• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)
Background Information: The applicant, ambivalent to the mental health epidemic, facilitates one of the largest mental health awareness campaigns after tragedy hits home.
Leadership Traits: Openness, Communication
Leadership Trait (Explained): Sometimes, some of the best pitches cited in essays are around open communication. Instead of manipulative pitches, the applicant openly shares the stigma of promoting mental health awareness with managers who book events for stand-up comedians. The open communication leads to the non-profit acquiring some of the best comedians for a national marketing campaign on mental health.
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
Theme (Explained): Communication and innovation can also exist in a world outside of technology if you can share how the solution was formulated. The essay covers the themes with subtlety.
Profile: Consultant
Industry: Non-Profit
Opener: The opener shares a trend we have seen in social media on mental health and the apathy around it.
Sample Harvard MBA Leadership Essay & Mental Health – Building Awareness (247 Words)
I had seen hundreds of Facebook likes on Mental health Awareness. I kept ignoring them until, in 2015, a cousin succumbed to the ugliness of her thoughts.
Traditional government campaigns were ineffective in reaching the most vulnerable in low-income families. I founded <X>' - a non-profit to communicate the mental health epidemic in India.
First, we ..
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