I had an opportunity to observe many different speech pathologists in many environments

I need any sort of feedback on my personal statement that I will be sending for my graduate admissions! Thank you so much in advance.

As far back in my life as I can remember I have always had a passion for helping the people around me and this passion has only grown as I have gotten older. When I was junior in highschool I had my first real experience interacting with someone my own age that was diagnosed with autism. His name was Nathan and we sat next to each other for an entire semester in our speech class and frequently worked together. Being able to experience the interactions with his speech pathologist in the classroom and observe the ways that she facilitated his learning and socialization with the other students forever impacted me. I witnessed the way that Nathan's speech pathologist enabled him and I now have the determination to receive the education that I need to be able to have this same impact on children that have speech, language, and communication disorders.

During my undergraduate studies, I was privileged enough to be given the opportunity to observe many different speech pathologists in many environments addressing a variety of areas including aphasia, articulation, traumatic brain injury, early intervention, and various language disorders. Although I find every field associated with speech pathology truly inspiring and fascinating, I realize that it would be impossible for me to practice every one of them simultaneously. After earning my master's degree, I am interested in pursuing my career in the field of autism therapy and early intervention. I want to be able to provide the support and services for young children with disabilities and their families. I have always enjoyed working on a team and collaborating with my peers and the field of early intervention will give me the opportunity to do just that. There is a nation wide need for speech pathologists who are capable of working with Spanish-speaking children and although I was not able to complete a Spanish minor during my undergraduate studies, I plan to earn my certification in Spanish after completing my master's degree. Communication is an aspect of life that I believe every person should be able to experience and utilize successfully. With this certification I hope to open the doors to successful communication for children whose first language is not English and suffer from a speech, language, or communication disorder.

Taylor, depending upon the kind of personal statement that is required by the university, this essay will come out either too short or too long. You cannot tailor your personal statement for general submission. However, you can use what you wrote as a template or basis for your future personal statements. Remember that the personal statements will come with specific prompts that are meant to answer certain questions about you. You cannot guess what those questions may be so you can't really develop a general personal statement. Not to mention that universities do not take kindly to generic essays and believe me, the admissions officers know where they are reading a template answer to their essay prompts.

That said, you have really written a very good and solid generalized statement. It should give you a clear idea of the information you can use to answer both the personal and common app statements from various universities :-) I would suggest though, that you try to include more current work experience into it so that you can also use the PS as an SOP when necessary. The story about Nathan is an excellent foundation for your desire to become a speech pathologist. However, you need to develop your exposure from that in such a manner that will show how you have interacted with more needy children than Nathan and that your desire to help them has only been increased. Don't forget, the masters degree is supposed to help you ascend the career hierarchy in the future. Mentioning solid plans for your career in your personal statement will also help it along.