Scholarship / Leadership is not a gift at birth, leaders are created by hard work, dedication and experience [5]

Chevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries.

Leadership is not a gift acquired at birth; I believe that leaders are built through hard work, dedication and experience. Hence, my first leadership experience came from being a team leader in college in many projects through the last three years at college. I was chosen by the team members to work as the team coordinator. So, I had to take the responsibility of managing a team of 8 to 10 members, distributing tasks among the members and schedule the design process of the project. I have always received a very good feedback about my work, efficiency and responsibility.

During my study years at college, I participated in several activities and workshops. I had the chance to participate in an international architectural workshop in Port Said which was cooperation between Cairo University, Alexandria University and Brandenburg University of Technology. During which I was learning my second leadership lesson through leading a group of 10 participants from Alexandria, Cairo, Port Said and Germany. It was a great challenge and an inspiration to lead a group of different cultures. At the end, our proposal got very pleasant reviews and that was a great achievement.

After graduating, I worked as a Teacher Assistant at the Faculty of Fine Arts. I found it another way to motivate young people and deliver my experience to them. It was a pleasure to feel that I am returning back some of what I have learned from college to the upcoming generations.

Through my two years of professional work experience, I was able to proof my leadership skills. I started as a Junior Architect but recently, I was promoted as the Team Leader of the design team that is consisted of 4 Architects. I consider this as a new challenge and I work so hard to influence the team and choose the right one to do the job in order to deliver the tasks on time.

In addition, I have been more eager to participate in different activities related to the development of the community, as I am convinced that every person has an effective role in the community. That was my motivation when I used to travel every day from Alexandria to Cairo, to participate in Ezbet Project workshop. This project that aims to impact the local individuals intellectually and economically along impacting the whole Ezbet's built environment and infrastructure as well. In this workshop, I learned both how to lead and follow. Where, I took part in helping the local people building awareness and understanding their community priorities.

I feel that I have not satisfied my urge to learn, especially when there is so much still to learn. I have yet to fulfill and enrich my experiences and return with lots of strategies and ideas to improve my country.