'I developed a slight tendency towards project management.' Mundus Scholarship letter

Motivation letters for Erasmus Mundus scholarship

While studying as an under graduate student at University of Peshawar. I developed a slight tendency towards project management. In the courses of business administration it was a minor subject and was not taught as in detail such as accounting or economics.

But it was not after I completed my graduation and started working as a Research Consultant that I developed a knack for it. As I worked there for a few months I started to grab the importance of strategic project management in the business world. There at Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Development Network we were conducting monitoring and evaluation survey for three projects undertaken at district level. It was imperative that these projects be managed simultaneously through each phase. And for that, project management proved to be a corner stone.

I worked as a Parliamentary Associate at National Assembly of Pakistan under the European Union Project titled Improving Parliamentary Performance in Pakistan". I have had the honor to work at Project Management Unit of the project at National Assembly of Pakistan. I acted as a liaison for the implementing partners of the project. We conducted regular meetings, designed policy and did follow ups on the sub tasks entailed in the project. We received feedback and modified our strategies according to the feedback. Every Monday we would sit at the conference table and tally our development with our logical framework analysis and modify our goals with our timeline. Working in the " Improving parliamentary performance in Pakistan" enhanced my skills and I learned firsthand about how to take a project at National level and developed serious interest in Strategic Project Management.

I have remained a capable student through my academic career. I have good grades in most of the subjects I read in school and college. I always participated in co- curricular and extra- curricular activities. I was on football team at our college. I was member of the debating society, essay writing club and arts club. At University I was member of Blood Donors society. It was the biggest society at university and had 2000 members. I had the honor to be secretary for 2 years. We organized free blood donation camps and our members donated blood regularly at major hospitals in Peshawar. I represented my university twice in Mind Quest Competition held at Lahore University of Management Sciences in 2009 and 2011. I participated as stage secretary in different seminars at our university on many occasions.

I come from a far flung and backward area of Parachinar, Kurram agency. It is one of the seven agencies that comprise FATA. Federally administered tribal areas, as they are otherwise called have a rugged mountainous terrain, with literally no health care and education facilities, still ruled under the black rule of Frontier Crimes Regulations. I worked hard as a boy in school and was selected in the prestigious boarding school cadet college kohat. I passed my Secondary and Higher secondary school examination from there in 2005 and 2007.then I took admission in university of Peshawar and graduated in business administration in 2011. I had the honor of studying on Higher Education Commission grant at university of four years.

Hi Qamar, the essay is good but please I'm suggesting you change the under graduate to undergraduate as it is one word.

Hope this helps

Hi Quammar, I hope you won't mind my late entry into reviewing your scholarship letter. I reviewed with the eye of a scholarship reviewer and came to the decision that your essay lacks certain qualities that would help your motivation "pop" in the eyes of the reviewer. It has mostly to do with the essay not having any direct connection with the scholarship and how it can help you achieve your future goals.

For starters, you need to better develop the idea behind your "slight tendency towards project management." I believe that it would be better if you say that your exposure or studies helped you develop an interest in project management. A "slight interest" depicts you as a person who is not really interested in the course and is just using it to get a scholarship. That is not the image that you want the scholarship reviewer to have of you as a potential scholarship grantee. You should instead, strengthen that idea by presenting the development of your interest in project management. Explain how your exposure to the field, regardless of how limited it might be , led you to learn more about project management.. Then explain how your further, more serious exposure to other fields of project management helped you realize that this was the career path for you.

Now, your scholarship motivation letter will differ from your college motivation letter in the sense that you need to find a way to connect the scholarship objectives and mission / goals with that of your own. Explain the reasons why this scholarship in particular is necessary for the further advancement of your intellectual and professional development. Tell the reviewer why this scholarship grant will set you apart from the rest of the students in any university that you would be attending. Connect the requirements of the scholarship with your own needs and explain how you will be embodying that idealism during your tenure as a scholar. In other words, explain how you will embody the ideal Erasmus Mundus Scholarship grantee when you get the scholarship. You could also opt to add a paragraph about how you will give back to the community you belong to or the scholarship as part of your motivation to pursue studies in project management.

