Hello People,
I am applying for a Masters in Public Administration at NYU Wagner. I have been asked to "Describe your career goals, your interest in NYU Wagner, how your education and work experience qualify you for admission, and how Wagner can play a role in helping you make positive impact in the field of public service. "
I would be glad to receive a thoough critique of my first draft. Thank you.
Here goes:
"Can you imagine living in poverty in the midst of plenty? Well I can and so can 56 million youth who live in a country overridden by corrupt practices. Welcome to Nigeria, a country where aspirations to public service are for the sole purpose of individual enrichment. A country where the public educational system has collapsed, and the result is half baked graduates who are not globally competitive. I ask myself how long this trend will continue, and the answer to me is obvious; any hope for change must start from the individual. This desire for change has spurred my journey into the world of public service.
My mission in public service is simple: to develop, create and implement policies and programs that help empower the Nigerian youth and to put in place systems that effectively minimize corruption while holding public officers accountable for their actions or inactions. My medium of change is through communication. I see myself in 10 years having contributed a lot to the empowerment of young Nigerians and Africans through communication platforms. My interest in development communications started from an early age. While in secondary school, I would willingly participate in essay competitions, debates oratorical contests reciting the words of the great Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Little did I know that this passion for writing would shape my future career choices. I progressed to writing on issues of social anomaly. My essay "No more promises" with the theme "Democracy that delivers" received an honorable mention in the 2010 Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) International essay competition and it became my first online published work. In addition, my essays on Youth Migration and Youth Unemployment were in the final 200 in the World Bank international essay competitions in 2011 and 2010 respectively.
The choice of a Masters in Public Administration is deliberate. I did consider MBA programs, but was sold by the content of the Wagner MPA. For me, the choice of an institution was based on evidence of alumni achievement as well as the program and reviews on Wagner. Did I hear you ask "Why Wagner?" Wagner is ranked 10th in public Affairs by US News and World report and 9th in Non-Profit management; I am yet to meet an individual who would by-pass an opportunity to earn a degree from this reputable institution. Its cosmopolitan location means exposure to a variety of resources and internships for hands on experience. Its inter disciplinary course content and the mix of courses in management, finance and policy means that the amount of knowledge I would gain is enormous. The school's focus on leadership is another unique selling point. I want to understand public policy and the management of public service organizations. I also hope to learn contemporary public policy concerns and means by which we can solve them. I am also inspired by the school's diversity and the existence of fellowships to aid the pecuniary needs of promising young scholars like myself from sub-saharan Africa.
A restless individual, I have four years diverse work experience across the legal, bilateral trade and investment, not-for-profit, communication and legislative sectors. It feels like I have been building blocks and NOW is the time for me to channel my assets into a path that is purposeful. Working in the Legal sector, I had key responsibility for research, publications and co-authored a world bank publication on "Doing business in Nigeria-Comparing Regulations in 183 economies". In 2010, I worked with the UK Department for Trade and Investment in Lagos where I had primary responsibility for media and communications. I had to sell trade and investment opportunities in Nigeria to the world through my presentations and publications. Whilst working as a research and sponsorship officer for a social enterprise focused on graduate employability in Nigeria, I honed my research and evaluation skills. This was particularly important as I learnt to measure the social and immediate impact of programmes on beneficiaries.
Leadership is service and I am always willing to render same. I have acted as female vice president of an employability class where I was responsible for organizing the group and leading group projects and assignments e.g. "Pay-it-forward" projects where we had responsibility for beautifying our community by painting a school in an impoverished neighbourhood. Similarly in my local church, I took responsibility for editing the church harvest magazine as the editor, reformed old ways and used the magazine launch as a means of fund raising. I was also selected to share my experiences on "Rubbing Minds", a foremost youth television programme on the topic "Youth and the Legislature".
As part of my contribution to human capacity development, I have volunteered regularly for the past two years as speaker at a youth advocacy platform "IMPACT" where I take leadership and career development sessions for young undergraduates. In the past, I had also coordinated a mentoring walk in Abeokuta for young females aged 18 to 35. With the theme "Walking to inspire employability" we sought to bring together young ladies in sub-urban Abeokuta with experienced mentors in different fields to share experiences.
I hope to make the most of my stay at Wagner. I am certain I would apply my new-found knowledge helping create unprecedented solutions to Nigeria's pressing issues. What could be more fulfilling than that?"[/b]
