Statement of Purpose for a MA in Communications

Communications -- Personal Statement Say the word 'communications,' and immediately people think of the written or the spoken word. They think of a page of newspaper, a conversation with a friend. But corporate communications encompasses so much more than merely the verbal exchange of ideas. Corporate communications is kinesthetic. Through my work at my current place of business, Alcoa I communicate by email to all Alcoans worldwide, regarding the Earthwatch program, including its guidelines and the application process.

Earthwatch expeditions are hands-on efforts designed to add to the knowledge of Alocan personnel to give them personal knowledge of the different needs that must be met to build a sustainable future. My communication efforts for this program are personal as well as technical, and facilitate the communications process between employees on a personal level, and for the fifteen individuals ultimately chosen to become a part of the program, on a physical level with the natural world. Corporate communications makes numbers friendly and useful, but is not afraid of them.

I also coordinate the Ten Million Trees program at Alcoa, encouraging 450 locations worldwide to plant trees. I conduct a tree census each December. Then, I create charts and graphs that tell users of the Aloca website the number of trees planted to date, how many trees stand on different locations around the globe and future goals of the program. Through the using numbers in a personalized and a meaningful way, communication on a real level is also established through the use of the Internet on a global level.

Corporate communications must always be group-oriented yet personalized. I am also the Chairperson for the Aloca Life Committee. I chair bi-weekly meetings where we create a budget for the year and coordinate events for the committee throughout the year. Corporate communications is cross-cultural. Yes, I admit I revel in the more traditional forms of communication as well, outside of work. I am an active Toastmaster International member, an organization spanning the globe dedicated to the improvement of public speaking, particularly for corporate functions.

I also intend to become an International Exchange Coordinator with EF Foundation for Foreign Study, where I will be involved with networking for qualified host families, screening families and helping them in the process of hosting, both before and after the student has arrived in their home. I feel particularly strongly about this international aspect of corporate communications because was born in Pakistan, where women are not encouraged to attend graduate school. Most women get married immediately after completing undergrad, like my sister. I have a different outlook in life.

I have traveled to France, London, Germany, Lebanon, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and to the Caribbean. However, it is not enough merely to educate myself in the communication systems and structures of the world. I wish, through the use of the opportunities I have been granted in my past, and hopefully in my future, to extend the ability to travel and learn from other cultures to the lives of similarly underprivileged persons, particularly but not exclusively women from traditional culture.

Thus communications, including corporate communication is an ongoing process of education, spanning the philosophical theories behind persuasion to crisis management in corporate negotiations. I hope to study all such aspects of corporate communications in graduate school, and to supplement the education of my fellow students by sharing my own bicultural perspective within and without of the classroom. The mesh of academic and practical is critical I seek to further my education with a master's in education.

I have seen my education stretch and morph from work as Associate Business Analyst for the Random House Trade Group, back to my studies in finance, literature and business and management communications at Baruch College, and back even to my devotion to books as a young child. Through reading I learned to dream, through my work in academic and corporate America I made my dreams a reality.

My short-term goals in pursuing a master's degree are to improve my technical communication skills at work so I may prove a greater asset to my supervisor, the director of communications, while continuing to work at international projects, including a new refinery in Trinidad and with the smelter in Iceland and Australia. My long-term goals after completing my masters program, however, are ultimately to I continue my education and obtain a Ph.D. In industrial psychology.

One day I hope to become a director of an international organization that brings high school students from around the world to exchange ideas, to achieve an understanding of cultures, languages, along the lines of the EF Foundation, but through the use of group conferences and travel initiatives as well as home stays with local residents. Ultimately, all communication, corporate and personal,.