Hi qamar, I'm glad to see your passage here. Now, let me try to give some corrections and suggestion for you.

In my opinion, there was a relation between first and second paragraph, because you started your second paragraph with "but", so it would be better if you make it into one paragraph.

Qamar, this is what I don't understand with your essay, it feels like it's a letter that elaborates your career history and not a motivation letter which is the purpose of your essay.

Before writing a letter, I mean I know that you have done this before but, you have to make sure that you adhere to what is asked of the prompt. A motivation letter should be a run down of information that made you decide to apply for the scholarship, what does this scholarship benefit you, how will you live up to the standards of scholarship awardees and what can you contribute to the league of scholarship awardees to pass on the legacy of the institution to you, to the society and the community as a whole.

I'm not saying that you re- write the entire essay but at least draw more conviction and justice to your application, make it stronger and known to the admission staff that you are serious in what you do and to further you, knowledge you are willing to do whatever it takes.

I hope to see a stronger revised essay as Erasmus Mundus is quiet a tough scholarship to beat.

vangiespen, justivy03,
thanks a lot for your review. it really helped. i have tried some changes. altough, this is a rough draft, i will appreciate if you give it a read

...

Qamar, you dropped the ball at the start of your essay. You could have developed the following statement as your introductory paragraph because it is the basis of the development of your interest in project management. Try to add more information to:

I developed an interest in project management when I studied it as a part of business management course

As a separate paragraph, it will help your essay if you indicate which classes in particular caught your interest and then offer a simple explanation as to why that happened. This development will show the seed of interest that was planted during your early exposure to basic project management courses. Then offer the information regarding your first job as a separate paragraph because it is a complete and solo paragraph topic. Your project for the government should also be a separate topic paragraph.

The following paragraph has some parts that I feel you need to delete because these should be information contained in the documents that you submitted to the scholarship committee. I also included some edits in capital letters:

I come from a backward area of kurram agency in Federally administered tribal areas. It lacks basic healthcare and education facilities and is marginalized from the mainstream Pakistan.I excelled at studies at school and was selected at Cadet college Kohat. I aced my SSC and HSSC exams. At high school, I was a part of debating society, essay writing club, shooting club and arts club. I graduated from University of Peshawar on a Higher Education Commission grant for students for backward areas of FATA and Baluchistan. Coming from a remote village near THE afghan border, I graduated with honors from one the best universities in Pakistan. I have lived in 5 cities, worked 3 jobs at different cities and lived as a boarder for 10 years. I am confident, a team player, goal oriented and always look forward to learn new concepts. I have a passion to learn new languages and speak five languages namely Pashto, urdu ,Panjabi, Persian and English.

The part that I used the strike out on are the parts that should be represented in your transcript of records and additional documents. Those should not be contained in the scholarship letter.

The statement about the scholarship, the whole paragraph that starts with Erasmus Mundus scholarship provides me with a unique opportunity to study at three prestigious universities of Europe. should be located at the end of your essay. This is the most important part of the scholarship essay and needs to be highlighted at the part of the essay where the scholarship reviewer will be sure to remember it.

The rest of the essay seems to be working well so far. If you can just please apply the corrections that I suggested, we can get to work on finalizing the content and form of your written work next.

Vangiespen !

greetings, thanks a lot for your review. I tried apply those changes that you suggested. kindly review this draft and i will appreciate if you point out where I have deviated from the prompt or other mistakes. I thought about first paragraph. I am having a little trouble with that. I have tried a few lines. see if they fit here. kindly, review the overall structure and paragraph formation and recommend me the changes that you feel I should apply to make it a working draft. Regards,

I was first exposed to the concepts of project management in the Undergraduate courses of Business Administration. I developed a keen interest in Project management because it clearly defines a project's deliverable and evaluates risks involved in a given timeline. it divides a given project into the phases of initiation, planning, execution, control and completion. The concepts of time management, change management, risk management and quality management furthered my interest in the subject because they helped me to evaluate risks involved, check quality and overcome the hurdles in the completion of the project in a timeline.

