Personal Statements
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
I have been in the United States for almost seven years and the greatest obstacle that I have faced until now is learning English. It has been a journey for me to adapt to American society: a society that I knew nothing about and my language barrier restricted my ability to communicate. Starting my freshman year in high school, I borrowed kids’ books from my seven-year-old nephew and started reading with a dictionary alongside. I also practiced talking and writing in English with people around me, so that I could improve my English skill. My English gradually got better over time, but there were still moments when I struggle to express myself in English fluently. It was hard for me to apply for a job, and due to my lack of English, I shied away from educational opportunities because I was not confident with my second language. By the time I got into college, I had realized that my improvement in English was not up to par with the college level. Since my major was Business, I knew that it would require a lot of understanding and communication. I had a tough time in my English courses, but that struggle was worth it because I came out learning a lot. Even though I know that I still have a lot to improve on, I’m glad about how my English development and what I have learned this far.
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
I have always been fascinated with the concept of building and assembling objects. I appreciate the feeling of assembling parts together like how every small piece of a puzzle com...
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...any of my business peers and joined business groups while at the community college. After taking the first two business courses, I knew this was the path I wanted to take and will succeed in this major. I am still taking and planning to finish the requirement courses that I need before transferring. I have taken Financial Business, which teaches financial accounting, forms of organizations, accounting information systems, and application of general accounting principle. I also have taken Managerial Accounting which examines how managers use accounting information in decision-making, planning, directing, operating, and controlling. I am planning to complete the business law course this spring before transferring, which covers legal setting and how businesses function with emphasis on legal reasoning and resolution, contracts, agency, partnerships and corporations.
Finally, leadership, my most valuable skill. Leadership is useful in any career and any situation. In band, I've used it a lot. Now that I'm going into the real world and my career, I know I will use it even more. My leadership has rewarded me personally. I feel like I have already made a difference in the lives of my peers. Leadership can get me anywhere in life and I expect that this alone could get me all the way to my college graduation. These skills in combination will keep me on top, and hopefully at the top of my college
I was raised in a small town in the Philippines where the main language we spoke was Filipino. At the same time though, English was a requirement and taught in the educational system. It was basic things; enough to able to speak and understand other English speakers at a standard level. Over there though, no one spoke English unless the person you were talking to didn’t understand Filipino. I never fully grasped the English language until I moved to America. Even then, it took a while to lose my accent and learn the language. Speaking from experience, I can relate to the struggle the author went through. In the United States, I had to learn English to be successful and move further in life. While I still keep to my Filipino roots and traditions, I still find it unethical to have to assimilate to American culture because society told me to. However, I am still happy to be
Amy Tan has provided her experience about growing up with different types of English language. She told a story about her encounter with the different types of English she uses with her husband and her mother and how these languages are apart of her life. I never would’ve thought that written language differed from spoken language, until Tan told her story. Her experiences were quite emotional, because she had to pretend to be her mother on the telephone. The communicators on the other end of the line did not understand Tan’s mother or take her very seriously, which I found to be uncivil. It’s important for people to learn to be patient with those who need time to speak and those who have trouble with a secondary language.
There are a lot of reasons why I chose to pursue pharmacy as my career and they all point to the most important reason: pharmacy is a great fit for my life and is something I have become increasingly passionate about. It started when I was researching careers with my parents and my dad suggested pharmacy and, simply put, it sparked my interest because at the time it was one of the few things I thought I would not hate doing. A healthcare career has always been where I put myself in the future, mainly because most of my family members are in the healthcare field. However, I have never been one that could directly help the wounded or deal with anything gory, but am very intrigued by the growing science of pharmacy. As I continue exploring pharmacy, the more I enjoy learning about it and feel like I could excel in this career.
Reflection Essay In the past four to five years, I struggled to learn English because my parents only spoke Spanish. In school, people use to make fun of me because I was not able to pronounce words correctly, or spell them out. As I got to high school, my reading skills improved but I went back to how I used to be because I stopped reading.
The first and second year after moving from China to the United States, I was afraid to talk to strangers because my English was not very well. I had to depend on my husband for dealing with my personal business, such as making a doctor’s appointment, calling to the bank, or questioning to DMV officers. Douglass says, “being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon my heart” (62). For myself, being a dependent and helpless adult is a shame. Moreover, I lacked of extra money to go to school to improve my English. Thus, I stayed home all the time to avoid embarrassment of talking to strangers. After a while, I realized that improving English speaking skills are the essential to gain my self-confidence. So, I spent time to read various articles on the internet and watched English dialogues’ videos on YouTube. As a non-English speaking immigrant living in the U.S., I inevitably encountered a series of difficulties to integrate myself into a new
Whoosh!A bed whizzed by, surrounded by about 6 medical personnel. “What’s going on?” I thought immediately with apprehension. I knew whatever was happening it was not ideal. Ensuring I was not in the way, I stood on my toes to see what demanded so much attention. To my astonishment, I saw a coin sized hot-pink little girl. She could not have been bigger than two quarters lying side by side.She was struggling! Even with all the procedures the doctors were executing to save her life, she was performing the most work.
