The eagerly-awaited results of the 2009 QS Leadership and Community Scholarships have finally been announced after the QS panel of experts reached a conclusion after several months of deliberation. The scholarships are an annual award by QS, the career and education specialists who put on the World MBA Tour, topmba.com, the TopMBA Career Guide and QS Scorecard, to a total of US$18,000 this year.
In recent years QS Scholarship winners, all of whom became eligible by attending a World MBA Tour fair and submitting an essay detailing why their leadership skills or social responsibility makes them great candidates, have come from more than a dozen countries. They are attending an equally various number of top business schools all around the world.
Nunzio Quacquarelli, managing director of QS, says: “We’ve been very pleased with the response to the scholarships this year. During these recessionary times, scholarships are more and more important to MBA candidates and students. QS focuses on finding candidates who have developed interesting leadership or community-based careers of products which we feel reflects a strong movement towards socially responsible business leadership for the future.”
QS Leadership Scholarship – One award of US$10,000
Yan Qiu: Yan, from China, is the winner of the exclusive QS Leadership Award worth $10,000, the biggest award on offer. An accountant and business control specialist, Yan Qiu swaps mergers and acquisitions for the Washington-Olin University in St. Louis.
QS Community Scholarships – Four awards of US$2,000
Jinho Lee: When encountering a challenge, Korean Jinho Lee simply asks “Why not?” That philosophy has seen him successfully change the way business is done in his organization. In 2010, Jinho will graduate from Wharton.
Kelly Chavez: Involved in a local non-profit food program, Food for All, in Washington DC, Kelly will head to Europe for her MBA studies at ESADE Business School in Barcelona.
Kunal Guha: Throughout his career Kunal’s been a student, teacher, marketer and educator. Now the Indian MBA student studies at Cambridge Judge Business School in the UK.
Brittany Sanders: With a passion for mathematics and a flair for tutoring, American Brittany finishes her studies at Carnegie Mellon in 2010.
Zoya Zaitseva, Global Operations Director at QS, and in charge of the QS Scholarships Fund, says: “With many loans vanishing as a result of the economic crisis, we expect more strong scholarships applications than ever. So those accepted to the MBA programs starting in Fall 2009 or Spring 2010 have to work really hard on their essays to make them stand out. I am looking forward to running through the first hundreds of essays in a couple of weeks. Due to the numerous requests from the candidates who have visited the World MBA Tour in different cities all over the world we’ve decided to extend this year’s deadline till 30 April. With new schools on board – Vlerick, EMLYON, Skolkovo, Melbourne Business Schools – we are proud of our US$1.6 m fund.”
Deadline for applications for the next QS Scholarships is April 30th 2009. The applications can be submitted now on www.topmba.com/scholarships
Read the full article: QS Scholarship winners announced