I was born in El Salvador in 1978 but barely remember it since my grandparents brought me to my parents a few years later after they established themselves in California. Thus, I feel like I have always lived in L.A. As a Salvadoran, one has been among friends since LA. It is like El Salvador's second city. Yet, my journey from my homeland to the United States is also crucial to my identity, educational philosophy and interests, and professional goals. I celebrate diversity and seek to inspire a love for variety among my students. I hold a B.A. in Psychology from XXXX University, graduating in 2001. My first choice for graduate study is at XXXX University to study for my Master of Arts in Education, Educational Counseling Degree. I aspire to become an educational counselor because this profession's members are people I have especially come to admire while growing up. I see this occupation as having a profound sense of meaning and fulfillment that comes with struggling zealously to help students understand themselves better and overcome personal, social, and behavioral problems that hurt their educational and vocational success. I hope to make significant, positive contributions to the lives of many students in the years to come. I see this as the most profound contribution to my fellowman that I might be able to make, helping others to avoid some of life's pitfalls and find helpful direction and guidance along the way to becoming productive and creative citizens and responsible family members. I am especially interested in doing graduate work in student retention and parent involvement/support. I very much look forward to becoming a school counselor and working diligently toward helping students stay in school by assuring that their educational, emotional, and vocational needs are met. I will do this by wrestling with and having an impact on such issues as bullying, peer pressure, depression, and academic and vocational challenges. I look forward to catering to the needs of students based on their unique gifts, strengths, and challenges, helping educational development. I help to ensure that they are receiving the services that are necessary to address their needs fully. I labor to help my clients become better integrated with society and to live more fulfilling lives by taking a more active part in day-to-day decision-making that has to do with their schedules, opportunities, etc. I work collaboratively with teachers, parents, school psychologists, principals, and other school administrators through IEP meetings. I have an initial meeting with the client and their parents to establish their objectives and then meet with them routinely on an ongoing basis to ensure that they progress towards the goals we have set. I have learned how to advocate effectively on behalf of my clients and to network with professionals such as attorneys and doctors, helping to empower my clients and their parents so they can advocate for themselves as well. I have consciously worked extremely hard over many years to develop my capacity for inductive reasoning, combining pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions and searching for relationships among what may at first appear to be unrelated events. I am also very conscious of the necessity of deductive reasoning, and I expend a great deal of concentration and focus on applying general rules to specific problems to arrive at answers that make sense and help to resolve issues. I have confidence that I will be an excellent educational counselor because I am resourceful, patient, a good listener, and can work well in a team or on my own. My greatest passion in life is to have the privilege to assist the school system of my community in better integrating family and school contributions to the child through collaboration between families and educational institutions in such a way as to prepare better future citizens who are highly responsible and productive. My parents fled El Salvador to escape the civil war and to provide me with a better life. I am most grateful for their concern that I make the most of America's educational opportunities. Similarly, I look forward to continuing to help students, primarily through the difficult years of high school, to realize their full potential. I look forward to helping students from disadvantaged families, helping to inspire the parents and students alike that they really can succeed in America even though they are from a minority community. What I most want is to assist underprivileged families in achieving educationally by pointing them in the right direction, helping them discover the various available resources to help students stay on track and not derail from their goals set for themselves. MA Educational Counseling Statement of Purpose

I hope to be accepted to study towards the MSc Degree in Global Public Health at Copenhagen University, my first choice for graduate school. It is my conviction that completing your program will provide me with the optimal springboard upon which to make the fullest contribution possible to society: evaluating and implementing public health projects and interventions that promote health and prevent disease. My special focus is human nutrition, and I look forward to decades to come helping individuals to develop more healthy lifestyles because of diet, losing weight, managing disease, and alleviating painful symptoms. My children have been my principal focus until now, and they no longer need their mother as was once the case. Thus, I have time, attention, energy, and I fully intend to give myself entirely to Global Public Health for the balance of my professional lifetime. Since the area that I know best will always be nutrition, I hope to make particularly effective use of natural remedies for treating chronic disease. I hope to work for non-profit organizations dedicated to both nutrition and public health in Africa, especially my native Uganda. I seek to address the issues of poor nutrition, diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV/AIDS, obesity, and tobacco and alcohol abuse, with a central focus on lifestyle changes, particularly nutrition, putting to effective use the many important things that I will learn as a student towards the MSc. Degree at the University of Copenhagen. I bring with me to your program extensive professional experience in personalized nutrition and dietary planning, based on body types and health goals. This includes the development of habit-forming nutrition regimens and plans, counseling and educating concerning healthy dietary options and alternatives as well as planning for special needs diets, including low sodium, diabetic, and gluten-free diets. Here in Europe, where I look forward to spending most of my energy, I especially look forward to epidemiological research as well as HIV-AIDS networking and support, with a focus on the interconnections between research and practice. I want to help homeless people and victims of violence to shelter and have a safe place to heal, protecting them from contagious disease and treating the ones that have it. My central, long-term professional goal is to work as a health promotor, alongside and in support of health departments at the municipal level, food companies, and a wide range of other healthcare professionals and civic servants. A native speaker of Swahili, with bilingual fluency in Danish and English, I look forward to contributing to the diversity of your Global Health Program at Copenhagen University as a woman from Africa who is well informed about health challenges faced by Africans, both at home and abroad, especially in Denmark, where I have lived for the past 17 years, raising my own family. I am most pleased to have had the privilege to absorb as much as I could of Sweden, Holland, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, and Dubai, and in the south Kenya and South Africa, learning by osmosis, always positive, independent, and persevering. Much of my early time in Denmark was invested in Danish, of which I am immensely proud, on top of bringing my English up to international standards of excellence. Currently enrolled in the last semester of my undergraduate studies for the BSc in Global Nutrition and Health, I am writing my bachelor's thesis and finishing a course in Biochemistry. Thank you for considering my application to Global Public Health at Copenhagen University. MSc Global Public Health Statement of Purpose

