placed under School of Politics and International Relations. The curriculum offered is broader because it focus not only on statecraft, but also addresses civil and commercial diplomacy services. That caught my attention was the module on quantitative political analysis, the knowledge that is rarely taught in other Universities.

3.MA in Global Governance and Diplomacy at University of Leeds. This program is placed under School of Politics and Intenational Studies. It provides the expertise and skills required to pursue career in international organization. The course is skills-based teaching concerning the global challenges of recent time. The interesting things in this course are the students will be equipped in the skills of diplomacy field, not only theories but also practices.

In conclusion, I am very excited to immediately learn Diplomacy in International Relations in United Kingdom in any of the university above with their own strengths and weaknesses that I am ready to adapt with. I believe that this study will empower my theoretical and practical abilities in diplomacy as prevention or conflict resolution. The most important is to support my future career focusing in my country's Diplomacy.