Chevening Scholarship - A Step-by-Step Guide on Writing Winning Essays

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Essays are inarguably the most important step in winning the highly coveted and prestigious Chevening Scholarship. This scholarship is offered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the British Government, aimed at offering potential leaders the opportunity of studying for a master's degree in any of the UK's prestigious universities. In this article, the author, a winner of the scholarship in 2018, offers tips on writing successful essays for

the Chevening Scholarship application. Have a great read!

Chevening scholarship application usually requires that candidates write four essays on the following themes:

1. Leadership and influence
2. Networking credentials
3. Reason for choosing to study in the UK
4. Career plans

Below are the essay prompts and methods of approaching each essay.

LEADERSHIP AND INFLUENCE ESSAY:

Chevening is looking for individuals who 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. (minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

Above is the typical Chevening leadership essay prompt. Without wasting time, I will go straight to the formula that would help you build a strong essay.

I advise you write your essay in 3 parts, as in all essays, namely:

1. Introduction

2. Body of the essay

3. Conclusion

Introduction

This should be quite brief. Here it is advised you begin by what you understand by leadership. It is better to avoid textbook definitions, although some textbook definitions may be too good to ignore. E.g John Maxwell's definition that leadership is influence. However, try to state your own understanding of what leadership means. I also recommend you conclude the intro by stating that you have demonstrated this attribute all through your life for example.

"Leadership to me is the act of taking a group of people with a common goal from their current position to a greater height where the group's objectives can be achieved. All through my life, I have led many groups towards realisation of noble goals for the betterment of society. This is exemplified in the roles I played in X, Y and Z organisations".

Please note that this is just a template to help you understand the structure of a winning essay. Do not attempt to copy any of the essay sections I will be stating in the course of our discussions. See how I began with definition & concluded by setting the stage for my discussion of my leadership positions in subsequent paragraphs.

Body of the Essay

The next thing you should do in the next paragraph is to discuss two or three leadership roles you have occupied in the past. Note that it is better to exhaustively discuss 2 leadership roles than listing a plethora of leadership positions that you wouldn't be able to discuss exhaustively.

In discussing your leadership experience, follow the STAR L format.

STAR L stands for: Situation, Task, Action, Result, Lessons learnt. Now I will discuss them one after the other.

Situation: You have to weave your essays around you solving problems. So, “situation“ represents the problem on ground which you solved. State what the problem was.

Task: This is what needed to be done to solve the problem.

Action: What steps did you take to solve the problem.

Result: What positive things happened as a result of the action you took

Lesson: What lesson did you learn from the entire experience?

From the above, you should see that Chevening and other scholarship-awarding organisations don't care about what leadership position you occupied. All they care about is the impact you made. Thus, you don't need to have occupied an official leadership position to pass as a leader. All you need is to have made a positive impact. If you have made a positive impact, you are definitely a leader, whether you have a title or not!

It is also crucial that you adhere to the word count.

Furthermore, in discussing your leadership experience, focus on what you did, not what the group did. For instance, use words like "I", not "we" in describing what you did. Also be specific in your description. Use statistics if possible.

Remember you have to apply the STAR L approach in describing each of your 2 or 3 leadership examples. Only then can you say you have exhaustively answered the leadership question.

Conclusion

The conclusion is like a pitch when delivering a speech. Conclude by stating how great a leader you think you are, listing attributes you have demonstrated and how your country and the Chevening network will benefit from your leadership skills if you're awarded the scholarship.

NETWORKING ESSAY:

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship relationship-building skills, who will engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen profession. Please explain how you build and maintain relationships in a professional capacity, using clear examples of how you currently do, and outline how you hope to use these skills in the future. (minimum word count: 100 words; maximum word count: 500 words).

Let me begin by distinguishing between the leadership and networking questions, because it has always been a problem distinguishing what is required of the two. The leadership question expects you to explain how you use your influence to solve problems around you. The networking question, on the other hand, requires you to explain how you leverage on relationships to solve problems around you, how you maintain these networks and how you plan to use this network of yours for the good of your country, the Chevening network and the UK if offered the Chevening scholarship.

Like the leadership essay, the networking essay should have an introduction, body and a conclusion. Also, the body of the essay should follow the STAR L format. Let me add here that there is no hard and fast rule. So, while I advise you to follow a structure that will help you satisfy your assessors, feel free to write in your natural style that will contain all the stated information.

Introduction

I advise you begin your networking essay by explaining what networking means to you and stating some attributes you have that makes it easy for you to network. For example, you could say:

"Networking is the act of establishing, maintaining and leveraging on relationships to meet societal needs. I am quite a cheerful, understanding, and loyal person. This has endeared me to the hearts of many and I have always leveraged on my cordial relationships to solve prevailing problems around me."

With this, you would have introduced your essay and also set the stage to start listing the examples of situations where you have demonstrated your networking skills.

Body of the Essay

In the next paragraphs, I advise that you mention 2 or 3 examples of those scenarios and discuss each exhaustively. Like in the leadership essay, for each example, discuss the situation of things that propelled you to act i.e. the problem.

