Part of the MBA & EMBA Application Guide Series and available as a PDF digital download from mbaSTORY.builders/books and as a paperback from Amazon . This book contains 25 MIT Sloan cover letters and is intended for applicants to MIT Sloan’s two-year MBA program , the LGO (Leaders for Global Operations) program, and its Sloan Fellows program . About the author, Leah Derus Leah is an MBA and EMBA admissions consultant at mbaSTORY.builders She has a background in psychology and an MBA from MIT Sloan’s full-time program. Excerpt: Dear MIT Sloan MBA Admissions Committee Members, A few years after Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union, Dad turned down a plush job with the NHS in the U.K. to instead help rebuild our country's health system. As a doctor in a state research institute, he got paid at the end of the month, except when he didn't…which was a regular occurrence. Thick with adolescent fever for a new video game console, I couldn't understand his choice to raise my sisters and me in Kyiv rather than London. Today, as a father myself, I marvel at his conviction. Resilience, a sense of agency…not destiny, and a desire to serve despite personal sacrifice. These were the values I was raised with. During my career's first phase, those values translated into acting as a change agent. At Oschadbank, I redesigned the bank's mobile app, increasing online sales by 25%, and led the rollout of a new airline miles credit card, which is now a leader in its segment. "We've been catering to small and medium enterprise clients too long. Senior leadership wants to broaden our reach", the head of Sense Bank's strategy team explained over the phone. The bank was long on ideas and short on resources. This suited me perfectly because I'd always preferred the challenge of fixing up a rusted vintage car to the easy (but ultimately boring) luxury of a BMW. I accepted the job at Sense Bank and began leading a team of 35 to develop a chatbot that enabled clients to bank via Facebook and other social media platforms - all on a shoestring budget. Next, I spearheaded a new online platform that digitalized the bank's product offering, including two-hour loan applications (a feature that had initially met with pushback from loan officers). Technology is great, but organizations are people places with people problems. My team's changes caused tellers to fear being made redundant. We responded by creating virtual teller roles. Loan officers claimed two hours would never be enough time for the necessary approvals. Bureaucracy had ballooned over time. We slayed it - empowering loan officers, for the first time, to use their sole discretion in extending up to $5,000 in credit. I'm currently the employee of the year and the youngest department director in the bank's history. My senior director says I have a bright future there, but I don't plan to return to Sense Bank post-MBA. Instead, the second phase of my career will find me following in my father's footsteps and serving people. I want to launch the first Ukrainian bank to serve under or unbanked citizens - eventually expanding to Central Asia. Where Oschadbank and Sense Bank better serve the affluent, this new bank will serve the poor: cab drivers who deal in cash, people without collateral who require microloans, or unbanked villagers in the distant countryside. The holistic and world-class business education at MIT Sloan will be a source of inspiration, wisdom, and an opportunity for mutual aid among classmates. I will bring my unique cultural perspective from the Eurasian region, my experience in digital transformation, and most importantly, my desire to think and do in the MIT tradition of mens et manus. Sincerely, Andriy Melnyk