It was always my intention to spend my life making a difference rather than merely ‘making a living’. The ability to communicate clearly and effectively is such a basic component of a happy and fulfilling life that enabling others to acquire it clearly does make a significant difference and I am gratified to have skills and knowledge to assist. My goal now is to acquire more advanced skills and knowledge to maximize my usefulness to those who need help in this key facility to realizing their personal potential.
I have pursued my goals to this point with diligence and determination which is demonstrated by my GPA in my associate and bachelor's degree programs and the awards and honors received during my studies. I am confident that I have the academic capacity to excel in the program and beyond.
From the experience that I have acquired to date in relating to those who suffer difficulties in communication, it is clear to me that it takes a very special type of person to work effectively with them; that empathy, determination and enormous patience, together with substantial technical knowledge and skills, are called for in order to achieve clear, challenging but achievable, outcomes. I possess these personal qualities and characteristics.
My special interest is in minorities, particularly, African Americans. My long-term goal is to become an expert practitioner, to pursue timely research and, eventually, to pursue a Ph.D. in SLP and teach to pass on my passion and expertise to new generations of specialists. My engagement was especially fired during my senior year of undergraduate studies in communicative disorders. |My senior project was to prepare a literary analysis of the number of complex and simple sentences used by the average middle school, African American, male. By the end of the study, I realized that there is scant information about African American written/conversational language and that much more extensive research is required.
I discovered a love for research and that its success depends upon the identification of clear goals and their practical applications. The characteristics called for in an excellent SLP overlap with those called for in an excellent researcher, especially the setting of clear, challenging, but achievable goals and pursuing them doggedly.
While volunteering for Scientific Research initially as a Peer Educator and later as Site Leader, I had the opportunity to work with underprivileged students. One significant challenge arose when working in a rural elementary school where the students were of low socio-economic status and African Americans or whose first language was not English. My goal was to help the third graders to pass the Standardized Reading Test. This was a considerable challenge since many of the students could not read and some barely. Because of my aspiration to become an SLP, I was appointed to help those who could not read. I worked alongside two SLP’s whom I shadowed, thriving under their caring and expert supervision. We had to start from the basics of learning phonemes and both me and the students worked extremely hard. Out of nineteen students, nine passed the assessment from my group. I regard this outcome as a considerable accomplishment and learned much during the process. The experience also raised many questions in my mind as to why the problems arise and how they might be resolved.
I have sought exposure through a variety of voluntary placements, to people of a wide range of ages, ethnic, and social backgrounds and it has been a pleasure to engage with them. I am confident that I have academic potential, basic experience plus knowledge and background, personal attributes and, most of all, a genuine passion for this area of study. If selected, I hope to make a significant and positive difference to the lives of many.
SLP Personal Purpose Statement Sample