Personal Statement
Sport has been a crucial part of my life since I have been a kid. I consistently train or play. In my final year of school, I played club football with Abu Dhabi elite while also representing my school in football (soccer) and basketball. I had captained for the school football team and won the adissa basketball tournament for school (BISAD). I consider this to be valuable as while consistently playing sports (mainly soccer) I also achieved the IB diploma with above-average grades.
Describe the type of person you are (examples of what you like and dislike)
I consider myself to be a well-rounded person, motivated, grounded and people consider me to be good-natured. I enjoyed contributing to school life by taking part in many different extracurricular activities including multiple sports teams as well as volunteering to help with younger years in events such as house day and coaching teams.
In my final year of IB, I received an award for “balance” for maintaining a well-rounded life concerning training, school work and socially.
Throughout the 2 year IB course, while staying up to date with school work and other commitments, I was also training 4 times a week with football in my club’s select/rep team (as well playing including games and taking part in multiple school sport activities).
I am currently working for the Manchester City Football School in Abu Dhabi, which is part of the City Football Group that owns Manchester City FC in the English Premier League as well as clubs in 6 other countries. I assist with the coaching of children from the age of 3 to 16 and enjoy this role.
I dislike the idea of not doing anything or not progressing towards anything. As I feel as if is a wasted opportunity which could be put to better use, hence why if I don’t have work I would likely be training.
I like to be a social person within schools, teams and other social environments. However, I am an independent worker as I prefer to rely upon myself to achieve an objective/ deadline. As it means I won’t have to be reliant on someone else and that if it’s not achieved it’s only me to blame.
I have enjoyed the opportunities I have had in my last 6 years living overseas to visit other places and experience other cultures. Coming from New Zealand the furthest I had been was Fiji. Being able to experience different places was satisfying as it allowed me to have an open mind in terms of different situations across the world.
Explain why you have chosen your programme to study. What is an interest in the subjects you have chosen?
I am hoping to study commerce and major in economics. I have chosen to study economics because I am interested in understanding its theories and how it applies to the real world. Economics has an impact on our daily lives but also our daily lives (as a collective) have an impact on the economy.
While studying economics at college, the main interest of mine was economic integration. I liked it because it had to do with current events which also helped the understanding of the theory because it was visible how it applies to the real world. I did an internal assessment on Brexit because of this, which involved analysing how the UK leaving the European Union (common market) effects different economies and what effect the depreciating pound had. Economics is interesting to me because of its importance in reality.
Provide examples of activities or events you have participated in which helped other people. What motivated you?
In my final year of school, I went to Tanzania in order to help build a primary school. The main purpose was to help a less fortunate community and it gave me the chance to see with my own eyes what life in a less economically developed country is like. Doing this also made me appreciate you can be happy with some of the simpler things in life and how privileged we are in ours. Our task was to help set up a garden with a fence which could be used to help feed students and in an ideal situation excess could be sold and the money goes back into the school.
The IB diploma has a CAS (Creativity, Activity and Service) requirement. I did a lot of my service with coaching - mainly football and basketball - because it’s what I was passionate most about. Also helped the school community with fund-raising and house days which enabled me to work with pars of all ages and enable for me to create some valuable experiences for my fellow students
As I indicated previously, I am currently working as an assistant coach at the Manchester City Football School in Abu Dhabi. The club made the role for me based on the volunteer work I had done with them with coaching. This role was created for me due to my dedication when I was volunteering with them and as I worked well and contributed effectively to the club, they found me to be a valuable member of their team and thus created this position for me which is a great honour.