It is said that we are who we are today because of the choices we made yesterday. Helping people with their choices is my way of supporting positive change in the lives of those who seek my counsel. My goal in enrolling for the Master of Arts in Counselling Degree Program at XXXX University is to practice as a professional counselor who can provide a supportive and nurturing environment that assists in providing a sense of safety to those taking the risks necessary to ensure meaningful change to their status quo. Having majored in international studies and political science for my undergraduate Arts degree from Michigan University, I believe that in advancing my studies to the master's level with a focus in counselling I would be preparing for a career that I have both the passion and commitment for after my life experiences at a personal and professional level. Born and raised in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, there were early signs as a teenager that my life was purposed for greater things. Attending a special boarding school for young, gifted artists, Interlochen Arts Academy as a sophomore in high school, I was given the opportunity to develop the interest I had in understanding people and the dynamics of relationships, while studying as an actor in their rigorous theater program. There began my journey that has led to the passion I feel to help people make sense of their lives. Widely traveled nationally and internationally, I have a broadened worldview that has allowed me to relate to people from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds which has perpetuated my interest in human dynamics. While living in Hawaii, which has a large population of Chinese immigrants, I was blessed with the opportunity of being a volunteer, teaching English to new arrivals to the state who taking their citizenship exams. Through this experience I learnt much about myself; I have the capacity to exercise patience with people, am non-judgmental, empathetic, and compassionate and have a high frustration tolerance.  I also learnt that I am most effective when working with individuals or small groups, which makes me ideally suited at a personality level for my chosen career as a counselor. In studying for the master's program, I am looking forward to learning the practical skills and techniques that will give me the tools I need to help people achieve their goals. Applying theoretical knowledge to the skills I already have acquired in communicating and relating to people will equip me with the practical skills counselors use on a day-to-day basis. An academic background is a starting point to understanding human behavior. XXXX University has everything I am looking for to equip me with the knowledge base and hands-on experience I require in the Master of Arts Program in Counselling. In relating to students who share a similar passion and commitment while having access to Faculty with extensive wisdom and knowledge on the subject, I believe that the process of learning will be mutually beneficial. I am specifically interested in exploring the area of online counselling; there are many people who face insurmountable odds in their desire to bring about change to their life circumstances who remain outside the reach of traditional and mainstream counselling centers. In the technologically advanced age that we live in, it is possible to bring counselling to people in a cost-effective, non-threatening manner through offering them alternative options to interact with those trained to assist them. The possibilities are endless to be able to offer people help when and where they need it most without having those already overwhelmed by their life circumstances being forced to sustain the initiative despite time and economic pressures to pursue helping organizations in the community. This would also open a door to hope for those driven to social isolation by the problems they have encountered in their lives. My long-term goal is to help those who feel lost and confused by the many choices that confront them; people too anxious to navigate their way on their own. Rather than focusing on administrative routes to helping people, my commitment and passion is for working with people at the point of their need. At 33 years of age, through my life’s journey that has brought me to this point, I have come to know myself; my strengths and my weaknesses. I am an ideal candidate for this program, and I trust that you afford me the opportunity to embark on this next step in my journey towards the goal of helping others exercise wisdom and foresight in making informed choices that bring successful change to their existence, as mine have. MA Counseling Personal Statement of Purpose Examples

XXXX University is my first choice for earning my MSW Degree because of the sheer excellence of your program and the fact that Los Angeles has always been my home. Born and raised in LA, my mother’s family is in Mexico, and I have visited them yearly throughout my life. Thus, I am a thoroughly bilingual and bicultural Mexican American between my mother and the support and love of her family on visits to Mexico. I see this as a great asset as a social worker, being able to function fully and to make creative contributions in both languages, multilingual and multicultural assistance to Latinos and non-Latinos alike, always with particular attention to the underserved, many of whom speak Spanish, especially here in Southern California. After high school, I joined the army and could travel for the first time anywhere besides Mexico. I went to basic training in Ft. Lee, Virginia, then Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. Coming from LA, the old US South was a culture shock for me, the sense of racism just under the surface and traditional attitudes, yet all of that mixed with the great diversity fostered by the military. I have learned many things and grown in meaningful ways as a soldier that I feel it will help me excel as a social work professional, especially in cultural appreciation. At first, life in the military was difficult, and I sometimes felt scared and overwhelmed, even crying myself to sleep at night. After basic training, I was stationed in South Korea for one year. Again, I experienced an entirely new culture and a new military context abroad. The important thing, however, is how my military years helped me become more robust, wiser, and capable personally and professionally. After Korea, I was sent to Ft. Hood, Texas, where I completed my service. In 2011 I earned my associate degree in social and behavioral sciences from LA Community College, which gave me the confidence to go on and get my bachelor's degree in social work from California State University in LA in June of 2014. Since May 2015, I have been employed full-time as a Case Manager at a mental health hospital, and I love my job. Now, I am applying to study for the MSW Degree so that I might advance professionally, assume more significant levels of responsibility, and enhance my contribution to my society. I want to provide the finest, state-of-the-art therapy to my clients who suffer from depression, schizophrenia, bipolarity, etc. I look forward to paying particular attention in the years to come, both as a graduate student and beyond, to the issue of clients feeling "handicapped" by their diagnosis of mental illness. There is nothing that I love more than providing those who face mental health challenges with the best tools to help them to learn to manage successfully and, in some cases, recover from a mental illness. I look forward to many decades of helping my patients to reach their goals and to refuse to be held down by labels or diagnoses. I will empower them to take charge of their life and learn how to control their symptoms so they can succeed at whatever they dream of doing. Especially since I have served as a soldier, I would love to help veterans deal with their traumas and family and personal issues. I also have a deep and abiding interest in our older population and the unique mental health challenges they face. I may decide to specialize in gerontology; my passion is so deep in this area that I have daydreamed many times of someday starting and running a senior center or senior living program. I hope always to remain engaged directly with clients. I want to be a director of a community mental health program eventually; I would enjoy teaching at some point in my career. Thus, I look forward