Hi everyone,
I had a bit too much fun disguising the names. Hopefully it's readable.
I have only just joined, so I will work on reviewing other peoples' essays. Thank you in advance for reading. This essay is a general SOP one for my applications to an Agricultural and Resource Economics PhD program.
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I stood at the end of a row of ten women in a rice field. Bunches of rice shoots had been picked, tied together, and were ready to be transferred and planted for the September harvest. The other women seemed to float across the field and create a row of plants within seconds. In contrast, my feet sank in the soil and I struggled to spread a couple of shoots neatly in front of me. My back began to hurt as my neighbor helped plant sprouts for both my section and hers. A neophyte researcher with urban roots, I clearly was not a likely farmer. Unaccustomed to outdoor exposure, I suffered from embarrassing allergic reactions to flea bites. I failed at farm task after farm task. Days earlier, a cow had even rejected my offering of food.
Yet the residents of Busy's village in southwest China patiently showed me their agricultural lifecycle from harvesting to markets to plates. They told me they believed that agriculture, migration, and education would lead to economic improvements. While I had had pre-conceived notions about their economic conditions and the benefits and pitfalls of migration, the interviews told me I had much to learn. Prior to this experience, I had been broadly interested in poverty alleviation, current trading systems, and the concept of free trade and its associated economic, environmental, and social impacts. Trade policies had an impact on the well-being of this village, and these vis-ŕ-vis interactions helped me put a face on the issues of fair trade.
When I finished my report on rural-to-urban migration from the rural perspective and returned to my undergraduate studies at Undergraduate University, I turned my passions into action and presided over our Students for Fair Trade Club, which I had also founded. The club was focused on education and raising awareness among the student population. I wrote an op-ed about economic equality and ensured that our club's events were covered often by the school media. During my senior year, we successfully campaigned to bring fair trade coffee to all campus dining locations.
I began to turn an academic eye on the questions I raised through my activism. As a Social Issues Scholar, I conducted research using primary and secondary sources on social issues in Brazil, environmental issues in Ghana, and trade in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic (DR). My classmates and I traveled and produced comparative studies of how the U.S. and other countries respond to the same issues, presenting our findings yearly at an academic symposium. For the Dominican Republic, my research focused on understanding national government and international policies that could have a harmful impact on the country's economy. I examined bateyes, villages home to Haitian sugar cane cutters and their families, as well as the impacts of the DR-Central American Free Trade Agreement to develop a picture of U.S., DR, and Haiti interdependencies.
Much of the world's poorest people are dependent on agriculture, a fact which draws me to the field of agricultural and resource economics. Both the Haitian migrants and Busy's residents taught me that there is much to contribute to economic theories from the ground up, i.e., the human side. Models, when combined with local knowledge and best practices, can create efficient and equitable micro and macro economic systems. I wish to contribute to the knowledge base on sustainable trade during and after my Ph.D. studies. In particular, my interests lie in local agriculture, consumer education and preferences, policy economics, and solutions for structuring trade liberalization and sustainable trade in a way that also allows for rural income generation. At Barnyard University, Dr. Morales' work on so-and-so and Dr. Parson's research on this-and-that are particularly appealing to me.
Upon graduation from Undergraduate University, I received a Fulbright fellowship to return to Prilo Province, China, where Busy's was located, to study rural-to-urban migration from the rural perspective. I worked as a Project Official with a local non-profit organization, Name of Organization (NO). With NO and other organizations, I traveled across the province to visit communities ranging from the Pita minorities of the south to the northernmost Green, Blue, and Yellow populations. My travels took me to projects on watershed governance, traditional housing, leprosy, migration, and micro-loan and grant projects across the province.
I often returned alone to one Blue village, Gloves. With Bob, a Blue doctor, and the Blue County Medicinal Research Association, which he led, I spent days in the mountains tracking and picking medicinal plants and contributing to a Ph.D. student's thesis research on pharmaceutical production and local environmental perceptions. I also spent a month living in the village, where I developed an English teaching program in the community. The locals I talked to recognized the interdependence among the land, culture, and livelihoods, and Bob and his organization's members were vocal conservationists. Natural herbs and minerals are the heart of traditional Blue medicine, and medical theory states that land conservation leads to human health. As such, both sustainable material extraction and environmental protection are valuable to Gloves residents.
