Scholarship / My motivation, passion and values as a person. [3]

Okay guys, please take a look at my last essay among the series of essays for my MCF scholarship application. I will appreciate constructive criticism as to how to improve upon this draft. Thanks in anticipation.

Q1: We want to hear what motivates you and what you are passionate about. Please write about a topic that is important to you, and reflects who you are/your values.

it is something that matters to me

Plagued by ineffective leadership from Libya to Niger, Sudan to Zimbabwe, and Liberia to Kenya, little wonder Africa is still being regarded a developing continent. Worried at the rising spate of uninspiring leadership particularly in the African continent, I have chosen to dwell on: The making of an effective leader.

In Nigeria for instance, we find ill equipped individuals occupying positions of leadership. From government to corporate organizations, to religious houses and civil society groups, effects of poor leadership is glaringly obvious; civil unrest, unsatisfied/unmotivated employees, religious factional groups to mention a few. If this persist, Africa may lose out on realizing its true potentials and her youths won't feel challenged to channel their creative energies towards making positive lasting impacts.

Propelled by my desire to enthrone effective leadership within my sphere of influence and fueled by my insatiable quest for knowledge, I recently completed the YALI Network online course on Servant Leadership to have a grasp of what it entails to be a true leader. Being the Financial Secretary of my church's youth association avails me the opportunity to practice the principle of honesty, prudence and accountability; these are values that I hold dear as an individual.

I believe these baby steps of mine will have a ripple effect on those whom I currently lead and inspire them to aspire to become true leaders themselves as Africa and Nigeria in particular is in dire need of such individuals.

Scholarship / Continuous development and networking with MasterCard Foundation Scholars [3]

Please I need help with checking to see if I have answered the prompts, if there are any grammatical mistakes and if there are any lines that does tally with whats being asked. I am constrained to 250 words for each essay. Thanks for your help.

Q: We want Mastercard scholars to continue to learn and develop as individuals at the University of Edinburgh. How would this learning experience be transformative for you?

networking challenges

Answer:
As I strive to influence society, I find it challenging building effective relationships, expressing myself more articulately and managing people effectively. These are areas I hope to experience remarkable changes when offered this scholarship.

My expectations as a potential scholar regarding the learning experience are therefore high. I envisage that this would be an effective opportunity for me to develop and acquire valuable skills needed to drive development on my return home. I am especially keen on these areas; effective communication, professional networking, developing an open mind-set approach and challenging my leadership delivery abilities.

Participating in volunteering activities and work-based placements would be very apt in strengthening my communication skills. My proactive engagement with people of diverse backgrounds within these context is sure to provide feedbacks to help identify areas I would need to work more on.

Discussing issues amongst a rich blend of intellectuals from across Africa and the world; bothering on Africa and world development challenges, is sure to help in shaping a broader open mind-set and improve my team building skills.

Attending leadership retreats would be an avenue I'd leverage to practice my presentation skills by making presentations on topical issues affecting my home country. This skill would be highly needed when I engage with my community through the African Energy Advocacy Initiative.

To cap it all, achieving the prestigious Edinburgh Award in Transformative Leadership to prove my competency, would be the high point of my journey through Edinburgh. I greatly look forward to this.

Scholarship / Past Educational Challenge and Career related Degree Choice essays for MasterCard Scholarship [4]

MasterCard Foundation scholarship application

These are essay questions and answers in respect to the MasterCard Foundation scholarship application. I am working within a 250 word limit. Please help me review to see if I have addressed the issues posed by the prompts.

Q3. We want to ensure that the Mastercard scholarship is awarded to individuals who will benefit most. Tell us what challenges you have faced in your education and how you have sought to overcome them?

Answer:

After completing secondary education in 2008, I couldn't proceed immediately to higher institution due to paucity of financial resources. I had lost my dad in 1993 at a tender age, since then, I have been raised by an Uncle as my mum hadn't enough financial means to support me. At the point leading up to 2008, my Uncle's three other children had to attend university as well. Fending for all four of us become a huge financial burden for him, I had to sacrifice my ambition of attending university as I waited an extra year so his kids could proceed to instead.

