CHEVENING Work in organization focused on kids with HIV/AIDS/ full scholarship award from an Embassy

Hey! I need to write 500 words only, but I am confused what to include and what not to. I would be really glad if you can help me with this.

leadership and networking skills

To me, leadership means being able to put myself in challenging situations in order to achieve a goal, and, at the same time, inspire and motivate those involved in the same mission as I am. Leadership is also clear understanding of one's destination, knowing where one is now, and taking the step in the right direction.

My initial exposure to leadership began right after I joined XXX club in 2008. XXX club gave me exposure and opportunity to boost my confidence and gave me insight into the great leadership and prepared me to become a determined leader. I have been heavily involved in organizing national level events as a part of XXX movement, with ZZZ event- a common platform for youth to showcase their talent, YYY challenge- an ongoing circle in XXX to introduce paper bags as an alternative for plastic bags/ reduce the use of plastic bags and AAA movie competition- an awareness raising documentary competition, being a few major ones. Through these events, I have been able to reach out to aspiring youth who had been seeking such opportunities. My leadership was recognized with "Best BBB Director" by the club and "Best Project Initiation" by the XXX for Micro Finance Project. Because of my dedication and leadership skills, I was nominated as the president of Rotaract Club of Kathamandap for the year 2015-16. At present, I am serving as the president and giving continuity to community and professional development. I have indulged myself as well as my members in activities like Breast Cancer Awareness programs, Rotary Literacy Mission, International Relation, Micro Finance project for marginalized women and Rotary International's End Polio. Throughout my XXX, I have brought vision, innovation and strategic thinking, founded projects like National Quiz competition named Rotaract Running shield, Yuva Yug, Shoot your Movie and Paper bag challenge. (Working towards attaining the sustainable development goals).

After my high school, I chose to go to India for my under graduation. Studying in an Indian university challenged me to go beyond my comfort zone, again, and has pushed me to take initiatives, to work as a team, in a diverse culture, and take a lead in extracurricular activities. Being away from home made me strong and independent. I learned to set a goal, strive for it and achieve it. My hard work was finally acknowledged when I was awarded with the best academic performance of the year 2014. I inculcated all the attributes I gained from my experience in Rotaract and my college. I returned to Nepal to continue working in rotaract and also looked for professional development.

One of my most significant leadership experiences was to coordinate a project titled "YYY" with GGGG where I successfully trained and managed a team of 10 youth participants from India and Nepal. I had the challenging job of accumulating all the resources needed such as speakers, venue, publications of handbook and I am proud to say that the project was highly successful and well appreciated by my colleague and the participants. I believe I did justice to the project with well set goals and properly assigned roles and responsibilities, evenly distributed to all the members and participants. One of the major points about leadership is making quick decisions and this I learnt through this project; prioritizing and taking complete ownership of the decisions taken. Here my leadership was shown in teamwork and not in individual performance.

At present i am working in an organization UUU. UUU is an organization that has been focusing on Children Living with HIV/AIDS. I coordinate two major projects of UUU, TTT and MMM. "MMM" which aims to disseminate truthful and positive information on the issues of social concern through mass media, social media and discussion and dialogue forums. This program was awarded by OOO for its effective media and policy advocacy and I am proud to be a part of it. This program has been very strong platform through which we not only make people aware about the contemporary socio-political issues but also create a vision of 'Knowledge Development Center'

P.S. I still need to write conclusion.

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will be engage with the chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your networking skills and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.

Networking skills is of paramount importance in the era of globalization and organizations prioritize this skill as a major requirement. I have understood the importance of networking and communication. I have always kept myself open to challenges, opportunities and networking. My outgoing personality and inquisitive mind has helped me sharpen my networking skills to the fullest. Here are few examples of how I strived to build this skill and use it for my personal and functional development.

I was awarded a merit based full scholarship from XXX Embassy to YYY student in the year 2011. The course I took up in my under graduation (Bachelor's in Arts) in Bangalore, India, required a strong networking skills as the students were assigned to do research work in sociology, attend seminars, organize seminars for the subject economics and organize inter collage competitions every year in the college. Here, as a foreign student, I always had to stay prepared and engaged in conversation with new people in the college. Later on, I wanted to go beyond my comfort zone and conduct research outside my college premises. Because of my language barrier, I also took some time to learn native language so that I could reach to people from different backgrounds. On this course, I reached out to Nongovernmental Organizations, orphanages, educational institutions. Consequently, I learned more about the culture, working patterns and way of life in Bangalore. I remained in continuous contact with the organizations and institutions for my research. Apart from this, one of the most significant examples of my networking skills was to coordinate Inter college competition of Arts. Because I had been to Bangalore before as youth exchange participant, I had idea of whom to contact for promotion, media and participation. Convincing students from other colleges to participate in the event was challenging but at the same time it was an overwhelming experience to build such network in a foreign place. The event was organized systematically and was well appreciated by all.

