Jacob Markovitz

I am applying for the Jacob Markovitz Scholarship in order to help finance the furtherance of my education in leadership. I will be attending Yorkville University, in the Master of Education program in Education Leadership. I will be focusing on the Leadership in Learning stream, which is intended for leaders outside of the educational profession.

I see this program as making a tremendous contribution to my skill set. I have built up a lot of experience as a project manager (PMP) over the past several years, and I see getting leadership training as the next step in my career evolution. Adding knowledge of leadership is going to help me to become a better person who can inspire others, which will enhance my value in the marketplace. There are many examples of talented technical workers who need to specifically learn leadership in order to take their careers to the next level (Farr & Brazil, 2009).

Leadership is one of those vague concepts there are many definitions of what leadership is. One definition is that leaders are the people who take visions and turn them into reality (Psychology Today, 2017), and while that is a fair take, I also know that is what a project manager does. I think the defining characteristic about leadership that differentiates it from management in that sense is the human side. As a manager, I have plenty of experience telling people what to do, but a leader inspires under a great leader a team will not just perform, but outperform.

Communication is probably the most important element in leadership, because of its importance in motivating people not just to action, but to be their absolute best. A look at any list of leadership skills has communication right at the top. Many of the traits of leaders that follow are related to communication motivation, delegating, providing feedback these are the skills that one can learn by studying leadership and benchmarking how the best leaders perform these roles in their organizations (Doyle, 2017). For example, leadership requires a shift in communication, from detailed instruction son doing something, with specs, to more of a focus on key takeaways and message simplicity (Eventoff, 2017).

Other skills that I hope to acquire from this program are positivity and responsibility. It can be difficult to lead when you bring negativity to the workplace, and people respond to a high level of positivity and personal integrity. When one fails to uphold one's end of a bargain, then one needs to be culpable, and honest with themselves about what kind of person they have been. This is the only way to get better, the only way to improve oneself. One of the traits I admire most in leaders in their self-assurance; they are not afraid to be human and use that to make themselves better.

In fact, in a Harvard Business Review study on leadership, the most commonly cited trait is that leaders have to have high ethical and moral standards, and a leaders also needs to be able to...…in further my career. I truly believe that it will facilitate my being able to attend Yorkville Univessity and the Educational Leadership program, which in turn will provide my career with a springboard, and allow me to realize my dreams.

I humbly conclude the personal statement by noting that I have been very successful in my endeavours to this point, and because of that make an excellent candidate for this scholarship. I will uphold the scholarship's reputation with utmost integrity and honesty. There is little doubt that I have a plan to excel in this program, and will make the scholarship's funding go towards my achievements both during the program of study, but representing Yorkville University afterwards as well.