to a diversity of social work experiences, and I do not want to limit my interests currently to one area of social work. I always want to remain open to novelty, whatever life brings my way. I was voted best soldier in my platoon during boot camp because I helped my battle buddy. She was short and petite and struggled a lot, and I was always there to give her a hand. I made sure she was in her foxhole before I got into mine. I helped guide her through nighttime training because she could not see very well in the dark. Everyone voted for me not because I performed better than anyone else but because I took care of ‘Jane’ every step. And it was indeed my pleasure; I did not feel burdened. I couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for her during all our exercises and training. I am a strong candidate for social work because of how I treat others, giving my all to help them along. Most importantly, I take pride in being an excellent listener, always encouraging people to express themselves fully. I especially enjoy learning about and from the older population. I have taken several classes dealing with older people's issues, and those are the ones I wanted most of all. I became most excited when I learned that shortly, there would be a great need for social workers in the field of gerontology because all the baby boomers will retire and need care. I have also studied the psychological aspects of aging and difficulties arising from how our American culture tends to idolize youth. Once I return to civilian life as a veteran, I will increasingly engage with veterans’ issues, especially mental health, and PTSD. I was fortunate enough not to be sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. When I first arrived at Ft. Hood, Texas, my company was returning from Iraq. I heard many battle stories, most of which were about soldiers that never returned or did so, primarily destroyed physically and emotionally. I interacted with many soldiers that were depressed, stressed, and anxiously waiting to finish their time and go home. Being in the military is a huge sacrifice and takes an enormous toll on soldiers, many if not most of them coming back with PTSD and struggling valiantly to rebuild an everyday life. In the future, putting my MSW to work, I want to help veterans to heal their emotional battle wounds. One of the reasons why I am so passionate about veterans’ issues is my passion for helping homeless people. So many of our veterans are homeless in America, most needing mental health assistance. I have worked as a volunteer for the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. Each year we hit the streets of LA to find out how many homeless there are. I may also do research on women veterans like me at some point. It seems most unlikely that I will see combat in the brief time I have remaining as a woman in the military. But I want to stay abreast of developments as women in the military increasingly assume full combat roles, thus incurring the consequences. Growing up in the company of mostly women resulted in my closeness to and appreciation for women. I feel a closer bond with women than men, especially in the military. Being in the military is tough, but being a woman in the military is even more challenging. Working with men has always been difficult. Women soldiers sometimes must prove they are strong enough to perform specific jobs. We must deal with sexist comments. Some women have been raped. I will always be close to these issues. Working at a Senior Center as a social work assistant has been the highlight of my professional life outside of the military up to that point. I helped seniors with medical insurance problems, immigration issues, and applications for services. Most of all, I listened to them and encouraged them when they felt discouraged. I reminded them that they should still have dreams and goals at their age; it is never too late to start a new hobby or relationship. These days as a case manager, I help my clients who are underserved by linking them to the resources that they need. Most of my clients come straight out of jail and need help getting settled back into our society. I help them get a bus pass, medical insurance, cell phone service, and, most importantly, employment. I joined the Army one month after graduating high school and have proudly served for three years. The experience and skills that I have gained during that time are something that I see as priceless, especially as our military is a community of people working together and helping one another achieve a mission. This sense of professional community and mission is also an essential aspect of social work: teamwork and collaboration between therapists, psychiatrists, case managers, etc. While serving in the Army, I was confronted with stressful, uncomfortable, and dangerous situations. In Social work, I will experience remarkably similar problems. I know first-hand what it's like to be separated from family and the difficulty of adjusting to new locations and rigorous demands. I can relate to people going through similar situations. Excelling in the military is a lot like excelling as a social worker; both require a great deal of selflessness and loyalty to one’s mission. Thank you for considering my application to XXXX University. MSW Personal Purpose Statement Military Social Work PTSD

While working at the Center for Victims of Torture, I was assigned to a project named, New Neighbors Hidden Scars (NNHS), the purpose of which is to assist torture and war trauma survivors by promoting their overall health, working to restore and strengthen their leadership capabilities, and to create networks of support that are responsive to their unique needs. Through this process, we have been able to study and disseminate successful models of community-based care. Working with this program has helped to provide me with the confidence and determination to pursue advanced study in Social Work. I hope to devote much of my life to the study of aging African refugees and immigrants who have resettled in the USA, many of whom are the survivors of the trauma of war. When I conducted a needs assessment for the NNHS, I was struck by the numerous barriers faced by immigrant African seniors with respect to accessing services. My efforts led to the design of a model for under-resourced areas with especially high numbers of African immigrants. In these strategic areas, it has been an enormous struggle to meet the mental health needs of the rapid influxes of refugees. Over time, we were able to develop multidisciplinary networks of providers to improve the coordination of care for trauma survivors. What we found to be particularly effective was the development of immigrant-led support groups in housing complexes and churches, including treatment groups for refugee students, and the development of an XXXX Food Distribution Center (AFDC), providing health and social service information along with culturally appropriate food assistance. I currently have the privilege of volunteering my service as the Executive Director of the XXXX. African seniors have immigrated to the US under vastly different circumstances; some have been brought here by their children, others were forced out of their countries due to political violence, some came as young adults. Most, however, experience acute adjustment stressors. As part of my doctoral studies, I hope to explore how migration trauma affects the wellbeing of African seniors, especially in cultural bereavement and adjustment to a new society. A related direction for my research would involve the development of new analytical models for working with African senior communities in the context of existing aging programs. These new models would be designed in accordance with the culturally relevant perspectives of many African communities and apply a comprehensive approach to recovery strategies for post-traumatic-stress disorder (PTSD) as well as more general forms of trauma. It is hoped that this research would fill a gap in the literature since there are no African-specific models in the literature on aging and there is an enormous need for additional theoretical studies concerning the implementation of aging programs in immigrant African communities. It is also hoped that this research would contribute to the development of culturally appropriate, empirically validated interventions that could serve to reduce the adverse consequences of war