Characteristics, motivation and your background - Speech-Language Pathology Personal Statement

1.What personal characteristics do you possess that make you suitable for the Speech-Language Pathology profession?

2.What is your motivation for pursuing a career in Speech-Language Pathology?

3.How have your background and experiences prepared you to effectively engage and interact with others whose cultural, economic, or social backgrounds are different than your own?

My personal characteristics that I feel best equip me and make me suitable for a career in Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) are the combination of my intense love of written and oral communication and its use for the effective expression and exchange of ideas; and my instinctive drive to mentor others and nurture their abilities to overcome challenges. My mother was a reading instructor and at a young age instilled in me a love of language that has flourished and become an innate component of my personality. That love has integrated with the strong desire I have always felt to reach out to others to help them transcend limitations and achieve rich, meaningful lives. SLP, in other words, brings together two of my strongest values in life: communications skills and helping others.

Excelling in the development and expansion of my own communications skills has served me well academically and is a source of intense professional inspiration for me. I look forward to a career in SLP as providing that rare combination of components in a professional setting, namely, activities that I both enjoy and in which I perform well. In every aspect of daily life, I see verbal communication as among the most fundamental means of expression and human interaction, and that being hindered in that ability imposes emotional, spiritual, and intellectual deprivation. I foresee a career working as a rehabilitative speech therapist to restore and enhance others' communications skills and abilities as providing unparalleled professional rewards and personal fulfillment, as well as opportunities to continue being a lifelong learner and active contributor to my chosen discipline. My experiences as an SLP Research Assistant and volunteer in the Aphasia Community Partners Program have reinforced these convictions.

I have always thrived in diverse environments with opportunities to learn of other cultures and ways of life. In particular, my years of experience working in the hospitality industry while attending college have been immensely enjoyable because of the wide array of people with whom I come into contact. Having worked in several food and beverage venues, in positions ranging from server to bartender to chef trainee to manager, I have gained invaluable experiences enabling me to interact and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Most people do not realize what a wide assortment of personnel are employed in the restaurant industry. I have experience among workforces that have included aspiring artists, medical students, MBA graduates, ex-convicts, single parents, recovering addicts, military veterans, newly arrived immigrants, disabled/challenged individuals, culinary masters, and people from literally every walk of life. These interactions have enriched me personally and professionally, enabling me to appreciate many unique yet universal qualities of humanity and to work effectively with all types of people toward common goals. I am thoroughly comfortable with the prospect of working with clients from any culture, economic status, and/or social background and confident of being effective and successful in such interactions while providing SLP services.

Leah, the most important thing you have to remember when writing a statement in response to the question relating to personal characteristics is that you have to show, instead of tell the reviewer what these characteristics are. He will have a better idea as to whether you have the personality to succeed in the program if you are able to illustrate your abilities through examples in your daily life or relevant settings. Rather than just telling him you have the traits. Telling him is one thing, proving it is another. Since this is a written interview, you should use your experience to prove the elements of your personality that work best in response to the question. I read the traits but I don't see how you were able to use it in a relation to your academic, work, or personal setting. So an example of the traits would work best in support of your claims.

Now, your passion should come from helping others. It would be nice if you had an experience to share with the reviewer that could have been the "Aha!" moment that helped you realize that you passion lay in speech pathology and that this was the career you wish to pursue from that point on. Perhaps you can relate the response to something specific in your work experience?

Keep in mind that this is a personal statement. The keyword being "personal". So you have to present information from your background and not just summations as you have done so in this version of the essay. Be specific in showing your response. What the reviewer is after here is evidence that you are truly a person who sees speech pathology as a vocation and not just another career that you may or may not complete as your degree in the future.