chevening leadership question
"Leadership is an art that can be developed" said Forbes. There are some people that were born with a natural talent to lead. However, there are others that must develop this ability, creating and forcing new skills, maintaining the overcoming desire to be perseverant to achieve their goals. Anyway, I consider myself as part of the second group, because I am an introverted person but I had always distinguished myself for my commitment, discipline and perseverance. Those abilities allowed me to achieve the leadership and influential skills that I actually possess.
First, since I was young I developed a high reputation because I had always been honest, transparent, and I had a great sense of justice and compassion. I earned these skills because I am the oldest sister and I had to raise two young bothers. That situation helped me to be a person that has to make hard decisions, teach with the example, and be firm with decisions. Furthermore, when I was at university I was "teaching assistant" in three subjects, and the process to achieve that position required the students opinion; they argued that I was one of the most transparent assistant and also that I always worked bridging between students and generating healthy competitions among them to improve their grades. Be a trusted person and have kind personality helped me to influence people, because they trust on me.
Secondly, sometimes you have to improve yourself to acquire what you need through negotiation and persuasion abilities. When I won a scholarship to make a research in Spain, I had to face some challenges, for example, I had to negotiate with the scholarship department to increase my number of travels to my country to bring new samples, and they were reluctant because it will increase our budget. So, I showed them the first results of my research, highlighted the importance of that for the university and of course the impact that it would have in my country. At the end I got three travels to get my samples instead of one. Moreover, when I returned to my country I gave several lectures on my university and got students to get involved with the new topic that I researched, which is why we got the university to support us in the implementation of a laboratory with Spanish funds, and now students have a space to make practices and experiments. Summarizing, I used my developed abilities to finish successfully my research and create an impact on my career.
Lastly, I constantly have to improve my influencing skills because in my actual work there are many leaders to convince. I am responsible of implement development policies and to make them successful I need to persuade the mayors of many municipalities to incorporate our strategy on their annual planning and assign it a specific budget. It was hard but with our team on the office, we achieve our goals gradually.Holt Educational Consultant - / 14,835 
4783 Estephanie, this is an essay that will disqualify you from the running as a scholarship applicant. The leadership skills that you need to reflect must be on a the professional level. It must also reflect a leadership and influencing ability that took place within the last 2 years, at the very least, within a professional setting. Your experience is practical in presentation because these are examples of how you developed your leadership skills over time. These are not applicable to the workplace where you could prove that you have the ability to lead people and also, influence their actions towards a positive outcome. Why can't you refer to a professional leadership role? Is it because you do not have one to depict? If you don't then you don't have a chance at this scholarship. If you are just shy about sharing it, then don't be. It is what the scholarship committee needs to learn about you. Pick your best professional leadership and influencing ability. That is the only way to do it. Remember, you need to show that you have the potential to make a change in your country upon your return from the Chevening sponsored masters studies. The information you shared, just doesn't prove that.
