Dear Registrar [or name of addressee if possible]:
I am a 22-year-old Zimbabwean citizen who is applying for an MSc in Information Technology.
I currently hold a BSc degree with a double major in Computer Science and
Mathematics. This is my formal motivation letter for my
application.
I am a Zimbabwean national, but I currently reside in Namibia. I
obtained my BSc here in Windhoek, Namibia, at the
University of Namibia.
I have always had a desire to help those less fortunate than I am, because I too came from humble beginnings. During my university career, I was involved in a variety of charity
projects, one of which was as a Physically Active Youth (P.A.Y.) volunteer, participating as an after-school teacher for underprivileged children. These were high school students that needed
help, as they could not afford tutors, and the teachers at their schools
were already overburdened. I taught mainly science
subjects-- mostly mathematics and physical science.
It was these children that created the motivation for my final
year project. As a degree requirement, I created an educational
system that would allow school children to study for their examinations, take tests, and view examination
results, all within the system.
The system was briefly implemented for testing purposes and later
removed; however, in that short space of time, the system received
strong positive feedback from the test students. Currently there are not
enough resources to permanently implement this system, but in it remains one of my
aspirations to see it fully operational one day.
I graduated from university in November 2006. My main focus was
computer science, where my greatest interest lay. I then
decided that I wanted to take all the knowledge I had gathered in university and put it into practice. The perfect opportunity for me then
arose: I was employed as a junior Systems Analyst/Developer for
Sovereign IT, a small information technology firm in Namibia.
I became part of the team contracted by the Ministry of Gender
Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) of Namibia to build the Namibia
National Orphan or Vulnerable Children (OVC) database system. The main
objective was to use technology to build a system enabling OVC
to receive assistance in the form of donor grants in a simple
way and to supply information for all the social workers,
such as statistics on the OVC. This project began on 8 January 2007 and is set to end on 31 August 2007.
The system itself is a web-based database system. I participated in
the all areas of the software development cycle. This has been a very
interesting experience for me. It has made me realize how unfortunate
some people really are, and it has also made it apparent that with the aid of technology, some of the deprivations that people experience
can be easily overcome. I would like to be at the forefront of
developing and implementing new projects that use technology to help
alleviate the problems we face here, not only in Namibia but also in Africa as a
whole.
I feel that technology is the way of the future. Technology can help the
underdeveloped to develop. Technology is the aid that will
help Africa move into the next century, when all our problems will be
but a distant memory. I hope to be a pioneer in helping to achieve this
goal. I know that currently my knowledge of the computing world and
the industry as a whole is still very limited. I would like to be an
innovator, but this requires a truly in-depth understanding of the
subject. Therefore, my goal now is to expand my knowledge even further by
obtaining a master's degree in Information Technology, and I would like very much to accomplish this at your institution.