Next mention the task i.e. what needed to be done to solve the problem.

Then describe the action you took i.e. the specific steps you took to respond to the problem. In describing the action you took, try to show examples that include use of social media like Facebook groups, WhatsApp or Telegram groups and blogs started by you. These will fetch you higher scores in your networking essay.

From these, you can see that I am following I already following the STAR L approach. Next to be discussed is the result you got from the action you took and what lessons you learnt.

Note that unlike in previous years, this particular essay prompt specifically requires that you give only current examples of scenarios where you applied your networking skills in solving problems around you in a professional setting. Don’t narrate how Mungo Park drowned in a sea centuries ago.

Conclusion

Conclude by stating how your networking skills will benefit your country, the UK and Chevening network if you're awarded the scholarship.

STUDYING IN THE UK ESSAY:

Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses and explain how this relates to your previous academic or professional experience, and your plans for the future. Please do not duplicate the information you have entered you have entered on the work experience and education section of this form (minimum word count: 100 words; maximum word count: 500 words).

It is impossible to write a good essay on your choice of course and university if you haven't done your homework. So, the first step in preparing for this essay is to thoroughly comb the internet to identify schools offering your desired course. Next, you need to digest the entire content on the course pages on the universities, websites.

You have to master the course content/modules and the professors handling each module. It is also important to read about the profs and identify their research interests. All these will come to play in your essay.

From all these you ought to see why I emphasise on the need to take the scholarship quest seriously, because it demands hard work.

Many people, whom you are competing with, are working hard to acquire the needed information. So, don't expect to put up an outstanding application if you're not ready to put in the required effort.

How should you approach the essay if you have gotten all the info mentioned above?

Introduction

You need to begin the essay by briefly describing your educational background and qualifications that make you suitable for the courses you have chosen. You should also chip in a summary of your career goal and proceed to list the courses and universities you have chosen (of course these are the courses you believe would help you achieve your career goals).

Body

Next, you need to pick each of the three courses you've chosen and justify why you have chosen them, one after the other.

For this essay and the career goal essay, you must ensure that your explanations are SMART; meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

In justifying each course choice, you should state how specific course contents will help you achieve your career goals. You also need to talk about why you have chosen that school. Go ahead and mention at least one of the profs there and how their research interests aligns with your career goals. Then discuss why you have chosen the UK as your choice country for your masters.

One good way of justifying your choice of school & course is by stating their rankings. But bear in mind that ranking is not enough. You must go ahead to show the relationship between the course content and your career goals. Only then can your assessor be pleased that you have done a good research before choosing your course/school, and that you didn’t just make your choices by a knee-jerk response.

Conclusion

You can conclude your essay with a summary of the link between your career goals and course choice, alongside how your country will benefit from your study of the courses.

CAREER PLAN ESSAY

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer-term career goals. You may wish to consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country (minimum word count: 100 words; maximum word count: 500 words).

Your main business in this essay is to prove to the guys in the UK that you have an outstanding career plan which your studies in the UK would help you achieve.

Before I talk about the steps in writing the essay, there are a few points you must note in the career plan essay:

1.     It is better to choose a career plan that is in line with what DFID is doing in your country. Google DFID in Nigeria, for instance, to see the projects DFID is engaged in. A career along these lines will boost your chances of clinching the scholarship

2.     In discussing a career plan, dare to dream! Your plans should bring something innovative to the table.

3.     Your career plan shouldn't be about yourself. There should be a pressing problem in your country which you're planning to solve. It shouldn't just be about what you want to become in the future.

4.     Even though I said you should dare to dream, you should be able to show exactly how you plan to achieve your great plans. Remember SMART. Your career plan should be SMART!

So back to the essay. Again, the essay should have an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

Introduction

Feel free to introduce the essay any way you like. But let your introduction serve as a hook that will capture the interest of the reader.

Body

The body of your essay should address your career plans.

Divide your career plans into:

1.     Immediate: What you will do immediately you return from your studies in the UK, up to 1 to 2 years later. It is best for your immediate plans to align with your return to the job you are doing in your country before departing for your studies. Scholarship organisations want some guarantee that you will have a platform to apply what you'll study in the UK upon your return. You would be shooting yourself in the foot if you tell them you will come and look for a new job immediately you return.

2.     Short term: Between 2 - 5 years after you return. It would be best for this to be a progression from your short-term goal or getting a higher job in relation with what you will study in the UK.

3.     Intermediate term: This is not so important. But involves what you plan to do within 5 to 10 years after you return. This is not compulsory.

4.     Long term: What you plan to achieve 10 years after your return and beyond.

You don't really have to use the terms immediate, short, intermediate or long term. You can just use the number of years.

To conclude, remember to mention how the UK and your country will benefit from your career plan.

Best of luck!

*Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect those of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), its partner organisations or any scholarship awarding body. Whereas the author has taken every effort to provide accurate information, he is not liable for any factual errors that may be contained in this article.