trauma, PTSD, and resettlement shock, thereby improving the wellbeing of seniors who have immigrated from Africa. The needs assessment that I have conducted suggests that a sizable percentage of African seniors are struggling with mental health symptoms related to war and PTSD, often combined with other mental health issues related to aging, especially Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Furthermore, these mental health conditions are typically exacerbated by environmental factors such as isolation, language barriers, unemployment, poverty, dependence on children, loss of status and lack of transportation. In broader terms, I am very much interested in researching the entire gambit of issues involving the mental health of immigrants, especially seniors, and Africans in particular. I hope to publish in the future concerning the development of empirically validated interventions that reduce the adverse consequences of resettlement stressors, especially as combined with mental health issues—particularly, torture, forced migration, and PTSD. I am concerned with the paucity of existing research not only concerning African refugees, but immigrant senior populations in general. Thus, I also hope to make important contributions to the systematic study of migration trauma and the hurdles that must often be overcome in the accessing of services upon resettlement. It is my intention to design studies in which African refugees and other immigrants are given the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to the design and implementation, as well as the evaluation, of the research project. This supports the University of Michigan’s mission of promoting social justice through the empowerment of the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society; and in this way I also hope to contribute to the amelioration of oppressive conditions to which they are subject. One especially salient variable in my research will be the way in which ethnographic differences between African immigrant communities are characterized by specific words or terms used to refer to specific illnesses or mental health challenges This is especially important given the vast need for culturally specific treatment models for dealing with culturally specific practices, metaphors, spiritualities, etc., thereby leading to more accurate understandings of the specific mental health and wellness challenges faced by immigrant seniors. I see this type of research is of critical importance for the development of new training models, therapeutic initiatives, and even pharmacological investigations that would be of benefit to the broader body of social work research concerned with immigrant seniors. Growing up in Kenya, we followed a family tradition of children being sent to live with their grandparents between the ages of 7 and 11.  My parents lived in a city while my grandparents lived in the rural area. Thus, my siblings and I were sent to my grandparents to be educated in the ways of the community: culture, norms, values, customs, rituals, folklore, etc. Each story we were told had a moral lesson illustrating a societal norm. We respected my grandparents, and by extension the elderly in the community for the wisdom they embodied. When the need for conflict resolution arose, we were told to take it to the “Jorieko” meaning, ¨the wise ones. ¨ I date my interest in the elderly to this period, and I have been fascinated by seniors ever since. My grandmother did not like going to the city because it represented a loss of authority for her, feeling much more at home with the practice of rural customs and lifestyles. And I have often pondered my grandmother’s sentiments when reflecting upon how still very much more traumatic it would be to be forced out of one’s country and culture entirely, for political reasons. My central career objective is to spend the balance of my professional life developing culturally sensitive mental health delivery models for African immigrants and refugees, especially older residents, always linking research to practice. I hope to serve as a teacher, consultant, researcher, and clinician in my area of expertise. Your doctoral program will help me to become a well-rounded intellectual and scholar concerning the mental health and public policy issues faced by or affecting our senior populations, especially first-generation immigrants. Since I am myself an immigrant from Africa to the US, and now embarking on middle age at 44, I feel uniquely qualified for the development of a research interest in this area since I have a well refined capacity to empathize with the stresses that immigrant families and individuals from Africa must bear, the difficulties of cultural adjustment, migration trauma, etc.  I look forward to shouldering increasing professional responsibility in my work with African immigrants and refugees, institutions of higher learning, and social work professionals: conducting research and designing culturally appropriate, integrative mental health service models. It is painfully clear to me that social service agencies lack the necessary expertise in the development and implementation of culturally specific and appropriate mental health services for immigrants and refugees from Africa, as well as other regions of the world, and I ask for the opportunity and profound privilege of devoting my life to this cause. I am also interested in the opportunity afforded by your program to attain a dual degree in social work and psychology, since I am concerned with the mental health issues of immigrant populations, and this would help to refine my capacity to perform creative, innovative research in this area. As a social worker, I am interested in promoting greater levels of social inclusion for immigrants from Africa and the study of psychology would help me to understand the mental health aspects of that inclusion. I am particularly excited about the possibility of studying under Professor XXXX whose research interest is in clinical gerontology and racial and ethnic variations of service delivery to the elderly. I thank you for considering my application to your program. Psychology and Social Work Dual Doctoral Degrees

PHD Public Health Nutrition Personal Purpose Statement A young woman from Saudi Arabia who now lives in Ohio, I am deeply passionate about nutrition and preventative medicine. A very serious student and hard worker, I live primarily to perform professional service to others by helping people to better understand the importance and implementation of healthy dietetic regimens. Currently finishing up my MS degree in Public Health Nutrition at ____ University, I very much look forward to continuing my study in Health Education at the doctoral level. Throughout my own education, I have become increasingly devoted to the field of education itself, and I now wish to turn my exclusive attention to education, harnessing my understanding of the natural and social sciences to the end of health promotion through health education. I have become quite comfortable here in Ohio and deeply admire your educational system. This is one of the principle reasons why my first choice for graduate study is the Doctor of Education Program ____ University. Keenly looking forward to utilizing what I will learn in your education program to further my long term professional goal of becoming a professional educator or educational administrator in the area of health promotion, I am convinced that your program is the optimal location to best prepare me for distinguished service in my area. As a Arab woman, I am keenly aware of the vast need for improvement of diet in Arab societies and I feel that it is here, in the promotion of health and nutrition awareness in Arab educational institutions that I will be able to make the greatest contribution that I possibly can to society. The greatest challenge of my life will be to deliver the right message in the proper way. Especially in the Arab world, diet is fraught with great complexity, especially religious but also economic, presenting formidable challenges to the specialist in public health education. I see the education of mothers to be an especially critical aspect of this challenge and the issue of infant nutrition is something that I very much look forward to having the privilege of studying in depth at some point in my career. Among the many things that I hope to learn in your program are the best ways to go about delivering