Personal statement: purpose, structure, and effective writing

Letter of Intent: Personal Statement

To College of ____ Admissions Committee,

I am applying for the Master's degree in the School of Social Work, because I truly believe that it is my life's calling to make people's lives better by helping them with their daily struggles through practical help and techniques for self-empowerment. This is no easy task for either party, but I believe that if both parties are committed to the task of improvement and the task of making things better, then all things are possible. The strengths that I bring to this endeavor are a full commitment, a tremendous amount of empathy, and practical experience and theories under my belt to work for concerted improvements for other people.

Imagine that you have had the social work career of your dreams. Now, you have retired and written an autobiography.

I've been extremely blessed and fortunate to have a long career of consistent forward momentum in the field of social work. When I look at the careers of some of my peers, who are saddled with frustration and resentment, or who feel burnt out from years of trying to help others and failing, I feel extremely lucky. I have always been able to use my efforts in a way that creates a strategy that gets real results. For instance, I created a school and social center for special needs children in a diverse, socio-economically disadvantaged district of Brooklyn. This school in many ways is a beacon of light in this neighborhood: it's not just a place for kids with special needs to go to interact and be stimulated: it's evolved to an entire community center where the entire neighborhood can go to exchange ideas, socially support one another, and better the entire community. This center has been one of my proudest achievements.

One of my proudest professional moments revolved around helping kids who were born with debilitating disabilities into underprivileged families thrive and accomplish their goals. One of my most shining moments was helping a child with cerebral palsy tie his own shoes, and be able to do it for himself each day. It was such a proud moment for me, and one which still impacts me emotionally to this day because I know how much that meant to him and how badly he wanted to be able to do that on his own. Smaller incidents like that throughout my career have been some of the most encouraging incidents: in empowering kids to be able to do ordinary tasks that most people take for granted, I've been able to feel like I've helped make miracles happen, and that's something I've always felt grateful for an ability to do throughout my career.

In my professional career, I worked not just with mentally challenged kids, but also with children who had experienced the most wretched form of abuse growing up. These children often had extremely aggravated forms of PTSD which manifested in ways like severe social dysfunction, or self-mutilation or drug use or risque or dangerous sexual behavior. Working with these kids required a virtual artillery of tactics from art therapy to cognitive therapy to group therapy to family therapy to dance and music therapy. All of these kids needed a range of different approaches and it was immensely challenging. But for the most part, the bulk of the kids wanted to be reached and they wanted someone who cared to reach out to them, even if they had walls upon walls of defenses up. Thus, my career has been peppered with challenges, but I've always been lucky enough to have the right strategies and the right team of people behind me to better meet those challenges and to help clients, empower clients, and to ensure that our school/community center remained a constantly evolving beacon of light.

Working with Specific Populations

I've always had a knack with certain populations and have worked hard to better serve them and to empower them to make their lives better. One population that I've worked with was families who had loved ones which were suffering from Alzheimer's disease. My class advisor Dr. George Adams, a specialist in Alzheimer's, gave me the privilege of assisting him with a new Alzheimer's support group specifically designed for Greek-Americans. Because of my knowledge of Greek culture and fluency in the language, I not only participated in the group counseling sessions but also acted as a liaison between the group members and Dr. Adams. This gave me some truly pertinent professional experience in working with families which even exceeded past what I had been able to receive working professionally within the school system with the parents of special needs students.

I've also worked with under-privileged families in low-income neighborhoods, an experience which gives me another asset to bring to this profession and to this degree program. I feel that I have a heightened awareness of the realities of the world. I have a clear understanding of the challenges which continue to face at-risk communities. Thus far in my professional trajectory, my B.A. In psychology has been able to guide me to a certain extent, but I still seek a more rigorous and precise knowledge to help such children and the community at large, through the provisions of a graduate degree in social work. I feel an advanced degree in combination with the experience I already have will empower me to make a more meaningful impact on the lives of others.