Hi, This is my 1st draft and I'd like to get some quick opinions on it. I need to polish it up and have it in soon. App deadline for 1 school is 1/15. Feel free to rip it apart. I just want to get a feel if I'm going in the right direction. My advisor said not to harp on inspirational examples but on what motivates me and what I can bring to the program. So here goes...
I grew up surrounded by family in the medical field. My mother is an adolescent psychiatric nurse. My brother is a family physician and 2 of my cousins are graduating medical school this year. But that was not for me. I was going to set the world on fire.
My undergraduate degree is in Business Management. I planned on gaining experience in finance and marketing and then obtaining an MBA in whichever field interested me. Now, here I am almost 6 years later having realized that I had no sense of purpose, that I would go home at night feeling that I had not accomplished anything. I now look back at friends from high school and college and envy the fact that they always knew what they wanted. Many are teachers, some are attorneys and a few went into the medical field. They are happy. I was not.
Over the last few years I tried to figure out what I wanted to do, what would give me a sense of purpose and accomplishment. My family talked to me about medical school, nursing school and law school. They suggested that I obtain teaching certification but I just did not feel the calling for any of these. It was during this time that I became friendly with a neighbor who is a Speech Pathologist.
It was during these talks that I was able to reflect on how many members of my family have benefited from speech therapy. My cousin suffers from Cerebral Palsy and a host of other physical and cognitive impairments. It was always difficult to understand him but I now realize how his speech has improved over the years. My father's cousin has a daughter who is autistic and was non-verbal as a child. She just recently graduated from high school. When I was discussing my thoughts about becoming a Speech Pathologist with my brother, he told me that he had a speech impediment when he was a child and went for speech therapy.
The more I talked to my neighbor the more interested I became in the profession. She would explain to me about aphasia, impaired language development and articulation disorder. She works in a clinical setting at a couple of hospitals and rehabilitation centers and about a year or so ago suggested that I accompany her. Since then, I have met other Speech Pathologists and have observed in an educational setting. It opened up a whole new world that I never knew existed and it was wonderful. The experiences were both exciting and humbling. It was exciting because I saw the effort patients made. Yet it was humbling because I could never know what the patient was feeling. I have seen the complexity of the profession and also understand that sometimes there is just a simple articulation disorder.
Although my background is in business, it strengthened my work ethic. It enabled me to become self-motivated, driven and determined to succeed. Last year I made the decision to return to school and I enrolled in the Speech-Language Pathology Pre-Professional Program at Kean University. I am in my last semester of the program and I was hoping to show you a 4.0 GPA. I didn't quite make that but I came very close. But what my GPA shows me is that I can strive to do better. This is another one of the qualities that I will bring to the program. I will always strive to do better.
I grew up surrounded by family in the medical field. My mother is an adolescent psychiatric nurse. My brother is a family physician and 2 of my cousins are graduating medical school this year. But that was not for me. I was going to set the world on fire.
My undergraduate degree is in Business Management. I planned on gaining experience in finance and marketing and then obtaining an MBA in whichever field interested me. Now, here I am almost 6 years later having realized that I had no sense of purpose, that I would go home at night feeling that I had not accomplished anything. I now look back at friends from high school and college and envy the fact that they always knew what they wanted. Many are teachers, some are attorneys and a few went into the medical field. They are happy. I was not.
Over the last few years I tried to figure out what I wanted to do, what would give me a sense of purpose and accomplishment. My family talked to me about medical school, nursing school and law school. They suggested that I obtain teaching certification but I just did not feel the calling for any of these. It was during this time that I became friendly with a neighbor who is a Speech Pathologist.
It was during these talks that I was able to reflect on how many members of my family have benefited from speech therapy. My cousin suffers from Cerebral Palsy and a host of other physical and cognitive impairments. It was always difficult to understand him but I now realize how his speech has improved over the years. My father's cousin has a daughter who is autistic and was non-verbal as a child. She just recently graduated from high school. When I was discussing my thoughts about becoming a Speech Pathologist with my brother, he told me that he had a speech impediment when he was a child and went for speech therapy.
The more I talked to my neighbor the more interested I became in the profession. She would explain to me about aphasia, impaired language development and articulation disorder. She works in a clinical setting at a couple of hospitals and rehabilitation centers and about a year or so ago suggested that I accompany her. Since then, I have met other Speech Pathologists and have observed in an educational setting. It opened up a whole new world that I never knew existed and it was wonderful. The experiences were both exciting and humbling. It was exciting because I saw the effort patients made. Yet it was humbling because I could never know what the patient was feeling. I have seen the complexity of the profession and also understand that sometimes there is just a simple articulation disorder.
Although my background is in business, it strengthened my work ethic. It enabled me to become self-motivated, driven and determined to succeed. Last year I made the decision to return to school and I enrolled in the Speech-Language Pathology Pre-Professional Program at Kean University. I am in my last semester of the program and I was hoping to show you a 4.0 GPA. I didn't quite make that but I came very close. But what my GPA shows me is that I can strive to do better. This is another one of the qualities that I will bring to the program. I will always strive to do better.