messages to the public concerning the need for educational reform and progress, and how that progressive reform can most effectively be implemented and sustained. Looking forward to long and highly profitable collaborations with professional researchers in the area of nutrition, I see your program as a way to build upon my education to date in the most effective way for my continued professional enhancement and contribution to society. Turning my attention full time to the subject of education in your program will build upon my academic background not only in Public Health and Nutrition on the graduate level, but also my undergraduate degree in Community Health and the enormous amount of relevant and important information that I have been learning through an internship here at with the Department of Nutrition at ____. I am especially interested in doing graduate work in the area of raising public health awareness through public education programs. I hope to attain the Ph.D. Degree in your program because this will prepare me for the achievement of my long term goals to not only work with health facilities or institutions, but also to have the privilege of teaching advanced students in this area. I also look forward to using my native language, Arabic, on a professional level in the future and have already done so with one of my rotations as I helped to write educational nutrition materials for the Arabic population here in the Cleveland area. I have been devote do the study of English for many years and I am functioning quite well in my Master's Program which is ranked number one in the nation in Nutrition. I also took an intensive course in ESL for three months in San Francisco before beginning my studies at the university. Also, I had already become accustomed to working in English back in my native Saudi Arabia since the hospital that I worked at as a dietician used English as the formal or institutional language. Furthermore, in addition to public health and nutrition, I have also taken classes on the graduate level in the areas of sociology as well as public policy, which I have found to be highly relevant for my professional progress. I have also done volunteer work in Saudi Arabia, as a dietitian promoting public health consciousness as well as supervising new dietitians and interns as part of my job with the National Guard Office of Health Affairs. The greatest contribution that I might be able to make to society would be to spend the rest of my life laboring diligently to enhance the quality and diffusion of our knowledge about the health challenges that we face, raising awareness about nutrition and its importance for addressing public health issues, helping people to understand the need for permanent lifestyle changes in order to preserve good health through a long and productive life. Thank you for considering my application. PHD Public Health Nutrition Personal Purpose Statement #phd #publichealth #nutrition #statementofpurpose

A bilingual, Cuban woman who was raised in Miami, English has long been my first language while Spanish remains very dear to my heart. I hope to earn the Master of Arts in Professional Behavior Analysis (MBA) at ____ University so that I will be able to advance professionally and make the fullest possible contribution to my field. Currently a Board-Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA), I aspire to become a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). Now 24 years old, I have recent, relevant professional experience since, along with earning my BA in Psychology at XXXX University, I spent over a year working for XXU’s Early Intensive Behavior Intervention Program, providing care, therapy, and love for Autistic and developmentally disabled children from 18 months to 5 years old. At our summer camp, I received practicum training and supervision along with the opportunity to grow on both personal and professional levels. I hope to excel in your program primarily because of my great passion for the care and education of developmentally disabled children. Your program at XXXX is my first choice for graduate school because I want to earn my Masters in Behavior Analysis rather than Psychology. I also appreciate the flexibility of your online program which will enable me to gain additional hands-on experience while I complete my degree. I like the fact that I can watch the online lectures and complete the coursework at my own pace; yet, I still have the structure of weekly deadlines that will keep me on track. Finally, I could not be more excited about the prospect of completing your "in-residence" component at one of your "hybrid host sites" where I would receive practicum supervision and complete a Capstone Project. Personal Statement Masters Behavior Analysis Cuban #masterdegree #behavioranalysis #personalstatement #statementofpurpose

The XXXX School of Professional Psychology at XXXX University is my first choice for earning the PsyD Degree in Clinical Psychology primarily because of the sheer quality of your program with such a diverse faculty experienced in numerous areas.  I am currently a master's student in your program in Clinical Psychology and I have grown very fond of the XXXX Program and academic community and would very much like to continue my studies at the doctoral level. I was diagnosed with a chronic heart condition as a child which made my childhood quite traumatic. Had it not been for the constant support and love of my parents, I would not have survived.  My own childhood trauma goes a long way towards explaining why I chose Psychology as my professional field.  My suffering was not just a physical condition.  My siblings were all brilliant and athletic, super grades, winning awards, while I was branded “the sickly one” so everyone understood and accepted my underperformance.  I had few friends.  While I was born in the USA not long after my parents arrived from Mexico, my older siblings learned English faster than I did.  Nevertheless, my own personal triumph in life will be helping others in similar situations to realize their full potential despite the challenges they face.  I think of the thousands of bewildered children, many of them ill, who enter the USA each year crossing the border with Mexico, some alone, others with parents or other relatives. Childhood trauma has many sources and for sick immigrant children like me the psychological hurdles that are often faced are the result of a range of factors. In my case, the financial instability of immigrants who had just recently crossed the border and were struggling to survive economically or even adequately feed their children. I did not understand the nature of my health problem, but I remember the sound of my mom crying as if it were yesterday. At least I could never be sure that she was crying because of my heart condition, or the child that she left buried in Mexico, who died in her arms at the age of 6. I always had a sense growing up that we fled a dangerous and unstable place, especially because I listened at length to my father’s stories of fleeing his home in Mexico after witnessing his father shot dead in a brawl over land in a small village.  Shortly after receiving medical attention for the first time for my heart, my older sister was diagnosed with polio.  Stress, fear, and anxiety radiated throughout my childhood, a time that should ideally be free of these debilitating factors.  My treatment consisted of a device, prescribed medications, and long trips to endless medical visits.  I wore a massive heart monitor, painful to take off and put back on.  Later, however, I would develop a sense of self-worth because of being “a helper,” helping to get legal residency for my mother and my older siblings. I sat on the bench during recess with a broken heart, holding my monitor in my hand throughout my early school years, doing nothing and merely watching classmates play and have fun. I needed support to make sense of my life experience; and I was most pleased that teachers and counselors did take an interest in me. This was my only salvation, and I will always be most grateful for the emotional support that I received from professionals. It took tremendous effort for many years for me to develop a healthy sense of dignity and the ability to achieve wonderful things; and it will all be worth it if I am to have the privilege of helping individuals with mental health needs in similar situations, for the rest of my professional lifetime. My parents always taught me that our unique experiences of pain, struggle, and triumph are always worth the sacrifice and that happiness is always a result of heroic effort. Overcoming my own weaknesses and unfortunate circumstances has allowed me to discover and cultivate my greatest strengths, my compassionate heart and perseverance; I never give up. My goal for continuing graduate school has less weight or emphasis on a lucrative and/or prestigious career.  