Hunter University, Personal Statement Example

There is so much that lies deep inside ourselves, but we never discover it until we sit back and rediscover our inner self. My personality, values, and beliefs are things that I developed in a funny way. I happened to have a doctorate holder father. He always talked in educational terms, walked in an academic angle, and always believed and stated the much one could do with a great education without anyone doubting. He always referred education to a personal asset that no one can steal from you.  All his speeches would give in references to some educated person somewhere. I took every word seriously and this formed the basis of my strong personality. I developed a positive attitude to develop value to everything I do in my life. I gauged my potentiality and discovered that I could not handle economics as my father did. However, inside me lied a potential person who would contribute towards serving the nation in a different manner. I considered my trust, my value, my humbleness, my sacristy, and my tender touch, and believed there was a career that I would well fit. Further, the fact that I saw some of my family struggle in Nigeria just to make ends meet raised my desire for a better future.

Social work is a career that revolves around people with problems. As a social worker, you act as the mediator while trying to help the clients solve their issues. The clients could be having issues to do with their families, their relationships, or even the environments. The way my parents brought me up remarkably contributed a lot in prompting me developing a thought about the social work career. My parents had different cultures, traditional Nigerian and Black American, yet I had to adapt, and this shaped my life. I was able to relate to different people easily and I even formed friends who could confide in me. I made friends in New York who would eagerly wait for my visit to share their problems with me. Even though I never actually provided viable and direct solutions, I felt something in me, and developed more interest in the social work profession.  The Nigerian culture further contributed to my development of wisdom in problem solving. I sourced wisdom from the elders in the village and from the masquerades that I attended. From the knowledge gained, I could easily solve small issues.

I have always aspired to help people as much as I can. As a social worker, the role of helping the “needy” required. A person may not be in need of material items but your time, time to talk and share, taking time trying to find out the best possible approach to a problem. It could be a person with social problems or a life-threatening disease and needs encouragement. Social work is more of creating healthy relationships with people around you. An incidence happened during my undergraduate studies that I discovered some students, who were below average, all they needed was help, and I offered to tutor them. This encouraged me and I developed further senses of the obligation to give a hand to those needing help. I volunteered in numerous community outreach events and volunteer organizations. I even volunteered food pantries to New York Cares, and volunteered to do some community service projects. The University of Maryland campus immensely helped me gained significant skills.

Despite all my personality, knowledge, aspirations, ambitions and interests in the social work field, I happened to study law in my undergraduate. However, this did not last long, as I always felt I was in the wrong profession. This confirmed when I attended a superior court case at the Upper Marlboro courthouse during my internship. A14 year old boy accused of assault and was meeting with the judge for sentencing.  I looked at the role of the lawyer and compared it with those of the boy’s advocate, who happened to be asocial worker, and the social worker’s role impressed me. After leaving the courtroom, I rushed to have a conversation with the social worker and asked so many questions.  My interest impressed her, and she explained everything. After that conversation, I realized that I wanted to undertake the social worker’s role. That way, I could significantly make a difference of some young person’s life.  The knowledge in the criminal justice field would still help, but I decided to pursue a master’s degree in social work at the Columbia University.

My career path has revolved around social organizations. I associated with Love Heals, an organization committed in empowering New York City’s young people in the fight against HIV. They provide their clients with the needed knowledge and skills to make informed choices.  From the Love heals organization, I was able to bring a few workers to my workplace to talk about the experiences of the young people living HIV. The other organization that contributed a lot in my social work career is the Mayors Volunteer Action Center. This is where I learned about domestic violence especially the adverse consequences on young people and the way to handle such cases if approached. I have worked with at-risk youth and families for the past 14 years.  I find it hugely rewarding to help a young person who wants a better life through education or teach them better ways to gain knowledge to maneuver the child welfare system. I worked at the East New York Family Center where I did casework counseling and learned various techniques such as play therapy, individual therapy, and child abuse screening in an elementary public school setting. I later worked at the Veterans Affairs where I did casework counseling to recent veterans from Desert Storm.  In that capacity, I was able to build up my clinical skills.

My post MSW professional experiences started when I worked in a social service agency that inspires young people to take charge of their communities. I further joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC. Here, I expanded their mentoring programs by collaborating with Fortune 500 company’s foundations and schools to provide young people with committed and dedicated mentors.  I had a marvelous achievement where I designed the first volunteer program at East Harlem Tutorial Program.  The volunteer tutors trained to capable tutors for the youth they served.

Through these work experiences, I understood the importance of strong family units in a child’s development. The Boys Hope Girls Hope of New York program was able to create value-centered family like homes for 20 scholars that allowed them to strive to achieve their goals of getting a college education. My principal responsibilities involved developing the operational framework and identifying beneficially scholars of this type of opportunity. I also took a senior position as the Director of Residential Services for in wood House consisting of 50 pregnant and parenting teens. This program was to establish the well-being, safety, and permanency placements for the young people in the program.

Having served as a social worker for more than 14 years, I have developed an interest of pursing further into the field. I have set realistic goals and focus on achieving them. The values and motivation instilled in me through my family, life experiences, and education has adequately prepared for my doctorate studies. I thus consider this time as the best to pursue my doctoral studies.

I worked at the Veterans Affairs and did my casework counseling and I built the basis of my clinical skills. Having also gained some little knowledge in clinical social matters in my work experience, I have developed an interest in the field. I am strong in devotion, and I will devote my time to study ethical dimensions of policy decision and understanding of complex issues. I want to be in a position to identify and develop programs that support students’ growth learning, and development, while identifying the factors that contribute to social and economic factors that encourage young people not to be successful. I have a weakness in research work, but I aim at improving on the same and conduct a research to identify approaches to increase graduation rates, and ways to house the homeless. I would also like to develop programs that support students’ learning and growth, and contribute to social and educational policies.

Hunter University Center for Social Work Education is a university with an unwavering commitment to its students.  Hunter is a university that believes in academic excellence, career preparation and civic engagement leading to success. It will enable me to learn deeper into the facts I already know. The encouragement to choose Hunter University Centre for Social Work Education further enhanced by testimonies of students in the program. They praise Hunter of their support, development of personal growth and career development. I look forward to obtaining an admission in Hunter, where I will work tirelessly to balance between the rigorous graduate work heavy demands and my personal and professional responsibilities.