Effective role in social, political, and cultural development of Afghanistan - Chevening Scholarship

Hi everyone!

I have written this essay for the chevening scholarship as the networking essay, and welcome all your feedback, comments, recommendations and corrections. Please...

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong networking skills, who will engage ...
(minimum word count: 50 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

The growth of information technology has made networking easier and extended interaction of people to exchange information, to influence, to develop professional and social contacts, to pursue the goals and/or assist. But, it is not as easy as it seems, it depends on the proper design and use of the network. Networks are created by people with the common interest or social ties, which are impressed by the environment. Networking helps members to focus on their beneficial areas as different goals lead to different types of network.

I experienced networking in Sarzamin people's council specifically, practically and widely. Sarzamin people's council is a political, social and cultural institution, which is consisted of a large number of volunteers who are working for the society improvement, justice and freedom in Afghanistan. I as a member of policy making committee, responsible for the policy-making and policy amendment in the council, with the main focus on networking in the society, public awareness, discipline and code of ethics, member empowerment and active participation in social trends to rehabilitate the society.

As a senior group leader and networking consultant for the new group leaders, I am responsible to help in the creation of new groups, supervision of the existing groups and providing consultation in group-making in the council, which are linked to each other and include a large number of the council member in several cities of Afghanistan. We have specific programs and plans to strengthen our members, the groups, their linkages and the society. As the groups are empowered and wider, more new groups and group leaders are appearing. It provides a huge network for the council to influence in social development trends of the community, increase public awareness, stimulate growth of a new generation of social leaders and help the society to pass the social and political hinders of development.

Women's empowerment project management is another field of networking and leadership experience for me that I did in 2013-14. We designed the project to cover ten girls' school and one main center that all were linked to each other and to headquarter. Every girls' school was under service coverage of the project by a representative. I was managing this network to meet the project goals and have successful service provision.

Networking is a context for effective performance, capacities' growth, experience and knowledge sharing and awareness improvement. Chevening community as a rich network of experts is an ideal community to learn, lead, share and build strong relationships, academically and friendly.

The skills which are obtainable in Chevening community would be very impressive to me for a more effective role in social, political, and cultural development of Afghanistan. In fact, considering my background and getting new experiences, knowledge and skills would help me improve the quality and process of my professional, voluntary, and social activities for a better future.

Ahmad, your essay is really good but can use some revision in order to make it more impressive. I suggest that you focus the essay solely on your networking skills related to the policy making, council work, and your senior group leadership. That thread of information is more than enough to create an impressive image of yourself as a leader who knows how to effectively use a network, I don't suggest keeping the part about women's empowerment. As you can see, you wrote a very short paragraph about that experience of yours. That should be enough to tell you that it is not as important or impressive as your earlier related experience. So it is really not going to be of help to your application. Remember to always use only the impressive information in relation to the prompt. That is the best way to assure yourself of a well developed essay.

Now, I have to point out that there is a part of the prompt requirements that I feel, was not properly represented in the essay. In fact, I don't see any reference to the following prompt within the essay:

Outline how you hope to use these skills in the future.
You should be able to discuss how your previous skills will be able to help you create a new network within Chevening. What kind of network will it be? Who shall its members be? What shall the network's objective be? Finally, how can Chevening help you create this network? Those are some factors to consider when you develop that particular prompt paragraph for your essay.

You need to make sure that your essay covers all of the prompt requirements. That is a must. One missing prompt response and you will jeopardize your application. So be very careful with developing your responses. Make sure all of the prompts are represented.