For me, however, money and the many things that it can buy mean little.  I hope to earn a doctoral degree in my field as part of my quest for meaning and fulfillment in life, attaining the kind of sheer joy and inner peace that I now know derives from helping others to enrich their lives and find happiness.  For me, going to graduate school is about many things, a sort of triumph for my family (la familia), extended family, and community as well as myself – in addition to preparing myself to make my maximum contribution to my profession. A Latina in a new and scary land who, in time, learned how to become whole, I am fortunate to have the opportunity to give as much as I can back to the world. I feel that ISPP would be the best place for me to get the finest education available and develop the hands-on skills to fulfill my dreams of becoming a talented clinical psychologist and leave my mark on the world as a healer. I would like to continue to work with underserved populations and give my best to those who are in the greatest need. I take special delight in the fact that many of the underserved who are ill and in desperate need of our support, speak my first language, enabling me to build an immediate rapport.  Although my last name and light olive skin with freckles tend to hide my identity, I am a Mexican woman much like my mother.  My mother and father remain an important inspiration in my life, along with my daughter. I have become an expert at the balance of school, professional responsibilities, and my family life. I have been fortunate to be blessed not only with a beautiful, healthy daughter, but also my best friend and significant other of five years, he is also concerned about social issues and fascinated by my psychological explanations of the injustice and suffering that we see in our community. He fully supports my dedication 24/7 to my studies; and my daughter adores him. I thank you sincerely for considering me for your PsyD Program at XXXX Latina Sample Personal Purpose Statement for the PsyD #psyd #statementofpurpose #personalstatement #writingservice

When I left my childhood home on the outside of Lima, Peru, the world was marveling at the 2,200 Incan mummies found buried beneath what one newspaper called a dusty shanty town. The irony was apparent to me, how people could be seeking clues to better understand a lost civilization from centuries ago, while there were myriad public health concerns begging to be addressed in the land of the living. The irony deepened for me when archeologists began commenting on the high infant mortality rate of 15th century Incans. Poor sanitation, crushing poverty and being bereft of healthcare are things that most Americans will never have to experience, and thankfully so. But these issues and more have left their indelible mark on me forever. Rising above my past, I came to America with my mother, and a pocketful of hopes for a better life. Seven years later, I am proud of how far I have come, my ability to acculturate, and the fact that I am now attending one of the finest educational institutions in the world. While my path to Public Health has not been linear, having discovered Public Health, I have found that no other field brings me greater personal or professional satisfaction, or greater relevance to my career. Indeed, during my undergraduate pursuit of chemical engineering, my mother contracted breast cancer. As a result, I found myself reflecting on my life, my scholastic route, and reassessing what truly mattered. In the end, chemical engineering mattered, but not the way that people do. Public health was a natural choice given my compassionate temperament and all that I had seen growing up. To bolster my academic performance, I took as many graduate level courses as possible at the ____ School. I am intent upon pursuing research into the physiological and behavioral effects of micronutrient supplementation in prenatal and infant development, and more specifically, their effects at the prenatal and infant stages of development. Such research and its findings will prove invaluable for advocating for the implementation of preventative health measures. The ____ MPH Program focused on Human Nutrition is the ideal curriculum, especially coupled with ____'s incomparable access to resources, grants, and contacts in the field, I will be assured of a superlative educational experience. Earning the MPH will be an excellent foundation from which to build my career in Pediatrics, the vehicle by which I will be able to conduct micronutrient supplementation interventions in several parts of the world. My future focus will be rural areas or areas of low socioeconomic status. Repeatedly, I have read in academic journals articles dealing with the supplementation of several micronutrients and have become fascinated on how most of these are truly low-cost ways to improve maternal and child health and reduce the educational achievement gap. My love for Pediatric Nutrition led me to volunteer for countless hours in numerous settings, visiting and interacting with children in pediatric wards as well as teaching volleyball during summer vacation for middle and high school aged students in New York City. Having worked with Dr. ____, I have built up my research acumen, as both an observational coder and research assistant. The work has been decidedly relevant to my future, and involved returning to my childhood home, comparing, and contrasting the issues of a shantytown outside of Lima, Peru, and the population of inner city ____. Being involved with Dr. ____'s work has convinced me that literally and figuratively, we speak the same language. Increasing my exposure in the field, understanding children and their mothers' realities, behaviors and their needs has fueled my passion for the work. In addition, working with Dr. ____, I was able to better understand the differences between the people of developed vs. emerging nations and their different views on raising children. Research work has also exposed me to the practical applications of finding better ways to provide parenting and nutrition education at the primary care setting, and micronutrient supplementation in a Peruvian shantytown. Having seen several states in central and northern Peru has only given me a small overview on how children from the inner parts of the country are raised and fed. It is often the case that in these places, food obtained from the ground is available, however, the children from these towns do not always receive all the micronutrients and balance diets needed for a healthy development, realities that are reflected in many communities worldwide. Thank you for considering my application to the MPH Program in Public Health Nutrition at _____ University. Pediatric Nutrition and Public Health Personal Purpose #pediatric #nutrition #personalstatement #mph #publichealth