Another exposure to networking skills began when I joined Rotaract Club. Rotaract Club is one of the largest networking platforms, for this is where one can connect to youth and professionals from around the world. I have had wonderful and challenging opportunities to connect to rotaractors from another country and do joint projects, celebrate international festivals, participate in youth exchange program, attend international seminars, meet influential people and share cultural values. Few examples to mention here are celebrating International Youth Day through a yearly project called Yuva Yug- a common platform for youth to showcase their talent and celebrate youth hood, Celebrating International AIDS days through a yearly project Shoot your movie- a short movie competition with the theme HIV/AIDS to raise awareness. As one of the founders of this project, I build strong network with youth led organizations, professionals from different background and media personalities.

While looking up for job after my graduation, I was considered in position as Program Coordinator in GGG though I did not meet the required experience to work in this field, I was given this opportunity because of the network that I had built over the years. Here, I had responsibility to train youth from India and Nepal, conduct workshops and seminars. Because I had maintained my contacts/ networks, I could easily identify people with respective expertise for trainings, seminars, and workshops. Nevertheless, I always try to meet new people and grow my network further.

In my current job, I am in charge of the media advocacy program TTT. This program has fortified media relation. I am supervisor of Interns and Volunteers and youth from different countries like The Netherlands, Philippines, The United States and India have come to the organization to volunteer. Through their contacts it has been easy for me to raise funds and promote the organization. We have been in continuous contact to talk about development of program and few of them have linked international funders, sponsors.

The networking that I have fostered over the years has not only been for personal development but also my organizational/functional development. I will use these skills and contacts to strengthen the idea of global citizen, connect chevening alumini in dialogue and discussions of emerging issues and engage alumini in one common platform through social media.

Hi Sunika
It will be helpful if you post the request of this essay.
From my reading of other appliers' essays for this scholarship. You need to demonstrate your leadership skills and write about your future effort to develop your hometown country. I am not sure if these requirements are the same for you.

If so, the following are unnecessary. They have no direct relationship with your leadership or your future effort.


Also. Your examples can cut down many irrelevant details. You talked little about you (only the final sentence in the following example) but were talking about the characteristics of the association. This problem exists in almost all your examples written above.


Personal opinion for your reference

I believe that you have been very descriptive which is a very good thing but i think you went all emotional and wrote a lot. So, i think you need to cut down on your initial paragraph which is in green. because you next two paragraphs are more important and interesting as compared to the first one and by this you will be able to cut down on words.

I was awarded a merit based full scholarship ...
... event was organized systematically and was well appreciated by all.

This is way too descriptive, dont tell them stories, limit your words by directly hitting the point.

Another exposure to networking skills began ...
...
In my current job, I am in charge of the media ...

These two paragraphs are relevant , so just work on omiting some lines in para 1 and the para in between where you talk about your experience in bengaluru. Since you have to write you conluding para also so by cut shorting and being less descriptive in the begening you will be able to save yourself. Your introductory line was really interesting and i liked the fact that you laid your theme of the letter to that itself.

thank u @Hargun003 and @bonboncase
please help me with my grammatical errors and sentence structures.

Sunika, honestly, your essay made my eyes hurt.
I hope you understand that though this may not be your final essay or we may not be the admission staff that will let you know if you make the cut or not, you have to make sure that the format of the essay you present is good enough for the editors and contributors to hook their time in helping you to come up with a better essay for submission.

Here's what I suggest

- write the prompt clearly, highlight them or do a different font in writing the prompt or the topic of the essay
- keep a paragraph just like how you write a formal essay
- figure out the sequence and the flow of your sentences, ideas and thought for the topic and make sure that you have a good logical structure

- make sure that you understand what is asked in the prompt
- do your research on how the prompt is to be answered, read some student essays regarding the same topic, this will help you fine tune yours and make it stand out

Lastly, share your personal opinion of the topic and proof read it, post it here ob EF so we can assist you further.