Determined, I eventually gained entry into the University in 2010 to study Mechanical Engineering, after reaching out to a friend of my late dad for financial assistance. At the end of my first year of studies, I performed excellently well, this motivated me to apply for the Agbami Medical and Engineering Professionals Scholarship (AMEPS) which I succeeded in being awarded during the beginning of my second year. This scholarship was worth one hundred thousand naira (N 100,000). It aided me greatly in sorting out my financial issues.

I combined this with help I got from my benefactor in purchasing academic materials, catering for myself and bought a hearing aid for my hearing difficulty which developed at a later stage of my growing up.

I maintained this award the entire duration of my stay at University and I went on to emerge among the best in my department, achieving a 4.096/5.0 CGPA.

Q4. We want to ensure that your studies at the University of Edinburgh benefit you and your community in the future. Tell us how your choice of degree will empower you to pursue a career that addresses any issues in your country.

Answer:

Evidently, epileptic electricity supply has been a recurring decimal since her independence in 1960. The results; economic impoverishment, stagnant social and infrastructural development, poverty and unemployment. The need for Nigeria to take serious the achievement of its 40,000 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity generation target by year 2020, as contained in the Vision 20:2020 document, has become crucial. Attainment of this goal would place Nigeria amongst the top 20 elite economies in the world by then. Aggressively developing its energy mix to include renewable energy resources such as; solar, wind, hydro and bio-mas, has been identified as the surest way to go about this.

The government has employed various strategies in a bid to arrest the situation, the most recent being the privatization of the generation and distribution sub-sectors in 2013. The issues sabotaging growth in this sector have been attributed to; over reliance on fossil fuel (gas), dilapidated power infrastructures and unavailability of skilled human capacity.

Given my enthusiasm to contribute in solving this energy crisis, I have opted to study for an MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems at University of Edinburgh as a MasterCard Foundation Scholar. Through this level of studies, I hope to acquire the right knowledge and skill sets that would help me deploy renewable energy resources in a sustainable manner to address the energy demands especially of rural dwellers.

I look forward to leveraging the expertise garnered in formulating strategies to achieve this goal through the African Energy Advocacy Initiative on my return home.

Scholarship / Leadership Ability essay for MasterCard foundation Scholarship [3]

Q: We want to know how you demonstrate your potential for leadership and your ability to give back to your community. Tell us about any positions of leadership or responsibility you have undertaken in the last five years. Please include details of the position you held and what you did individually to make a change.

Answer:

to become an effective leader

I firmly believe Leaders are made not born. My quest to make a positive impact for change started when I took up the position of Provost Marshal of the Peer Education club during my one year compulsory service to Nigeria as a Corps member from July 2015 - April 2016. I was charged with the responsibility of maintaining orderliness at all times during gatherings. Haven received basic training on Peer Education as it concerns the Prevalence of the dreaded HIV/AIDS, I took a bold step to setup a Peer Education club at the school where I did my primary assignment. Interestingly, this club turned out to be the very first of its kind in that school at the time.

I recruited close to 20 pupils from among students, then organized weekly sessions where I educated these adolescents on the HIV/AIDS scourge including ways they can stay safe, I took them through effective communication skills, ways they can be more assertive and good personal hygiene practices. This was my way of giving back to the school community for hosting me during that period of time.

Currently, I serve as the financial secretary of my church's youth ministry called the Catholic Youth Organization of Nigeria. As an advocate of effective human capacity development, one of my key contribution here has been inviting a patron of the organization to take members (who comprise of youths within the 14 - 25 age group) through a mentoring session. The effect of this has been hugely appreciated.

I co-founded the African Energy Advocacy Initiative (AEAI) in 2016. Through this initiative, I and my team are pushing for the availability and ease of accessing cheap, reliable and sustainable alternative energy for the populace in rural areas within Nigeria. This we believe would help in attaining the UN's goal 7 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. This is the reason I want this scholarship to pursue an MSc in Sustainable Energy to be empowered with the right tools and leadership qualities to become and effective advocate.

