Scholarship / Becoming an academician - GKS-G Personal Statement [5]

GKS program application

Hi. It was my first time applying for the GKS program. So, I would like to get a feedback and some opinions about what I wrote. To be honest, any of my professors have read it. Also, english is not my mother language and I'm still improving my skills and vocabulary. May I post all of my application forms (besides this one, Statement of Purpose and Future Plan after Study)? Anyway, thanks in advance. Here we go!

My name is J. X. S. X. I am 24 years old. I was born and raised in a country town of the State of X. Since I was young, I have always been interested in contents from other countries, like games, music and movies. During high school, I met the psychologist of my school and talking to her about the fields of work helped me to choose Psychology as my desired major.

As soon as I joined university, I started living away from my family, once the campus was in another state. At university, I have experienced living at the university residence/accommodation, where I was member of the dormitory coordination for a few years. These life experiences plus all the knowledge and experiences acquired from the Psychology course boosted up my personal development and helped me to improve some important skills, such as empathy, to pay attention, to respect and take care of others, beyond improve significantly my communication and my interpersonal relationships.

Still during my university days, for my internship, I had the chance to work at Public Defense of R. during two years, offering services for victims of domestic violence, for children that have faced violations of their rights, and other related demands. Also, I participated in an extension project at women's penitentiary of R. and I was member of a service provided to students accompanied by the Student Assistance of University X. During my undergraduate years, I thought that would be interesting to apply for an exchange program, but due to my family financial situation and because I was depending of the Student Assistance to stay at university, I decided to keep this dream for the master's or doctoral degree.

To explain my reason for studying in South Korea, it began after I met a K-POP group that changed my (perspective of) life. Thus, I started having more interest in this music genre and in the south korean culture. However, knowing this culture allowed me to identify some relevant and specific aspects as a fan and a psychology student, for instance, the high suicide rate in South Korea. In addition, the way south korean men express their feelings/affection (usually between friends), plus their interests for make-up, fashion and beauty also got my attention and motivated me to study and collaborate with the south korean society somehow, aiming to relieve or prevent the suffering of its population.

From the demands of my professional training activities and the contact with K-POP songs and south korean dramas, I have noticed that domestic violence was not approached. Consequently, I have considered to study about domestic violence in South Korea. Although, I believe that it is important, firstly, to research and debate about the production of subjectivity of south korean men aiming to know more about this population and the many speeches/discourses that permeate every social institution - that creates norm, legitimacy and law behaviors and life styles -, such as school, family, religion, the media and others. Thus, would be possible to identify and explore particularities of south korean culture, once it (re)compose the subjects.

All of my experiences have enabled a desire of becoming an academician after completing the master's or doctoral degree. Therefore, these interests mentioned above have motivated me to apply for the GKS program, once this scholarship is an excellent opportunity for achieving some of my personal goals and would be a perfect chance to collaborate with the south korean society as well. By the way, the South Korea and its educational system and programs are worldwide recognized, besides all the support that the GKS program offers to the student, including the language program and cultural activities.