How can I improve the following scholarship application form?

Your job is to proofread, edit, and make suggestions (in a critical
sense) about the following application to a short (6 months)
scholarship awarded by an IT company in India (Programme on
Development, Implementation and Management of Computer Software
Applications) Regretfully, I don't have the time to polish the
application myself. The perfect profile is this: Directed to
professionals in different areas directly related to the courses
content: they should have knowledge in a programming language and
operating systems, they should have good knowledge of systems and they
should be in middle level positions in companies of the public sector
preferably.

I am not an English native speaker, so you would have to detect and
correct any mistakes I might have done, -including mistakes regarding
style or unclear expression.

You would also have to tell me if I have to improve some things, or
what I might have missed about this application which might be
essential. All criticism is highly welcomed, just imagine you are in
the Scholarship Jury Committee.

(Note: Please use American English.)


-- Knowledge of English: 

I can read, write, speak and understand English fluently. After
graduating, I taught mathematics in English at a bilingual school, and
I?ve negotiated with American businessmen in English without any
problems.


-- Employment Record

1. Period From-To: Promoted on 30/03/2001 to today	

Particulars of Position held: Technical subdirector of Tulua?s office	

Nature of work: 
To guarantee the success of projects in the North of Valle del Cauca
and the appropriate awareness and acceptance on the part of
thecommunitarian groups.
To advise management about the direction of projects, including those
of international cooperation.
To direct the digitalization and data processing area and to take care
of the suitable systematization of all projects.
To evaluate green products marketing lines and ecolabelled products trade.
To analyze economic and financial viability for the projects.

2. Period From-To: From 10/01/1999, promoted on 30/03/2001	

Particulars of Position held: Technical assitant in computing and marketing	

Nature of work: 
To generate opportune information on ecological markets.
To take care of the quality of the systematization of the projects 
To satisfy the requirements of the digitalization and dataprocessing area.
To compile environmental technologies applicable to tropical
ecosystems on a national and international scale.
To direct the edition, publication, translation and presentation of
projects to the communities, local governments and investors.
To support technical processeses and standards for
environmentalcertifications, green markets and biocommerce.

3. Period From-To: From 06/02/2004 to today	

Particulars of Position held: Adjunct university professor of
mathematics and physics

Nature of work: 
To lecture assigned subjects (Physics I in Computer Systems
Engineering, Differential Equations in Environmental Engineering,
Mathematics II in Industrial Engineering, Physics I in Medicine,
depending on the time of the year).
To stimulate research and application of new technologies.
To publish in the university magazines (?Pensar *U*?, ...)
To serve as examining jury in theses related to the area of physics,
and to offer workshops on the ?ECAES? (equivalent to the Graduate
Record Examinations).

4. Period From-To: From 25//08/2001 to 30/05/2002	

Particulars of Position held: School teacher of mathematics in English	

Nature of work: 
To teach mathematics in English language at both primary and secondary level.
To develope performance profiles for the students.
To design activities (such as simultaneous chess exhibitions),
didactic materials and software for the science fair and the bazaar.
To offer pedagogical conferences for the preparation of the ?Censales?
examinations.


-- Are you an employee of government/quasi-government
organisation/private company or are you self-employed?  Give details
and attach a letter from your employer recommending you for this
training course.

My employer **XX** is an environmental cooperative (a solidary
economy, nonprofit organization), based on Cali, Colombia, South
America, in the Valle del Cauca department jurisdiction, projected to
southwestern Colombia, including the Pacific Coast. See attached
recommendation letter.


-- State briefly, not exceeding 500 words, your requirements for
training (indicating as precisely as possible the general nature of
the project or development scheme or any other programme which has
given rise to this request.  The object of the training course under
request should be clearly explained.):

My employer *XX* is an environmental cooperative (a solidary economy,
nonprofit organization), based on Cali, Colombia, South America, in
the Valle del Cauca department jurisdiction, projected to all the
southwestern Colombia, including the Pacific Coast. The Valle del
Cauca department has 2?000.000 hectares and 4?300.000 inhabitants.
Almost 86% percent of the Valle del Cauca is made by Andean Region
(Cordilleras Central y Ooccidental) and Pacific Region. In these
areas, we have a forest deficit of 400.000 hectares: coffee
agriculture and traditional cattle raising with few or no
technological applications are still the main subsistence means. The
remaining 14% of the department is made by the eponime Cauca river
valley with an extension of 320.000 hectares, where sugarcane, soya
and cotton agroindustries prevail.

*XX* has twenty professionals in the fields of forest engineering,
agronomy, biology, computing and management to support developmental
projects and investments in reforestation, hidrographic basins
management, residual water treatment, community education and
qualification, protected areas management and ecotourism development.

*XX*?s mision are the social and economical inclusion of rural
communities to awake their environmental and developmental
responsibility, and to secure the sustainability of local economic and
politic institutions? investments.

For this, *XX* assists the execution, and executes itself, projects in
agroforestry, reforestation, biocommerce and Green Seal
certifications; involving in these projects local governments, NGO?s,
rural communities, communal action boards, indian reserves and
afro-colombian ethnic communities, so that the communities themselves
can become responsible, in a dynamic and democratic manner, of the
bettering of their life quality, the restoration of their resources,
and the mitigation of current environmental damages.