Scholarship / Benefits to home country for application for a commonwealth shared scholarship [3]

I am at the verge of submitting an application for the above named scholarship. just to be sure of the statement I have provided, I would appreciate if the members of this forum would kindly review my piece and advice were adjustment can be made. thanks

Home Country Shared Scholarship Benefits

ANSWER

I have had to put off writing this statement a number of times, no thanks to the erratic power supply situation currently plaguing Nigeria. The generation and supply of adequate electricity to an estimated 170 million people, has been an effort in futility by successive governments for many years. Consequently, this has drastically hindered socio-economic development leading to an increased rate of unemployment among the teeming youths. Constant reliance on power generating sets (popularly called generators) which uses fossil fuel, to generate this much needed electricity has resulted in adverse environmental nuisance such as noise and air pollution, thus escalating the effects of global warming.

This lack of stable electricity power supply is the biggest problem in Nigeria needing urgent attention if Nigeria hopes to achieve its vision 20-2020. Therefore, one of the ways I feel Nigeria can solve this energy problems is by exhibiting aggressive interest in developing its energy mix to include renewable energy, particularly; solar energy technology and also to develop its manpower capacity in this area.

This is the reason I am applying to be awarded a COMMONWEALTH SHARED SCHOLARSHIP to pursue a master's degree in XXXXXXXX university and adapt the knowledge in developing this sector.

The Nigerian government faces a lot of pressures among which are; creating jobs for the unemployed, providing stable electricity, formulating policies to enhance investments and economic growth in addition to its primary role of safe guarding lives and properties of citizens, these have made it increasingly difficult to focus on developing the renewable energy sector. Hence, this scholarship will afford me the opportunity of being trained to act as a development catalyst in this sector by contributing acquired skills.

At conclusion of this course, I hope to have gained enough exposure and acquired the skills set needed to optimally harness the vast potentials of renewable energy resources in Nigeria. This program will also increase my understanding of the generation and provision of solar electricity.

The skills and knowledge I shall gather will make it possible to enhance my professionalism on energy matters and establish myself as an entrepreneur, specializing in the provision of solar generated electricity particularly to rural dwellers, making electricity more accessible rurally (a goal the Department for International Development (DFID) seeks to achieve by 2030). The benefits of this will be an improved standard of living and a fast-track in achieving the Energy Africa Campaign of DFID.

The CSC can keep track of my involvements by maintaining close contact via email even after the award period. On my part, I shall willingly provide accurate information that will aid in gauging the impact I am making towards development. Furthermore, in the occasion that I am employed, the CSC is at liberty to seek information from my employer regarding my contributions in that sector.

I strongly hope to be awarded this scholarship to actualize my dream of enhancing myself professionally and contributing to a better developed Nigeria and Africa at large.

Objectives during the award;

Some specific objectives which I hope to achieve during the award period are;
-To develop proficient technical and managerial skills set in solar power generation with which to function effectively in the specific sector of my interest back in Nigeria so as to enhance its development.

- To consolidate on my leadership skills and potentials so I can effectively take up key leadership and responsibility positions to influence better decisions/policy making in energy related matters with the goal of encouraging more investments in this sector.

- To develop an international network of professionals to keep in touch with during the course of my life and career advancement prospect.

Career plans in 5 years following the award
In the five (5) years following the conclusion of this award, I shall strive utilize the skills, knowledge and experiences gained from this qualification as a young professional engineer to proffer solutions to Nigeria's power/energy problems, by harnessing the vast potentials of renewable energy resources. Because of the passion I have to see Nigeria enjoy stable electricity, this plan would be of immense and immediate benefit to her in ensuring better economic and living standard. Within this period also, I will strive to build increased proficiency and professionalism in my chosen field of endeavor.

Long term career plans
After years of practicing and gaining professional expertise, I hope to venture into entrepreneurship by establishing an Energy Solutions company with particular focus on solar renewable energy technology provision and installation. Additionally, I hope to engage in the training of young and aspiring individuals to serve as a transfer medium to enable them acquire such skills, thereby empowering them in the process. This would be my way of giving back to the society and ensuring sustainability of development in this area.