I see higher education as a transforming experience that deepens one's sense of appreciation for public service. My profound desire for human fulfillment through service to others caused me to focus early on nutrition. I have been drawn to study in this area because it strikes me of such basic or fundamental importance to public health. Faced with the difficult decision of where to continue my studies, I have decided on XXXX University as my first choice. As a Muslim woman from Saudi Arabia, I feel most comfortable at an educational institution that has a deep respect for faith in God. I am the type of liberal Muslim who is wonderfully comfortable with inter-faith worship, among Christians, Jews, Muslims, and the members of other faiths as well. I like the fact that XXXX University is a Seventh-day Adventist health sciences institution in the Christian tradition seeking to advance the work of Jesus to make men whole. I would like to contribute to this through my study and subsequent professional labors in nutrition. I am especially attracted to XXXX's mission to combine the awesome power of faith with the intellectual power of science. I very much look forward to working with an institution that seeks to transform the lives of the people they teach and touch with healing care. I am presently studying at a Catholic school, the College of XXXX in Morristown, New Jersey. I started the master's program in Food and Dietetics on the first of January of this year, 2007, and I am scheduled to graduate in December of 2008. The problem that I have is that for some reason and I honestly do not know why the Ministry of Higher Education of the Government of Saudi Arabia, which pays my expenses through a scholarship fund, has removed the College of Saint Elizabeth from its list of approved programs. XXXX, however, remains on the list of approved programs. And I ask you to please let me transfer from my present program to the MPH Program at XXXX. I have competed 24 hours of credit at XXXX, and if I cannot transfer any of this credit to XXXX, I would be happy to view what I have done so far at the College of XXXX as an excellent, valuable, and beautiful experience that has helped to prepare me for my studies at XXXX. Issues surrounding community and public health nutrition have been my central occupation for several years. I aspire to a leadership position in this area in my native Saudi Arabia because I see so much critical work that needs to be done in this area. I long to return to my native country someday to perform valuable research in the assessment of community nutrition needs and nutritional resource planning coupled with a multi-pronged approach to health promotion and the struggle to prevent diseases. I also appreciate Loma Linda's multidisciplinary perspective on public health. I am especially fascinated by the physiological mechanisms involved in the relationship between diet and disease in the context of the impact of dietary practices on human health, the environment, and ecology. I am anxious to gain a better understanding of the most effective tools and strategies to assess the nutritional status and problems associated with individuals and groups. And I also have a special interest in the application of management principles to the administration of nutrition programs and services. I hope to dedicate myself to meeting the didactic and supervised practice requirements that are necessary to become a Registered Dietitian (RD) in the United States. I am looking forward to practicums and developing and implementing projects related to public health nutrition practice. I am from Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, and the fact that I chose to study towards the BS Degree in Community Health and Nutrition shows that I have been dedicated to these issues now for some time. Graduating from the King Saud University College of Applied Medical Science is looked upon with great honor in my country and I am proud of this accomplishment, based on many years of extremely arduous work and long hours. I am already a Registered Dietitian in Saudi Arabia, and achieving this credential in the United States would serve me well back home in terms of access to a leadership position where I could be of instrumental importance to the struggle to improve the nutritional standards of my people. Ten years from now I would like to be a professor in the University Department of Public Health Department, serving the public primarily through ongoing research initiatives in nutrition. I already have considerable working experience in Saudi Arabia working as a dietitian in hospitals where I often volunteered to work on holidays as well. I see these two years of work experience that I enjoyed as a great privilege, and it strengthened my dedication to the goal of becoming a fully professional nutritionist. I am someone who has traveled to many places and loves cultural diversity. I have visited Greece, France, Switzerland, and Dubai, as well as lengthy visit to England, working on my English. I want to thank you for your consideration of my application. MPH Public Health Nutrition Dietetics Personal Purpose

I am applying to the XXXX School of Public Health primarily because of the centrality of its mission to improve health care in the Developing World, especially Africa. I have a chance of being accepted to your program because of the potential that I have for contributing to the fight to help some of the world’s most vulnerable infants and children to survive in critically hostile environments. I also deeply appreciate the way that this struggle in my home country, Nigeria, is part of a global struggle, full of implications for other frontiers of the battle against AIDS, Malaria, Polio and even diarrhea. I seek lifetime immersion in the study of how and why African mothers and babies often die as a direct result of the birthing process. My earliest levels of awareness of the medical profession resulted from assisting my physically challenged cousin during my childhood. When I learned that his suffering resulted from our failure to vaccinate against this disease, something lit up in my brain and I began to find greater direction and purpose in my studies. By the time that we lost both my aunt and her baby during childbirth, my destiny had become sealed in my mind as I became determined that someday I would make my mark in health care as a physician and surgeon with a special dedication to obstetrics and gynecology. Last year I finished medical school and this year I co-founded an NGO (Health Forte Nigeria Initiative) providing basic health services in certain rural areas of southwest Nigeria. We are funded by the private sector, a solidarity that is of critical importance for ongoing public health development. I have also worked in PEP-FAR clinics; and have participated in so many failed PMTCT initiatives that this has become a very personal cause for me as well. I am an optimist, and it is my generation that will transform Nigeria to a land where everyone will have access to affordable health care and free emergency care. I keenly look forward to helping to eradicate malaria and other vaccine-preventable diseases in Sub Saharan Africa. My optimism and my passion for innovative research and development in public health initiatives for the Developing World were enhanced by my visit to the UK where I had the privilege of completing a course on Health Economics last October 2010. As a physician and surgeon, I have acquired special training in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and it is in this area that I especially look forward to making important contributions. I have extensive experience within Nigerian hospitals and the provision of health care services, both public and private. As a Medical Officer and General Medical Practitioner, I take pride in serving as an integral member of the team responsible for the development of health care provision. I was especially honored by being invited to serve as a member of the panel responsible for developing the 2011 Health Care Bill recently submitted to the Nigerian National Assembly. I have established numerous working relationships at every level of Nigerian health care sectors and have developed a special interest in the development of collaborative liaisons between health care institutions and the business community, working to secure funding and support for critical health care projects under development by NGOs, including large hospitals. Emphasizing the importance of preventive medicine stands at the center of my intellectual and professional world. XXXX’s School of Public Health is my first choice for graduate school because it is the flagship program that is the optimal location for me to be able to most fully develop my capacity as a researcher, forever laboring to decipher the complex human, ethical, and politico-economic factors that undergird the challenges of public health care in today’s Africa. MPH Personal Purpose Statement Editing Service

