Scholarship / Oil and Gas Engineering - Church GYD - Chevening Leadership & Influence [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.

As a youth event coordinator at my local church. I was tasked with organizing an outreach program for Global Youth Day. This was aimed at sharing the gospel at a village. However, after doing a comprehensive research, I recognized the youth in XXX village, a village outside of XXX, XXX faced significant challenges beyond spiritual needs. The village had more than 60 % youth dropout, resulting from either early pregnancies, health issues such as STIs, crime, and lack of exposure to vocational training programs. In response, I decided to expand the scope of the outreach program to also address critical issues affecting the youth. By this approach, I aimed to provide a holistic program that would empower the youth both spiritually and practically.

I proposed the idea to the church leadership, suggesting that we incorporate the outreach with issues affecting the youth in XXX. The church leadership fully supported the idea. To ensure an impactful outreach, I organized the speakers of the event. I personally reached out to social workers, police officers, nurses, and lecturers within my church, organizing one -on -one meeting to explain the purpose of the event. Persuaded them to avail their time for the event. All the professional agreed to participate, and I strategically ensured that each speaker's topic aligned their area of expertise. I worked closely with professionals to provide us with any pamphlets and flyers on this issues to be discussed.

During my extensive research, I also noticed that many families in XXX, were struggling to meet their basic needs. I addressed these challenges by doing a donation drive to support these families. In this, I collaborated with the Church's Development and Relief Agency(XXX) to secure material for the donation. I also worked closely with the social workers from XXX who had knowledge of the community, to help us identify the families in need. I facilitated communication between the parties to coordinate the logistics of these donations. Through teamwork, active listening, and clear communication, the donations were distributed and delivered efficiently.
I recruited the entire youth from my local church to coordinate the schedule of the day.

I took time to delegate clear tasks to each youth based on their strengths and interests. This tasks included handing out pamphlets , leading ice-breaker games, serving as MC. The youth played an important role in the success of the event, the attendees felt welcomed, engaged, and well-supported. During the outreach program, I provided a safe space for the youth to discuss their challenges and concerns. The outreach program was a huge success, with over 50 youths attending. Many attendees expressed a newfound commitment to better life choices such as seeking vocational training and medical attention.

After completing my Master's in Oil and Gas Engineering, I plan to establish vocational training programs in XXX tailored to the energy sector. Through the knowledge, leadership insights, and global network I will gain through Chevening community, I will ensure that my program aligns with industry standards and demand.

Scholarship / Chevening Essay: Professional Relationship-Building Skills [2]

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship-building skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Please explain how you build and maintain relationships in a professional capacity, using clear examples of how you currently do this, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

My team and I were tasked with designing a double storey dwelling that optimized space while ensuring structural integrity, safety, and compliance with local building codes. Initially, I reached out to the academic experts that included, Mr. Mukuua a structural engineering specialist, Professor Lashari, along with other faculty members who specialize in concrete structures and building. By collaborating closely with the academic team, I acquired the latest South Africa National Standards engineering codes. I maintained continuous communication with these academic team throughout the design phase, ensuring that our project was in full compliance with codes and standards. I sought their knowledge on specific clause of the design codes, ensuring correct interpretation and application. This collaboration ensured that our design was technically sound and compliant with regulatory requirements.

As a team leader, I established early-stage communication with the architectures to ensure alignment on the project scope. I facilitated an initial meeting to discuss the architectural drawing in depth and clarify any concerns. To maintain a collaborative environment, I organized a regular online design review sessions where the engineering team and the architects would discuss and exchange ideas and provide any update on both the structural design and architectural elements.

I started by clearly outlining the objectivities of the project, ensuring that every team member understood the project objective and how their specific role and task aligns with overall project goals. I provided each team member with the architectural drawings and the relevant building codes, giving the ample time to review the materials. I further scheduled individual and group check in meetings to address any questions that might have rose during the review of the material. These meetings allowed us to mitigate any potential issues, ensuring both teams are aligned with the project elements.

Since modern designs increasingly focus on sustainability, I encouraged my engineering team to consider sustainable practices into our design. As a result, my team and I held clear meetings on incorporating sustainable solutions, such as green roofing, recycled aggregates, recycled industrial by products like fly ash. To stay informed and educate us about the latest sustainability practices, we actively engaged with LinkedIn communities, for instance green building council community, read industry blogs, joined webinars, that included sustainable cities collective webinar and conducted research. These practices allowed us to incorporate innovative solutions into the design , that significantly reduced the project environmental impact.

To ensure smooth progress, I kept open communication channels with both my engineering team and the client, I held weekly meetings with the engineering team where they provided progress on their work, discussed challenges and proposed solutions. These meetings also provided a platform to address any disagreements between members, or client concerns regarding the project. This approach helped us to stay on track and endured team member and client are satisfied with the progress of the project and the outcomes thus far.

Since the completion of my project, I made It a priority to keep in touch with these academic experts and technical team to share updates and seek advice on my projects. Additionally, I am an active member of several LinkedIn groups and online platforms related to sustainable practices. These forums allow me to stay updated with industry experts, and build professional relationships from within my sectors and across other sectors.

In joining the Chevening community, I will actively participate in Chevening events, webinars, and seminars, where I can both learn from and share my own experiences. By engaging in these activities, I aim to contribute to the exchange of knowledge, while forging lasting connections with fellow scholars and alumni from diverse professional backgrounds