I have always said that architecture is my passion but volunteering has my heart. Applying Chevening

Chevening is looking for individuals that will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.

I have always said that architecture is my passion but volunteering has my heart. I started volunteering in 2008 when I joined Rotaract club, which is the junior division of Rotary club international for people between the ages 18-30. My Rotaract club was conformed by young people of various ages with different careers and fields of study. I started as a simple active member and later on I even got the chance to be part of the directive board. We used to organized events with charity purpose, especially for poor children/orphans and elder care. During my time in Rotaract I was still studding architecture, so I tried to mix both things the best way I could. In 2011 I was in charge of applying a mobility awareness campaign that I designed with my friends at the university, the members of Rotaract showed their interest in this matter and we took action expanding this campaign in high schools and other Rotaract clubs in the city. It was always a huge deal for me to do these activities with Rotaract, but it felt much special to mix my skills and field of study with it. Volunteering gives you some sense of purpose, it helps to connect to the community and make it a better place. On that same year I took volunteering to another level, I volunteered for FIFA during the Women's world cup in Germany. I had the chance to work at the stadium in the city of Dresden, where I was assigned to work as a media and communication volunteer. Fixing mixed zones, preparing press conferences and being a language support to the press and photographers became my every day thing. It was amazing to work on something that was so new to me and had nothing to do with architecture. I gave the best of me and learnt that even though I would become an architect later on, my career shouldn't define me, I could take chances and learn from it to be a better person. With this experience I learnt to work as a team, with people from around the world that had not only different nationalities but different believes religions and languages. I learnt to work under pressure in a field that was so different to what I was used to, and that exactly was what made the experience so much better. I got addictive to volunteering in sports events, that's why I keep doing it. I had the opportunity to volunteer not only in Germany, but in Poland during UEFA Euro Poland-Ukraine 2012 and later in FIFA World cup Brazil 2014. I've meet the best people in the world in this events, I have felt like part of a huge family and learnt from living in the most uncommon places and even though feeling at home.

Liseth, you should consider revising your essay to reflect only a single, but highly important activity that you participated in which clearly sets the tone for your ability to lead and influence people. From the way I reviewed your essay, all you did was relay your civic activities which did not necessarily reflect your leadership and influencing role in the organizations. What you should reflect in this essay is an incident that you can recall, as a participant in any event, where you were called upon to lead a group. The essay prompt begs you to display your leadership traits in a manner that the other essays attached to your application did not allow you to do so. I really did not see anything similar to that in this essay. Volunteering your services and time is highly different from leading a group and inspiring them to do their best.

Maybe there was an occasion at the Rotary that you can use for this? Your FIFA experience did not deliver on that requirement either. All of the activities that you presented in this essay show your abilities as a "follower" instead of as a "leader". My advice is for you to go back to the drafting table. This time, try to recall an incident, no matter how minor, that you can develop into an act of leadership and influencing on your part. That is the only way to get this essay to respond properly to the prompt.

Liseth, you really should no longer discuss the FIFA event as I mentioned before. It takes away the attention and impressiveness of your work with the rotaract club. In fact, it seems like you stopped discussing your rotaract activity just before you got to the good part about your ability to display your leadership and influencing skills. The topic has so much potential to show off your skills and the FIFA event, it just doesn't have the same impact and impressive discussion that the prior topic hits the reader with.

Improve upon the essay by omitting the part I told you about and expanding on the leadership challenges and motivational tools that you had to use in order to make the rotaract project successful. Keep in mind that Chevening would most likely be impressed by the actions you took in this field because their scholarship program is on the lookout for future leaders who can embody their objectives and purposes. Being a member of the rotaract, you can definitely present those potential or expected strengths to your benefit.

Mary, thank you once again for your review. you are totally right, Rotaract represents ina better way the impact that Volunteering has brought to my life.... I have edited once again my essay and this is what I came up with. I hope this looks better than the previous one. I would apreciate it if you could take your time to read it.

Ps: I still have to edit it to 500 words which is a bit challenging!
Thank you very much!
Best regards from Venezuela!

I have always said that architecture is my passion but volunteering has my heart. I started volunteering in 2008 when I joined Rotaract club, which is the junior division of Rotary club international for people between the ages 18-30. Our Rotaract club was conformed by young people of various ages with different careers and fields of study. I started as a simple active member and later on I even got the chance to be part of the directive board.

During my time in Rotaract I was still studding architecture, so I tried to mix both things the best way I could. In 2011 I was in charge of applying a mobility awareness campaign that I designed with my friends at the university, the members of Rotaract showed their interest in this matter and we took action expanding this campaign in high schools and other Rotaract clubs in the city. The goal was to teach teenagers the deficiencies in our urban mobility plan due to the growth rate of vehicles, the absence of a suitable infrastructure and the lack of awareness by our citizens. We decided to approach teenagers because they would be the next generation driving in the city and could also bring the message about the current problem home, motivating their parents to get involve. It wasn't easy to decide how to reach teenagers, so besides the talks regarding the Mobility program, we invited them to be part in our Sign Contest.

The contest aimed to create a proper sign system for an area of the city called Barrio Obrero, an important district that connects to the down town and suffered the absence of a proper sign system that identifies the number and name of each road. We encourage teenagers in the junior and senior class of different high schools to join in and submit their design in our contest. We accepted one proposal per high school, evaluated it with the help of a team conformed by the president of the Rotary club, the members of Rotaract and a body of professors of our university. The winning proposal was presented to the major so the government could execute it.

Most of my team mates though that it could be hard to get the kids attention, that's why we included them in the contest, so it could be more dynamic and not just another lecture. For me it was important that teenagers could speak up and be part of the process in the campaign, no matter how little their role was. I realized that one day these kids would be the leading generation of a country, so if we wanted to see changes into a long term period, we had to start creating the change in their minds now.

This campaign taught me to work with people from different organizations and backgrounds; it let me direct the strengths of my team and motivate them to keep exploring their skills and abilities, but most importantly it let me be open to ideas/criticism, staying strong to the goals and finding pride in seeing others succeed.

Liseth, this is a very good version of the leadership essay. However, you can still better direct it towards the prompt requirements. At the moment, the essay deals with how you worked with a team in order to achieve the objective of the rotaract project. That is good. It shows that you know how to work with a tea and encourage team work. However, I do not really see a direct reference to you being the lead person on this project. I suggest that you clarify that in your essay. While team work is good, the ability to show that you can actually lead the team is excellent. You already have the information within the essay. All you have to do is mention that you are the Team Leader and then change all the collective references to the team to an individual reference as a leader.

As to the matter of your word count, you don't really need to provide such an in-depth background of the activity. A simple overview or summary will suffice. Keep the focus on your ability to lead and inspire your team. That is the focal point of this essay. This revision should also help you bring down the word count.