Why social work. A young woman from India who was raised to be most passionate about social issues and social justice, - especially by my mother, a public school teacher - I take great personal pride in my professional integrity, resilience, and especially my commitment to the underserved and the most vulnerable members of our society. Only since I have myself become a teacher, have I most fully come to appreciate the foundational importance of human dignity and respect and how instrumental it is for the educational process. Social Work is my choice as a profession because I see it as the duty of our society and those designated to address social issues, social workers, to help at-risk, marginalized, or vulnerable people to be accorded justice, particularly with respect to educational opportunity. I became increasingly aware of my passion for human dignity during my fellowship and teaching experience for Teach India, particularly since one of my teaching units was focused on developing a better understanding of rights and equality. My students and I delved into the what, why, and how of equality and dignity. This experience helped me to develop a much better appreciation of the importance of integrating social justice and human rights education in school curriculums; and helping to foster dignity, respect, and positive thinking along with the promotion of freedom of speech. I believe that all human beings have a moral if not legal right to education. At least to the extent to which it can afford to do so, for example, I see the society that fails to provide facilities for the disabled as a failure, because of the principle of equal opportunity. I have spent my life cultivating empathy for other human beings, especially the least fortunate, and for me this is the central driving force behind my keen motivation to build a career in Social Work as an MSW professional and a graduate of XXXX’s XXXX School. I want to work with children in particular. Here in India we have a growing and devastating problem of children and adolescents living on the streets, most addicted to drugs, begging and eating scraps of garbage to survive. I look forward to giving my all as an MSW professional to helping them to build a dignified life, working in coordination with NGOs that are concerned with this issue.  Coursework, fieldwork and community engagement at NYU would help me immeasurably to contribute to solutions to reach out to these children, caring for them, serving as their advocate with governmental organizations, protecting them and promoting their dignity. I want to learn how to help young, troubled, at-risk youth to channel their emotions and energy in productive ways, lessening aggression, anger, and frustration. I want to contribute to the development of stronger, more empathetic and more aware generations to come who truly value and fight for human dignity. Why now, expectations. After graduating from our public school system in 2011, I completed my Bachelors Degree in History with honors in 2014 and then went on to spend two years as a fellow with Teach for India (June 2014-June 2016). My undergraduate studies in History helped me to learn to see and understand the inherent dignity of the human being in light of history, as well as understanding social conflict and injustice in historical context. Closely related to my study of history has been my in-depth reading of and about philosophers such as Locke, Rousseau, and Kant who played pivotal roles in the development of my critical thinking about social issues and the role of the social worker in society – particularly the integration of women and slaves into the political and cultural order. I expect to be challenged at the Silver School but to excel and distinguish myself as a very passionate student and a hard worker with a big heart for the underserved and those who suffer, particularly children. I hope to be remembered by my fellow students as someone who always struggles for social change and improvement with sustainable ideals. I look forward to many decades to come putting my MSW from the Silver School to work internationally, particularly on behalf of street children, most especially in my native India. Social Worker Attributes:  As I see it, the social worker must learn to persevere through many trials, as have I – without getting discouraged. I learned during the course of my 2-year teaching fellowship that commitment, grit and resilience stand at the core of the model teacher or social worker, tough to the bone, always creative, pragmatic without surrendering ideals, seeking to heal and negotiate conflict, at once a diplomat and a psychologist, the social worker mends tears in the fabric of society, and in the soul and heart of the person in need of help. I see the social worker as distinguished by maturity, wisdom, and the patience to listen. My own compassion and perseverance were challenged when I was dealing with 2 of my most difficult students. Within time, I came to realize that they suffered from low self esteem caused by years of neglect and humiliation at home, which resulted in serious acting out problems in the classroom. It took incessant, positive narrations and shout outs every single day for some time to make them feel that I care and to give them confidence in themselves. Social Issue of Concern: With Teach for India I taught in a government school for an underprivileged community. What interests me most about the experience now as I prepare myself to enter your MSW Program at XXXX are the ways that this experience touched on many of the broader aspects or factors responsible for limiting human development – the type of material that is covered in your thoroughly multidisciplinary program with its international and in fact global focus. With Teach for India I soon became aware of how most of this community surrounding the school seemed completely resigned to their circumstances – without the freedom to ponder their futures since they were swamped with the battles of the present. With domestic violence and economic oppression widespread, little to no health care for half our population, a critical shortage of clean water, high unemployment, and malnutrition: how can we uphold the dignity of humans living in these conditions? I also wish to study the moral, philosophical, and psychological dimensions of these problems. Thus, I seek to equip myself through the optimal academic experience at NYU with the creativity to contribute to the search for answers to complex questions about tragic and intransigent realities – especially as they affect street children. I am genuinely passionate about the study of acute poverty among the most poor and I seek a complex and creative understanding of human misery and suffering from the perspective of social justice and human dignity. Goals, Contribution: My own professional goals and special interests dovetail nicely with the principal research interests of the faculty at the Silver School and I particularly appreciate the wide-ranging nature of your scholarly research initiatives. Child rights, human-rights-based approaches to human development and women’s rights in particular stand at the core of my commitment. I want to learn at XXXX, in a space with continuous learning, analysis, research, and applications for uplifting the quality of life for society’s vulnerable members. In addition to learning from the faculty a tXXXX, I also look forward to learning from my peers, interacting and collaborating with global social workers and researchers. I seek a professional lifetime standing tall at the intersection of human rights and social work – the political, moral, ethical, societal, economical aspects; criminality, migration, terrorism, chronic poverty – how and why all of these play out in our societies. I see my professional future as a constant campaign for human dignity, through education, progressive policy reform, international solidarity, etc. I want to learn how to make human life flourish and prosper through the cultivation of human capacity in marginalized communities. Optional: You will have many applicants with higher grades than mine. A chronic asthmatic, I ask for special consideration given the fact that I was quite ill for several years, including while I was an undergraduate student, hospitalized several times. I did work as hard as I could under the circumstances and gave my best. I have known struggles since I was very young and I also know how to bounce back. I faced several severe asthma attacks even during my fellowship with Teach for India but nothing stopped me from doing my best for my students each day. My heart and soul were in that classroom and the feeling came effortlessly.  I am now more resilient, tougher, and ready to keep moving forward and do my best. I started exercising more, going for walks, yoga, and strict nutrition. My asthma is fully under control and my heart is set on the XXXX School at XXXX. I thank you for considering my application. MSW Statement of Purpose Human Rights, Educator