My interest in the subject furthered when I took a job as a research consultant in KPDN (Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Development Network). We worked on project titled 'Promoting Peace in KPK & FATA: Connecting youth and policymakers through mediation and dialogue'. It was a European Union funded project implemented by Search for Common Ground in collaboration with Paiman. Working at KPDN gave me an opportunity to apply the concepts of project management I learned in classroom such as teamwork, leadership, project goals and deliverable, short term and long term objectives and tasks at various phases of project such as planning, implementing and feedback process.

After the completion of the project, I joined the National Assembly of Pakistan under the European Union project "Improving Parliamentary Performance in Pakistan". The project's long term goal was to strengthen the democratic institutions in the country and short term objective was to build capacity of the law makers and supporting staff of the parliament. Tools used to this purpose were training classes, workshops, seminars, interview and brainstorming sessions.

Working in goal oriented projects in a specific timeline enhanced my competitive skills and enabled me to deliver in a work environment with different implementing partners in a timely fashion. I realized that there is a growing demand for project professionals who can formulate and implement strategies for complex programs. What compelled me to take project management as a career path is that it is objective in nature and you always work towards a goal. It is pragmatic and promises to bring some change towards the end. To further enhance my skills as a project manager, I decided to pursue higher studies in the field of strategic project management.

I come from a backward area of kurram agency in Federally administered tribal areas. It lacks basic healthcare and education facilities and is marginalized from the mainstream Pakistan. Coming from a remote village near the Afghan border, I graduated with honors from one the best universities in Pakistan. I have lived in 5 cities, worked 3 jobs at different cities and lived as a boarder for 10 years. I am confident, a team player, goal oriented and always look forward to learn new concepts. I have a passion to learn new languages and speak five languages namely Pashto, urdu ,Panjabi, Persian and English.

My goal is to work in the development sector in FATA and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. I want to contribute to the development of these marginalized and backward areas. A great effort needs to be done in the fields of health, education, security and awareness to bring it at par with settled areas of the country. It can only be achieved by timely operation of different projects in this region by the government and development partners. There is shortage of professionals which adds to the hindrance in the development process. Skilled people from settled areas are not willing to work in the area, and if they do, they do not have enough understanding of the mountainous terrain and of the psyche of the people living here. If I get this scholarship, It makes me better equipped with the tools and practices of strategic management to apply to attain my goal. Further, it gives me opportunity to learn from the rich culture of Europe. I gives me opportunity to mix with the people of three countries and scholars there. I represent a rich culture, and people will come to know about my viewpoint and therefore help to bridge the cultural gap between the east and west.

Erasmus Mundus scholarship provides me with a unique opportunity to study at three prestigious universities of Europe. Studying there enables me to develop significant range of specialist skills, techniques and practices in the domain of strategic management taught by international scholars. Further,It enables me to conduct master level research and present it in the form of masters thesis. It helps me in developing communication skills and to work efficiently in a variety of tasks in a multicultural environment. It gives me access to international network of knowledge exchange, employment opportunities and partnership arrangements. It gives me opportunity to have access to beginners level Swedish and Italian and improve my understanding of English. Lectures by guest scholars, a chance for internship, case studies and discourse with students and teachers from diverse background provides me with a rare opportunity to learn the core values of strategic management. It gives me a unique exposure to different sub cultures of Europe.

Qamar, I'd like to step in and share my thoughts on the part of the essay where we are having a little bit of doubt.

- I was first exposed to the concepts of project management in the Undergraduate courses of Business Administration.
-I developed a keen interest in Project management becausethis field as it clearly
- defines a project's deliverable nature and evaluates
- risks involved in a given timeline.
- I t divides a given project into the phases
- The concepts of time management, change management, risk management and quality management
- furthered my interest in the subject,because they helped me to evaluate risks involvedenhance my evaluation skills ,
- check quality assurance and overcome
- the hurdles in the completion of the project in a timelinetimely manner .

There you have it Qamar, you can see the difference it makes when you choose the right words and put them together in a sentence.

I hope my remarks helped.