Chevening Conversations

A blog that gives our Chevening scholars the opportunity to tell us about their Chevening Experience. The opinions presented in this blog are the opinions of the blog author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Chevening Scholarships programme or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

11th October 2013

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by Sarah Dickson

Ambassador to Guatemala (June 2012 - June 2015)

Keep calm, and apply for a Chevening Scholarship

Recently we said farewell to one of our Chevening Scholars, Javier Brolo, who has now left Guatemala and arrived safely in the UK. Here’s guest blog from him with some first impressions. Over to you Javier… This is my first week of classes as a Chevening scholar at the University of Essex, and I wanted […]

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10th September 2013 Havana, Cuba

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by Tim Cole

Former British Ambassador to Cuba

Chevening Cubans

This month Aimée Gonzalez, a Cuban development worker, will travel to London to start her studies in local development. Aimée is a Chevening scholar and I’m really pleased that the British government will be paying for her to study a Masters degree at the London School of Economics (LSE). Every year all over the world […]

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13th August 2013 Chevening, UK

A Botswana Chevening Scholar Visits The Mother of Parliaments

Our latest blog entry is by Bogolo Joy Kenewendo, a 2012 Chevening Scholar from Botswana. Bogolo is studying for an MsC in International Economics at the University of Sussex. If you are a Chevening scholar and are interested in submitting a blog entry for the Chevening Conversations blog, then please email us at fcoscholarships@fco.gov.uk. This is a story of […]

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30th July 2013 Chevening, UK

Saying Farewell to our Chevening Class of 2012/13

On 23 July 2013 we bade a sad farewell to our Chevening class of 2012/13. FCO Minister Hugo Swire hosted and  Malaysian scholar Ruth Garnet Maran, representing the class, gave the valedictory address. There are several defining moments, both positive and negative in life that define and redefine who you are. These events shake the consciousness with […]

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22nd May 2013 Chevening, UK

Addressing Sexual violence in Somalia: Moving beyond retaliation and impunity

The following is a guest post by Faiza Abdirashid. Faiza is a 2012 Chevening Scholar from Somalia studying for an MSc in Public Policy at the University of Bristol. A recent meeting organised by three UK government departments (DFID, FCO and home Office) on 29rd April focussed on the challenges facing Somali women. It was a great […]

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25th April 2013 Bucharest, Romania

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by Raluca Bragarea

Head of Communications, Bucharest

Focus group on Europe: the take from Chevening alumni

This afternoon I will be conducting a focus group with a number of Chevening alumni from a variety of professional backgrounds (press, law, trade, political) to discuss how they perceive UK as a partner in the EU. I look forward to a two-hour long discussion, and hope at the end of it we come up […]

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19th April 2013 Chevening, UK

The conflict chain is beginning to break: It is time for a stable Somalia

The upcoming conference in London, to be co-hosted by David Cameron and the Somali President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, on May 7th, marks a new beginning in terms of Somalia’s relationship with the international world.  This and the G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting last week, where Somalia was a key issue on the agenda, as well as […]

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11th April 2013

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by Paul Madden

British Ambassador to Japan

Four more indigenous scholars head to Cambridge and Oxford

There are few things more important than education. Our Chevening scholarships benefit the individuals who come to the UK to study, the communities from which they come, and the societies to which they return, often to play future leadership roles. So it was a great pleasure to be sending four more young indigenous Australians off […]

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20th March 2013 Bucharest, Romania

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by Raluca Bragarea

Head of Communications, Bucharest

Restart: Chevening Alumni network

I invited our colleague Ian Saunders to tell us more about our network of Chevening alumni and scholars with whom we reconnected recently. Ian, you have the floor! Attended by nearly 60 fellows and scholars and hosted by the Ambassador at his residence the gathering was a night of pleasant mix of networking and socialising. Among our […]

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