Leadership essay for a scholarship application
Who wrote it
Khaled Nassar, an electrical engineering student from Gaza, set up a repair and charging point for students in a school shelter. He is applying for a UK scholarship.
The writer and every detail about them are fictional.
What went into the template
- Programme or scholarship
- Chevening Scholarship, leadership and influence essay
- A moment that shaped you
- December 2023, school shelter in Rafah: a classmate’s laptop stopped charging a week before her online exam; I bypassed the broken charging port with a cable from a dead laptop. By the end of the week, 30 students had asked for help.
- What you did and learned
- Asked 12 engineering and IT students to join; put our one solar panel and battery in one corner; WhatsApp booking list; rules agreed with users: exams first, then job interviews, then everything else
About 340 phones and laptops repaired in 10 months; a log of every repair
Showed the log to a local organisation; they funded $1,200 of spare parts
Month 2: two volunteers argued over whose phones charged first; new rule: volunteers charge last
Month 6: stopped repairing and taught; 9 volunteers learned the common repairs, so the point ran when I was ill or away - What you will bring
- Study electronic engineering in the UK; set up a repair and training workshop in Gaza with partners
The writer’s facts, as typed into the template’s form. The example uses nothing else.
The example
Personal statement: Scholarship essay
Numbered notes in the margin explain each choice.
In December 2023, a week before her online exam, a classmate’s laptop stopped charging in the school in Rafah where our families were sheltering. I opened it on a desk in a classroom we shared with four families, found a broken charging port and bypassed it with a cable from a dead laptop1. By the end of that week, thirty students had asked me for help.
A moment
Note 1: The essay starts with something he did with his hands, not with a definition of leadership. Readers trust actions.
I could not fix thirty laptops alone, and I soon saw that repairs were only half the problem: there was nowhere to charge them. I asked twelve engineering and IT students in the shelter to join me. We moved our one solar panel and battery into a single corner, set up a booking list on WhatsApp so that nobody queued for hours, and agreed the rules with the students who used it2: exams first, then job interviews, then everything else.
Bringing others in
Note 2: Leadership shown as a shared decision, with the actual rules. It is specific enough to be believed.
Over the next ten months we repaired about 340 phones and laptops and kept a log of every one. When spare parts ran out, I took the log to a local organisation and showed them what each repair had made possible. They agreed to fund $1,200 of parts. The log did more convincing than I could have.3
Influence
Note 3: Influence through evidence, in one line. It answers the second half of the essay question without saying “I am persuasive”.
Not everything worked the first time. In the second month, two volunteers argued over whose own phones should charge first, and the queue stopped for an afternoon. We added one rule: volunteers charge last. Nobody argued about it again, and I understood that the people who run something have to be seen to follow its rules first.
A problem on the way
The decision I am proudest of came in the sixth month, when I stopped doing repairs myself and spent my time teaching4. Nine volunteers learned to diagnose and fix the common faults, so the point kept running on the days I was ill or away. I learned that leading in a crisis is not about being the person everyone calls. It is about building something that works when you are not there, with rules that the people it serves helped to make.
What he learned
Note 4: The turning point committees look for: he made himself less necessary so the work could last.
I want to study electronic engineering in the UK and then set up a repair and training workshop in Gaza, where young people learn a trade that keeps a whole community connected. Chevening’s network would help me build it with partners rather than alone5.
What comes next
Note 5: The close ties his plan to what the scholarship offers, its network, instead of thanking it in general.
Structure
How it is built
Each part in order, with its share of the words.
Checklist
Before you send
Go through your own draft line by line.
Before and after
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Lines like these turn up in many drafts by Arabic speakers. Each fix keeps the meaning and changes only the English.
I am a born leader and I have strong leadership skills.
Nine volunteers learned to diagnose and fix the common faults, so the point kept running on the days I was ill or away.
We faced a lot of suffering, and I helped many people.
Over the next ten months we repaired about 340 phones and laptops and kept a log of every one.
I convinced the organization to give us money.
I took the log to a local organisation and showed them what each repair had made possible. They agreed to fund $1,200 of parts.
Questions people ask
How do I write a leadership essay for a scholarship?
Pick one situation where you made something happen with other people and tell it in order: the problem, what you did, how you brought others in, the result and what you learned. Check the scholarship’s current question and word limit before you start, because they change from year to year.
Does leadership have to mean a formal title?
No. Committees look for people who saw a problem, brought others together and left something that lasted. A volunteer project, a student society or a change at work all count, if you show your decisions and the result.
How long should a scholarship essay be?
Exactly as long as the form allows, and not much shorter. This essay has about 400 words, within a typical 500-word limit. If yours is over, cut background first and keep the moment, the decisions and the result.
Every writer in this library is fictional, and so is every detail about them. Universities and companies appear only as places someone applies to; the professors, papers and facts mentioned around them are invented for teaching. Use the examples to learn the moves, never as text to copy: committees notice, and your own facts are stronger.