davinnor
Oct 18, 2015
Scholarship / Leadership, Networking, Studying in UK, and Post-Career Plan - Chevening Scholarship essays [6]
Thanks bonboncase. I found your feedback to be very helpful, and reassured me to revise it entirely. Please find below my revised answer to the first question.
Leadership to me is the ability to understand and empower others to the betterment of themselves. I completed my honors degree in Psychology, launched my career in marketing research and subsequently joining Teach For Malaysia's inaugural cohort to teach in a high-need school for two years. Upon completion of my 2-year Fellowship, I joined the movement as a staff member as a fundraiser to scale up the programme and accelerate it's impact. My life experiences has taught me a great deal of leadership lessons, and while I continue to grow as a leader; I have three key achievements of being successful leader:
1. As part of the Fellowship, I was posted in a high-need school in Selangor and had the wonderful privilege of teaching Mathematics to 13-17 year olds who were mostly from low-income families. 2 of my students achieved an A grade and more than half the class passed their final national examinations after having failed for years. It took me dedication, resilience and conviction in my students' potential to work with them relentlessly. I invest them in my vision for them, and how we are going to achieve it together. I laid it out for them to witness, and get their input to include them in finalising the goals we set as a class; and ultimately creating an immense sense of possibility and trust between them and myself.
2. As a teacher in the community, I spent a lot of time analysing and understanding root causes of my students' lack of aspiration. I realised even the highest performing students lacked confidence, and there were very little role models within the community. I worked closely with all levels of stakeholders within the community, bringing successful individuals to come coach and mentor my students on a monthly basis. I worked alongside the teachers, and school admin to formalise the approach, and saw my students represent the school and themselves at state level debates and public speaking championship.
3. As a staff member, in charge of fundraising from both private and public sector; I worked even more closely with key stakeholders in charting our resources map. When I started, we were running low on funding; and had to seek greater support from the Ministry to continue supporting the movement. I took ownership of the situation, initiated meetings with high-level government officials as well as private stakeholders - and open up the discourse on how each of us can play a significant role in narrowing the achievement gap. As a result, we raised enough funds in year 2014, and successfully met organisational goal of expanding the movement with placement of 39 teachers in East Malaysia starting January 2015.
4. First part of my stories aimed at empowering students and the movement to end education inequity. Continuing my efforts, I co-founded a crowdfunding platform specifically for education, called 100% Project. It's a non-profit initiative, to raise funds for teachers and school communities to provide learning opportunities for children. I started this alongside two co-founders; and this experience further reinforces the power of investing others in ideas that serves the betterment of others.
In summary, my leadership journey is to work closely with people, investing them to be part of a vision that can be shared, and I would continuously involve them and lead them till we attain milestones of both small and big successes. I have seen my students prove possible the perceived impossible. I have witnessed the fruits of collaboration. I have shared the joy of working together with both private and public sectors coming together in harmony for a shared goal. And lastly, I continue to lead and bring out the best in others through my initiatives. Now, I'm on a mission to start a network of school to provide quality education to underserved communities at low-cost.
Thanks bonboncase. I found your feedback to be very helpful, and reassured me to revise it entirely. Please find below my revised answer to the first question.
Leadership to me is the ability to understand and empower others to the betterment of themselves. I completed my honors degree in Psychology, launched my career in marketing research and subsequently joining Teach For Malaysia's inaugural cohort to teach in a high-need school for two years. Upon completion of my 2-year Fellowship, I joined the movement as a staff member as a fundraiser to scale up the programme and accelerate it's impact. My life experiences has taught me a great deal of leadership lessons, and while I continue to grow as a leader; I have three key achievements of being successful leader:
1. As part of the Fellowship, I was posted in a high-need school in Selangor and had the wonderful privilege of teaching Mathematics to 13-17 year olds who were mostly from low-income families. 2 of my students achieved an A grade and more than half the class passed their final national examinations after having failed for years. It took me dedication, resilience and conviction in my students' potential to work with them relentlessly. I invest them in my vision for them, and how we are going to achieve it together. I laid it out for them to witness, and get their input to include them in finalising the goals we set as a class; and ultimately creating an immense sense of possibility and trust between them and myself.
2. As a teacher in the community, I spent a lot of time analysing and understanding root causes of my students' lack of aspiration. I realised even the highest performing students lacked confidence, and there were very little role models within the community. I worked closely with all levels of stakeholders within the community, bringing successful individuals to come coach and mentor my students on a monthly basis. I worked alongside the teachers, and school admin to formalise the approach, and saw my students represent the school and themselves at state level debates and public speaking championship.
3. As a staff member, in charge of fundraising from both private and public sector; I worked even more closely with key stakeholders in charting our resources map. When I started, we were running low on funding; and had to seek greater support from the Ministry to continue supporting the movement. I took ownership of the situation, initiated meetings with high-level government officials as well as private stakeholders - and open up the discourse on how each of us can play a significant role in narrowing the achievement gap. As a result, we raised enough funds in year 2014, and successfully met organisational goal of expanding the movement with placement of 39 teachers in East Malaysia starting January 2015.
4. First part of my stories aimed at empowering students and the movement to end education inequity. Continuing my efforts, I co-founded a crowdfunding platform specifically for education, called 100% Project. It's a non-profit initiative, to raise funds for teachers and school communities to provide learning opportunities for children. I started this alongside two co-founders; and this experience further reinforces the power of investing others in ideas that serves the betterment of others.
In summary, my leadership journey is to work closely with people, investing them to be part of a vision that can be shared, and I would continuously involve them and lead them till we attain milestones of both small and big successes. I have seen my students prove possible the perceived impossible. I have witnessed the fruits of collaboration. I have shared the joy of working together with both private and public sectors coming together in harmony for a shared goal. And lastly, I continue to lead and bring out the best in others through my initiatives. Now, I'm on a mission to start a network of school to provide quality education to underserved communities at low-cost.