Dr. Camper, Dr. Candle, and Dr. Changes have investigated economic development and environmental policies and solutions, and I also want to conduct research on the benefits of eschewing growth and exploitation in a resource-limited world. I am an advocate for a steady state economy as defined by ecological economists, and am fascinated with the issues of technology development and land use planning as a way to benefit villages or regions in sustainable ways.
My interest in sustainable livelihoods led me to research and publish an article about eco-tourism in two different rural communities in Prilo Province in an independent publication on social development and civil society in China. For the article, I visited villages of different sizes and ethnic minorities. I discovered that at each of the sites, locals themselves had limited control over eco-tourism development, but all were excited about the possible benefits. With a strong emphasis on profitability and short-term high rates of return, eco-tourism must be managed appropriately in order to lead to local sustainable development.
In conclusion, my research interests are in the issues affiliated with international rural poverty, including rural-to-urban migration, income disparities, production efficiency, business models in local and global settings, land use development, sustainable trade, and resolving pressures on the world's resource base. While I am interested in macroeconomic international financial models as a way of understanding how to improve the lives of the poor, I am most interested in learning and applying a solid micro foundation behind agricultural economics. As Dr. Graduate Chair told me, Barnyard is strong in both international development and resource economics, and its reputation convinces me of a strong alignment with my goals.
In my dissertation, I would like to investigate how rural minority populations, both on and off the farm, can best improve their livelihoods and social well-being for themselves as well as their communities. I am interested also in how the local agricultural systems these communities depend on can be improved in the face of trade and environmental policies and as well as local initiatives such as microfinance projects, technology enhancements, and eco-tourism. My ultimate goal is to contribute to the field of applied economics in a research or academic institution where I can affect policy change through knowledge-sharing and extensive analysis.
Occasionally, my memory returns to that day in the fields of Busy's, the women laughing gently at my clumsiness. We finished a row, stepped forward, and bent over again. While the work was painful, it was rewarding and we were in it together. I imagine the possibilities that lie ahead if I am able to return, bringing the same enthusiasm but armed with a greater skill and capacity to contribute.
I had a bit too much fun disguising the names. Hopefully it's readable.
I have only just joined, so I will work on reviewing other peoples' essays. Thank you in advance for reading. This essay is a general SOP one for my applications to an Agricultural and Resource Economics PhD program.
-----------------------
I stood at the end of a row of ten women in a rice field. Bunches of rice shoots had been picked, tied together, and were ready to be transferred and planted for the September harvest. The other women seemed to float across the field and create a row of plants within seconds. In contrast, my feet sank in the soil and I struggled to spread a couple of shoots neatly in front of me. My back began to hurt as my neighbor helped plant sprouts for both my section and hers. A neophyte researcher with urban roots, I clearly was not a likely farmer. Unaccustomed to outdoor exposure, I suffered from embarrassing allergic reactions to flea bites. I failed at farm task after farm task. Days earlier, a cow had even rejected my offering of food.
Yet the residents of Busy's village in southwest China patiently showed me their agricultural lifecycle from harvesting to markets to plates. They told me they believed that agriculture, migration, and education would lead to economic improvements. While I had had pre-conceived notions about their economic conditions and the benefits and pitfalls of migration, the interviews told me I had much to learn. Prior to this experience, I had been broadly interested in poverty alleviation, current trading systems, and the concept of free trade and its associated economic, environmental, and social impacts. Trade policies had an impact on the well-being of this village, and these vis-ŕ-vis interactions helped me put a face on the issues of fair trade.
When I finished my report on rural-to-urban migration from the rural perspective and returned to my undergraduate studies at Undergraduate University, I turned my passions into action and presided over our Students for Fair Trade Club, which I had also founded. The club was focused on education and raising awareness among the student population. I wrote an op-ed about economic equality and ensured that our club's events were covered often by the school media. During my senior year, we successfully campaigned to bring fair trade coffee to all campus dining locations.
