The Dean’s Medal of Excellence, Personal Statement Example

Sun Tzu once said that a true leader lead by example, not by force. Through my life, I, ****, was always convinced that it is so and even more. I am convinced that in order to make change in the world, an inspiration of one person can achieve a lot by example inspire other people to follow in the same direction of reason, truth, and human values. Being inspired by the ideals of equality, diversity of perspectives, human values, truth and social responsibility, I tried to implement these values in my professional and academic activities.

In order to see the diversity of the world outside my home country, I decided to come to the USA and obtain a multi-cultural and international experience. However, I considered that for the experience to be complete, ordinary travelling was not enough. In order to understand the essence of the culture its way of thinking and academia are to be explored from within. For this reason, I have enrolled in the School of Management at the University of San Francisco, in Spring 2013. I have transferred from Chongqing University, China. I have always been fascinated by neatness and accuracy on numbers that is why my major is in Accounting. Being fascinated by the diversity of opportunities and personal intention of doing my best in the achievement of excellence, I managed to achieve a major GPA of 3.95 and overall GPA of 3.45 without any incomplete grades. I have also completed 78 credits from the McLaren School of Management. Consequently, by the time of my graduation in May 2015 my accumulated credits will be 150.5, including 94 credits from the McLaren School of Management.

Personally being satisfied with my results and achievements, I was further inspired by receiving the Dean’s Honor Roll—School of Management for the semesters of Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, and Fall 2014; and  the Honorable Mention Award of the University of San Francisco 2014 Undergraduate Business Pitch Competition.  Although in general rewards tend to be a highlight of one’s performance, for me they were stimulating for further self-improvement and academic development. That is why I became a member of Bata Gamma Sigma International Honor Society; together we won the 16^th “FLTRP AMAZON CUP” Chinese National Universities English Debating Competition in 2012. I have also published a few articles in academic journals:

• “How Should Chinese College Graduates Position Themselves Under the New Circumstance of Chinese Economy Environment?” Cutting Edge Education. (2012): 176-8;
• “The Impact of the Reform of State-Owned Enterprise on Employees.” China Business Update. (2012): 224-8.

My primary intention in publishing these articles was to increase intercultural understanding and mutual benefits of learning from differences. I also wanted to contribute to highlighting the truthful facts about Chinese business environment and its potential ways of its improvement based on international experience and best practice.

In terms of my working experience, I was always driven by the desire to share the knowledge that I had and the ability to help people on their path of learning. In this regard, I had two opportunities with the University of San Francisco. First of all, I worked as an Accounting Tutor (Feb. 2014 – May 2014). My duties included assists students with issues they encountered in accounting classes and making sure students got familiar with the definition as well as the application of professional accounting knowledge. My second job within the University was a Teaching Assistant for Excel Spreadsheets (Aug. 2013 – May 2014). I was responsible for answering questions during classes, and grading student assignments. I also had to make sure that students gained extensive knowledge with Excel and learned techniques of processing and analysis of large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. This teaching experience taught me how precious individual development is and that it requires an individual approach to each student since we all are unique and deserve appropriate attention.

Another working experience was during my internship with SoftBank Product Group Inc. (June 2014 – December 2014). In terms of this internship, I worked in Accounting and Finance Department as the assistant of the Chief Accounting Director. My responsibilities included record and monitoring of daily cash transactions, preparing daily flash reports and monitoring of the daily performance of the business. At the end of the periods, I also conducted cash reconciliation, checking, confirming and reporting employees’ expenses. In terms of this experience, I learned how importance small things are for the benefit of the entire organization. It was also important for me to be able to apply my knowledge in practice and feel useful contribute to the improvement of organizational performance.

Through my experiences at the University of San Francisco, one of the main lessons I have learned is the lesson of gratitude and sharing. I think that in terms of the moral perspective, we all should be grateful for what we receive and share that experience with the people who did not have such an opportunity. I believe that we are the only ones who can decide who we should be in this world. Therefore, that was my decision to share my knowledge of English language and American culture through volunteering. That is why I started working for a non-profit subtitle organization called Yyets in 2013. The organization creates English-Chinese subtitles for English movies, TV shows, and animations for the purpose of helping Chinese people studying English via movies. During the winter breaks of 2013 and 2014, I volunteered as a temporary English teacher in an elementary school located in a small Chinese village in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. I also worked as the vice president of the Student Union when I was in Chongqing University. My performance was praised by the Award of Excellent Leader of Student Union.

Overall, I would like to conclude that the experience at the University of San Francisco contributed to the established of my character, moral perception of life, appreciation of individuality and uniqueness of people. I am convinced that through the stimulation of intercultural interactions further mutual understanding and respect to the dignity of every individual can be achieved. I will make sure that my example would worth following.