Yogyakarta, October 15th 2020—Global Engagement Office or GEO Fisipol UGM came back with Exposure Talks. Having previously managed to attract many participants with the theme of the LPDP Scholarship, in its seventh series, Exposure Talks brought a topic about “Chevening 101” by presenting two Chevening Scholarship awardees as the speakers, Retno Lestari Ningsih, M.Sc., dan Yasinta Ariesti, S.I.P. The GEO Fisipol UGM designed this Exposure Talks to be more productive, by providing essay writing workshops in the event. After it was opened at 01.05 p.m. by the short speech of the topic and the introduction of speakers by presenter and moderator. Retno as the first speaker was also invited to directly deliver the material.
On this occasion, Retno as an awardee of Chevening Scholarship of 2018/2019, talked about essay writing preparation and choosing a university. In her explanation, Retno explained the types of essays that are required for the Chevening Scholarship registration, such as related essays about leadership, networking, study plan, and career plan. Even though those essays are different from one another, there must still be a connection between one essay and another. In order to create a common thread between essays, Retno suggested making a mind-mapping regarding what will be discussed. Don’t forget to do some research about what the essay will say.
Not only that, in writing essays, people often forget the philosophical aspects of what will be discussed because they are more focused on practical aspects. Retno explained that in writing Chevening’s essay, philosophical aspects also need to be considered and included. Even so, the essay must still be written based on the questions that are given by Chevening Scholarship. In other words, the essay must be able to answer Chevening’s questions. At the end of her presentation, before briefly discussing tips on choosing a university, Retno gave an example of the structure of each type of Chevening essay.
Meanwhile, the material presented by Yasinta, an awardee of Chevening Scholarship of 2019/2020, it was a kind of continuation from Retno’s material, which talked about choosing referees and interview preparation. Yasinta explained that basically the interview is the ability to articulate and communicate the essay that has been made. Yasinta likens the interview to be as important as the first date with a person we really like, it is necessary to make a good impression by wearing neat clothes, behaving politely, and showing our qualities. What distinguishes the first date from the interview, according to Yasinta, is not playing hard to get in the interview.
Yasinta also provided detailed information about the questions that were asked in the Chevening interview. Not to forget, she also provides tips, there were general tips, tips while interviewing, tips based on her experience, to the tips if you can’t answer interview questions. As the closing, Yasinta explained briefly and clearly about the selection of the referee.
In accordance with the schedule of events that was described at the beginning, after Yasinta’s explanation, the moderator invites the participants to ask questions to both speakers. After the questions were answered, one of the participants presented an example of a Chevening essay that he had written to be reviewed and discussed in the essay writing workshop session. The two speakers then gave their comments, suggestions, and tips for the essay. With a closing statement from the moderator and a group photo session, the whole event was officially ended. For those who did not have the chance to join, they can watch the reruns of the 7th Exposure Talks on the GEO Fisipol UGM Youtube channel.