Chevening - Leadership essay - what have I achieved as a leader

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.

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestion as it will help me enhance my essay and rephrase it.

Leadership is a word most people misunderstand, and I was not different from anyone in Egypt until I travelled to Tunisia for 10 days in October 2009 as a part of a cultural exchange program, I was lucky to meet High Political figures who inspired me as they did for others. It was the first time to recognise the difference between influencing and domineering others.

In 2010, I wanted to join the so-called Youth Parliament program; Firstly, the program was deactivated in the Club as there weren't enough individuals to initiate it, so, after I succeeded to motivate and persuade the program's supervisor of reactivating it, I started to build the team when I communicated with different people in different activities like actors in the theatre, artists, some athletics from sports, and some friends of mine from different clubs, nevertheless, more than 10 people signed up to participate with me, after that, I elected as the president by which I planned, organized and led different discussion sessions, also, I represented the committee on different meetings with the club officials and other activated program in different clubs.

In the beginning, there wasn't an established way of doing things, and there were a lot of internal problems: disagreement between the team members who vary in the background; there wasn't an appropriate place for the team and no funding at all from the club. in addition to, it was challenging for me because of the diversity of the team personalities: from egocentric athletics to introverted artists, however, I was able to aid, support, and led them all to overcome obstacles and to achieve our goals. I believe that an influencer, problem-solver, and more, is a leader for sure. So, I launched a donation-based fundraising campaign; I successfully negotiated with the club officials to have a spacious permanent place, and I managed to attract attention and doubled the team members.

In 2017, I have been chosen to volunteer as an online Course mentor for Coursera is one of the Graduate-level Engineering course offered by Minnesota University, tilted "xxx", by which I supported many students from all over the world on the discussion Forum to understand the course materials by answering their questions and demonstrating scientific concepts. Also; I managed and organized the discussion forum using moderators' tools according to the Coursera Code of Conduct.

During the pandemic of COVID-19, I took the initiative to report and communicate with Coursera's help centre and other mentors to fix some technical issues that face learners whom I followed up. There were some impolite, nasty learners and I was decisive with them by deleting their posts and informing them to not to do so. Also, I guided, influenced learners to achieve their goals, for example, one of the learners was an 18-years-old Chinese guy who wants to pursue engineering and thought that this course might help, however, it was not, I guided him to the suitable track to achieve his profession prospect.

The essay does show influencing abilities. However, being elected president by default us not leadership. This poses a problem when you claim to be both an influencer and a leader. You have glossed over too many situations that could have proven an academic leadership foundation. Sadly, your leadership and influencing skills seem to not have progressed beyond that aspect. If you wish to show your leadership development then do it from 3 aspects. Academic, social, and professional. This essay isn't a representation of those 3 aspects that could have probably proven your development as a leader and influencer. You still have time to revise the essay. Try to show true leadership and influencing moments in your life. Focus heavily on the professional aspect if possible.