*XX*?s vision is advocating the plantation of 200.000 hectares in the
following 10 years and offering its expertise to assit the management
of 630.000 hectares of natural tropical forest in the Pacific Coast.
With this commitment, information processing and technological
transfer stand as major instruments to increase sustainability and
productivity, and to enhance access to economical resources from the
international cooperation of Colombia?s friend countries.

The biggest enterprise of *XX* so far has been to formulate the Forest
Development Plan for the Valle del Cauca Department, and to articulate
the forest and timber productive chain in order to exploit all the
competitive advantages the region provides, (such as abundant and
inexpensive labor force), advantages which favor the local production
in the national and international niche markets for tropical timber.

Since before I finished my studies at Universidad del Valle, one of
Colombia?s top universities, I have been with *XX*, generating new
ideas and leadership for the growth and economic solidity of the
cooperative. Since then, I?ve been promoted to Technical Subdirector
of Tuluá?s office, where one of my responsibilities is directing the
digitalization and dataprocessing area. My main duty for the next two
years is to develope a permanent web server which will help to
articulate the forest and timber productive chain between producers
(rural communities), processors (small industriers) and distributors
(national and potentially international companies). For this, we
require to systematize all our data in an agile computer standard and
set up a server to answer, in real time, the various requirements from
communities, investors, technical assitants, producers and buyers, so
that in the long term everyone can have verifiable, updated and
efficient information which can be adjusted or modified along with the
projects.

In order to further qualify myself for this project, and through me,
the other employees and future system users, the present program was
selected among several options, and I am currently attending a
computer networks seminar to have better foundations for your course.
Furthermore, *XX* will support my qualification by contributing with
50% of my current salary during the time of my studies and by
guaranteing my current laboral link after I return to Colombia.

As testimony of my academical dedication and enthusiasm, I?d like to
mention that I was the highest GPA at my high school, I was awarded
the Andrés Bello national merit distinction, I obtained the highest
score in the national admision tests of my country (ICFES) among
70.000 contestants, I was awarded a full scholarship during my
undergraduate studies, I finished these studies with a 4.7/5.0 GPA
with a thesis which relates artificial intelligence to physics, and
now I am also an adjunct university professor at a local university
where I teach mathematics and physics at Environmental Engineering and
at Computer Sysytems Engineering, among other departments. I feel
completely
passionate about computers and computer systems, I have self taught
myself more than half a dozen programming languages starting since I
was twelve yeas old (including HTML, Javascript, Mathematica, Mupad,
OCAML, Mozart, Qbasic, Visual Basic for Applications...), I wrote a
book about internet business (Secretos Corporativos para Impulsar y
Expandir sus Negocios en Línea -"Corporate secrets to boost and expand
your business on-line" available at http://___), and as a result of
one of *XX*?s projects and sponsored by them, I have developed two
websites which now help Colombian translators and Colombian web
designers to sell their products abroad (www.___.com and www.___.com).
If selected to pursue this program, *YY* LTD. can be assured that it
will have the 110% of me, both to take advantage of the course and the
interaction with my teachers and condisciples in the best possible
way, as well as to share all my current experiences to the class and
hopefully to develope a common ground for future commercial links
between India and Colombia in the computing or the environmental
field.


-- Recommendation letter


Santiago de Cali, August 5th de 2.004



Mrs. 
*YY*
NEW DELHI
INDIA



REF: 	*XX*?s COMMITMENT WITH THE SPECIALIZED QUALIFICATION PROGRAM ON
DEVELOPMENT, IMPLEMENTARION AND MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE
APPLICATIONS FOR MR. *JHO*


Mr.JOH, as Technical Subdirector of Tuluá?s Office responsible for the
digitalization and data processing area, has been designated to direct
the systematization of the Forest Productive Chain in the Valle del
Cauca Department, through the creation of a database and a permanent
web server with all the information about the forest sector in the
region, in accordance to Colombia?s National Developement Office data.

With the purpose of fulfilling his new functions and responsibliities,
it is demanded from Mr. *JHO* to further specialize in the fields of
computer systems and internet services so that he can handle his new
tasks more efficiently.

With the aforementioned purpose, *XX* supports Mr. Ospina economically
with 50% of his current salary for the duration of his qualification,
so that he can undergo his studies in *YY* LTD. and return to the
cooperative to qualify the cooperative?s personnel, the NGOs and other
institutions associated with the project.

Mr. HO?s qualification will be a fundamental contribution to the
formulation and execution of the Forest Development Plan of the Valle
del Cauca Department, the biggest responsibility that this
environmental cooperative has ever had, as well as to other social and
environmental programs the cooperative develops.

Cordially,

President *XX*



-- Dipoma translation

Republic of Colombia
National Ministry of Education

The Universidad del Valle
confers the degree of

Physicist
to
*JHO*
identified with ....

In testimony of that, the present diploma is drawn up and
countersigned with the institutional seal.
In the city of Santiago de Cali, Valle del Cauca, the 23th November of 2001.

Rector?s Signature 	Dean?s Signature

Registered at sheet 555-29 in the 1st book of Diplomas, 23 th November 2001