Scholarship essay for M.A Learning Science

Prompt : Describe how your educational, professional and personal experiences inform your research and creative interests. Elaborate on any aspect of your backgrund that supports your candidacy for the graduate program that you listed as your first choice. (500 -750 words)

NB: each point is separated by paragraphs, kindly help review this essay and comment on structure, flow and relevance of points to essay prompt. And other general comments.

thank you

SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY

When I gained admission into xxxx university in 2015 to study biochemistry, it was a proud moment for me because xxx university ranks as one of the most competitive federal universities to get into in Nigeria. One of the major experiences that enhanced my research and creative interests during my four year program was seminar paper presentation. This course involved a team research and presentation of findings on "frontiers in Biochemistry". It was challenging because I had not done major research before neither had I designed a powerpoint presentation. However, participating in the team presentation made me realize that I learn better through a "Do-It-Yourself" approach of learning by working on projects.

My first professional job interview in 2016 as a Quality analyst at xxx company was a short and memorable one. During the interview I was asked the explain the term "value Addition", this was a term I was familiar with but never fully knew what it entailed. While I worked at the company I understood that to add value I needed to be be creative, innovative and willing to learn. Ever since then my main goal in my professional career and personal life has been to add value to myself, people around me and the whole world at large. From 2018 to January, 2020 I worked as a Business development representative at xxxx company. My key role was to create and implement brand market penetration strategies in my territory to increase product sales. To achieve success in this role, it involved a lot of creative ideas tailored to my territory. However, one of my major achievements on the roles was that I developed a sales activation strategy that increased slow-moving product sales by 25% within three months. I started my current role as a Lab technologist in xxxx university in February, 2020. I made this career switch because I wanted to do more of things I am passionate about like learning, teaching and research. My day-to-day activity is majorly teaching second year pharmacy students pharmaceutical microbiology Lab practicals. As a lab tech. my approach to teaching is usually an interactive session where the students participate actively in the class.

This year, In my quest for professional development I started taking data analytics, data literacy and data-driven decision making courses on Cousera and Datacamp. The courses were structured with short interactive videos which made me understand faster. While taking the course I often imagined if making short videos of my lab practical classes for students to re-watch would increase their understanding. I made the decision of taking these courses because I wanted to know if I can use students' score data in lab practicals to measure the impact of project based learning on knowledge retention.

My education, professional and personal experiences has been a lifelong learning process that has shaped my problem solving, critical thinking and creative skills. I hope to become a better teacher and communicator by improving my teaching experience and students' learning experience through this masters program.

The discussions provided are relevant but does not highlight anything special about the applicant. Since this is a scholarship application, expect cutthroat competition from over achievers and pretend overachievers, all vying for limited scholarship slots. There is no reason for the screening committee to view this applicant as a strong candidate for the scholarship in terms of accomplishments both academic and professional. There are only standard experiences and learning growth represented in the narrations, none of which will stick to the mind or be of recall value to the reviewers / committee members. This is an average essay from an average applicant that does not represent a unique / extraordinary reason to award him/her the scholarship. Unless he can present himself as above average, since he comes across as no better than average in this essay, I do not see how this paper can support his application.