I began to turn an academic eye on the questions I raised through my activism. As a Social Issues Scholar, I conducted research using primary and secondary sources on social issues in Brazil, environmental issues in Ghana, and trade in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic (DR). My classmates and I traveled and produced comparative studies of how the U.S. and other countries respond to the same issues, presenting our findings yearly at an academic symposium. For the Dominican Republic, my research focused on understanding national government and international policies that could have a harmful impact on the country's economy. I examined bateyes, villages home to Haitian sugar cane cutters and their families, as well as the impacts of the DR-Central American Free Trade Agreement to develop a picture of U.S., DR, and Haiti interdependencies.
Much of the world's poorest people are dependent on agriculture, a fact which draws me to the field of agricultural and resource economics. Both the Haitian migrants and Busy's residents taught me that there is much to contribute to economic theories from the ground up, i.e., the human side. Models, when combined with local knowledge and best practices, can create efficient and equitable micro and macro economic systems. I wish to contribute to the knowledge base on sustainable trade during and after my Ph.D. studies. In particular, my interests lie in local agriculture, consumer education and preferences, policy economics, and solutions for structuring trade liberalization and sustainable trade in a way that also allows for rural income generation. At Barnyard University, Dr. Morales' work on so-and-so and Dr. Parson's research on this-and-that are particularly appealing to me.
Upon graduation from Undergraduate University, I received a Fulbright fellowship to return to Prilo Province, China, where Busy's was located, to study rural-to-urban migration from the rural perspective. I worked as a Project Official with a local non-profit organization, Name of Organization (NO). With NO and other organizations, I traveled across the province to visit communities ranging from the Pita minorities of the south to the northernmost Green, Blue, and Yellow populations. My travels took me to projects on watershed governance, traditional housing, leprosy, migration, and micro-loan and grant projects across the province.
I often returned alone to one Blue village, Gloves. With Bob, a Blue doctor, and the Blue County Medicinal Research Association, which he led, I spent days in the mountains tracking and picking medicinal plants and contributing to a Ph.D. student's thesis research on pharmaceutical production and local environmental perceptions. I also spent a month living in the village, where I developed an English teaching program in the community. The locals I talked to recognized the interdependence among the land, culture, and livelihoods, and Bob and his organization's members were vocal conservationists. Natural herbs and minerals are the heart of traditional Blue medicine, and medical theory states that land conservation leads to human health. As such, both sustainable material extraction and environmental protection are valuable to Gloves residents.
Dr. Camper, Dr. Candle, and Dr. Changes have investigated economic development and environmental policies and solutions, and I also want to conduct research on the benefits of eschewing growth and exploitation in a resource-limited world. I am an advocate for a steady state economy as defined by ecological economists, and am fascinated with the issues of technology development and land use planning as a way to benefit villages or regions in sustainable ways.
My interest in sustainable livelihoods led me to research and publish an article about eco-tourism in two different rural communities in Prilo Province in an independent publication on social development and civil society in China. For the article, I visited villages of different sizes and ethnic minorities. I discovered that at each of the sites, locals themselves had limited control over eco-tourism development, but all were excited about the possible benefits. With a strong emphasis on profitability and short-term high rates of return, eco-tourism must be managed appropriately in order to lead to local sustainable development.
In conclusion, my research interests are in the issues affiliated with international rural poverty, including rural-to-urban migration, income disparities, production efficiency, business models in local and global settings, land use development, sustainable trade, and resolving pressures on the world's resource base. While I am interested in macroeconomic international financial models as a way of understanding how to improve the lives of the poor, I am most interested in learning and applying a solid micro foundation behind agricultural economics. As Dr. Graduate Chair told me, Barnyard is strong in both international development and resource economics, and its reputation convinces me of a strong alignment with my goals.
In my dissertation, I would like to investigate how rural minority populations, both on and off the farm, can best improve their livelihoods and social well-being for themselves as well as their communities. I am interested also in how the local agricultural systems these communities depend on can be improved in the face of trade and environmental policies and as well as local initiatives such as microfinance projects, technology enhancements, and eco-tourism. My ultimate goal is to contribute to the field of applied economics in a research or academic institution where I can affect policy change through knowledge-sharing and extensive analysis.
Occasionally, my memory returns to that day in the fields of Busy's, the women laughing gently at my clumsiness. We finished a row, stepped forward, and bent over again. While the work was painful, it was rewarding and we were in it together. I imagine the possibilities that lie ahead if I am able to return, bringing the same enthusiasm but armed with a greater skill and capacity to contribute.
