Sona Shadmand

What is your name and what course do you study, what year are you in, what scholarship did you receive?

My name is Sona and I am a postgraduate Student studying MSc Project Management, Finance and Risk.

I am so excited to share with you that I have been awarded the Global STEM Leadership scholarship from City St George's, University of London.

What were you doing before you came to study at City St George's? 

Before studying at City St George's, I had a career in project management in my country, Iran. After a few years of experiencing professional world, I realised that I needed to learn more about management and leadership in the context of projects.

I decided to make a change in my career path and get a head start through academic endeavours.

What has been your favourite module on the course, and what have you enjoyed most about your time at City St George's? 

My favourite module is Project Lifecycle, which is about how projects are defined, implemented and monitored to make a positive change.

It is also about how project management can help to thrive in project dynamics and uncertainty.

What I most like about City St George's is the friendly people and vibrant academic culture, as well as the excellent teaching.

What kind of things are you involved in outside of your course? 

I am in favour of women leadership to overcome gender barriers in the project management profession, and I warmly encourage every woman to join with us in this excellent program and scholarship.

Hopefully, my efforts are going to be helpful for anybody seeking to grow as a leader within their career and life.

What do you plan to do after you graduate? 

Well, regardless of what role I would have in my career, I would like to be a leader in this profession and make a positive impact in the future of project management.

What I like about project management is interacting with people, while leadership empowers effective communication.

What would be your top tip for our applicants? 

One tip I would say to applicants is: “believe in your dreams, plan and act. Then your dreams are going to be a reality”.

What is your proudest academic achievement?

In addition to studying at a world class global university, I am very proud to be awarded this prestigious and outstanding scholarship by the School of Science & Technology.

How do you see your subject of study changing in the future?

The world is changing fast. You might think of project management as an old fashioned and traditional way of thinking. But it has changed dramatically and has increasingly become an integral part of any business.

Since the pandemic, project management has been affected greatly along with other subjects.Digital transformation, virtual teams, data analytics, and artificial intelligence are going to have a great impact on decision making in the project management.

In addition, the culture of leadership and empowering teams to decide collaboratively is a new trend that I think will have better outcomes in successfully delivering projects.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Be ambitious and inspire people to be too.