by Louise Nicol, Chevening Officer
Eduardo Chorocco and Mariana Alegre, Peru’s 2012/13 Chevening Scholars will be heading to the UK this week for what promises to be a once in a lifetime experience. Both shared their expectations with me at a farewell lunch at the Ambassador’s Residence last Friday:
“To have been selected gives me an enormous sense of personal satisfaction and great responsibility. The opportunity to study at one of the oldest universities in the world and enjoy its libraries, art collections, academic and student life in invaluable. I am convinced this will be one of the greatest experiences of my life.”
Eduardo Chorocco – Diploma in Diplomatic Studies, Oxford University
“The possibility to study and live in the UK fills me with enthusiasm and expectation. Studying city design at LSE will allow me to return to Peru with cutting edge knowledge of urban planning and design that I will want to put to use to contribute to improving the quality of life for many Peruvians.”
Mariana Alegre – MSc City Design & Social Science, London School of Economics
You may be asking yourself ‘What is Chevening?’
In short, Chevening is the UK Government’s global scholarship programme, named for the country residence of the Foreign Secretary. Operating in 120 countries worldwide, 700 scholarships are awarded through the scheme each year. Chevening provides a full or partial scholarship for post-graduate students to study for a full-time Masters for one year in the UK. Established in 1983, 156 Peruvians have joined the ranks of a global, highly-regarded and influential network of more than 40,000 Chevening Alumni.
Over my two plus years in Lima, I have had the honour of being part of the panel that has selected nine Peruvian Chevening Scholars. They have studied a variety of topics ranging from urban planning and transportation to international development and mining law and policy. And they have graduated from some of the UK’s leading universities, from as far north as Dundee in Scotland to Oxford, London, East Anglia and Surrey.
I have met lots of really strong candidates and selecting winners has not been easy. Qualities that all of the scholars we have chosen have in common is that they have all been intelligent, ambitious, articulate and full of life and, most importantly, each of them has wanted to make a real difference and contribute to Peru’s impressive development.
Notable UK alums include former Foreign Minister, Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde, who obtained a diploma in international diplomacy from Oxford University, and former Prime Minister and Defensor, Beatriz Merino, a graduate of the LLM programme at LSE. Lofty positions to aspire to!
So do you think you have what it takes to be Peru’s next Chevening Scholar or know someone who meets the requirements? We will be launching our academic year 2013/14 scholarship application process in October. Check our website for updates in the coming weeks.
For more information on Chevening, please visit:
Good afternoon, I have an offer to study the MSc Social Policy at LSE in 2014/2015 and I am looking for financial support for my studies and I learned about the Chevening Scholarships, could you provide me with some information about how to apply or requirements to apply. Thank you for your attention and any help regarding this.
Kind regards