Since the beginning of my academic endeavors, I have long cherished a dream to be a member of the social science research community, which gives our society progressive insights into human ecology. I began my undergraduate studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey with a passion for ecological justice and with the intention of majoring in environmental studies. Ramapo College’s progressive liberal arts foundation provided me with ample room to explore the multifarious array of social science courses. As I took more social science courses, however, my understanding of human social groups underwent a metamorphosis. As a result, I decided to pursue a degree in Social Science, with minors in the two fields I felt most passionately interested in, Women’s Studies and African American Studies.
Please discuss the following items in the order given. Briefly respond to all areas listed.
In American society, learning to speak English properly is a crucial factor in assimilation. People who have decided to come to America have found it rather difficult to assimilate into American society for several reasons. One reason being that learning a new language is or can be considerably difficult depending on your age. This is so because the act of learning a new language such as English, is much more difficult for an elderly person than for one who has not reached adolescence. According to Grognet, for elderly people there are several factors that affect their willingness to learn. Among those factors are, physical health, mental health, cultural expectations, attitude, motivation and finally the ability to acquire the correct diction, and to suitable articulation (Grognet 296-297). For a person who has not reached the prepubescent age, it is...
I was determined to learn the language by myself, and I remember Oliver Twist was my first real friend in junior school years. I kept reading a lot of English books trying to satisfy a gluttonous appetite to learn new vocabulary. As Prudie said in the movie The Jane Austen Book Club 2007 “High school's never over”, it was not over for me as well. Despite the hard time, I worked harder to be able to master the American accent using movies and imitating my teacher’s accent who happened to be half a Saudi and a half American. Furthermore, when I was accepted at Taif University (the western side of Saudi Arabia) in the English Undergraduate Program, I knew that the journey to success had just begun. I worked hard, and all I had was natural ability as Mickey Mantle said (yes, I'm quoting the famous baseball player) and the English language was my game. I finally found the stage that I could stand and speak English with confidence. However, my first challenge that I encountered was when I decided to put my knowledge to the test, and made a phone call to a live TV show in the English national TV of Saudi Arabia. I was extremely nervous, I muttered, and I did not know what to
When I first started school, I really didn’t know any English. It was hard because none of the kids knew what I was saying, and sometimes the teachers didn’t understand what I was saying. I was put in those ELL classes where they teach you English. The room they would take us to was full of pictures to teach us English, and they would make us sit on a red carpet and teach us how to read and write. When I would go back to regular class, I would have to try harder than the other students. I would have to study a little more and work a little harder with reading and writing if I wanted to be in the same level as the other kids in my class. when I got to third grade I took a test for my English and past it I didn’t have to go to does ELL classes anymore because I passed the test, and it felt great knowing that I wouldn’t have to take those classes no more.
1. I encountered the most significant challenge when I moved to Canada in January, 2012. Before I came to Canada, my English grade was very good in China, thus, I thought living and studying in Canada would not be too difficult. However, I did not do well in the ESL evaluation at all, and I was placed in ESL 1 at my high school. Most of my classmates there spoke very little English, and they did not spend much time and effort on studying English. It was very difficult for me to study if I wanted to be their friends and at that time, they were the only friends I had in Canada. However, I expected much more effort from myself. I studied very hard and became the 2nd fastest ESL students ever to complete ESL 1 to 4 in my high school. Today, when I recall what I have accomplished, I think I learnt to trust myself and at the same, success in anything only comes from hard work.
The skill that I am the best at or at least would give myself the highest score in would be showing empathy. I am not sure why I am skilled in this it just seems to come naturally to me. I have always found myself to be a very empathetic person who is able to understand the thoughts, feelings, beliefs and, attitudes of others almost as well as my own. One way that I have shown empathy is by being open to learning about the experiences of others including other cultures, races and religions. Learning about struggles of others and the impact their struggles have on the world as a whole has increased my ability to show empathy. I think that my empathetic nature has both helped me and hurt me in my life. It has helped me as a counselor, as
My interest in public interest law, nonprofit advocacy, and social justice began at a very young age. My passion was influenced by my upbringing, as well as my journey down a path different from what my family and culture envisioned. It is this same divergent path that has led me to me to pursue the legal profession today.