Graduate /
"From Trade and Commerce to a professor in Korea" - Autobiographical Statement, PSU [NEW]
It is the first Autobiographical Statement, so I am not sure whether it sounds impressive.
I would like to get corrected on grammars, sounds, proficiency and organizing.
Whatever you mention, it will be helpful for me. Thank you so much in advance.
They want me to write below:
1. Background information that is relevant to HRIM
2. Positions I hope to obtain after the graduate work
3. How HRIM programs would help me achieve my goal
4. Other information I would like committee to know about me.
As a student who majored in Trade and Commerce in an undergraduate university, I have a few inescapable reasons that led me to have decided to study on in a different field. Although I was raised in a family that runs a thriving restaurant for 16 years, I did not choose the Hotel and Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM) as the major in my university. However, it seems to be inevitable that I chose to study for the HRIM. Every reason that I chose it as my last education has to do with my experience of the adolescence in the home restaurant.
The year 2009 is a remarkable and unforgettable year for me: I earned my bachelor's degree, and I was in the hardest state in which I had to ponder for a while which choice would work better between getting a job right away or studying more. One day I found myself that I had been inwardly wanting to study something different from my major ever since I became senior level. I was completely convinced by father's saying that I should not take a break now in order to have a better life style. I eventually have decided to enter a graduate university.
My former major - Trade and Commerce - was fascinating and worthwhile taking as the job. However, all the memories I obtained from my father's restaurant came back to me. Even though it was not a good memory because I had to supply whatever customers demands while working for the restaurant, I anticipated that it was going to be great if I can combine these two different elements: experience and theory. While helping my home restaurant I consciously and unconsciously came to learn how to successfully manage a restaurant through the 16 years of happiness, furies, sorrow and pleasure, and I approached the conclusion that if I would be able to blend the 16 years of experience, 4 years of knowledge from the university, and theories in a graduate university, it is literally going to be a perfect combination.
Furthermore, I also wish to meticulously conduct a research what factors, besides the flavor of food, play a significant role in prosperity of a restaurant. Restaurant is not the place where people only fill their stomachs with foods and where a throwaway place, but where people should feel comfortable, happy with and they are willing to come back again. The restaurant field is where a number of chefs and entrepreneurs ended up fiasco, and where unexpected success suddenly and accidently occurs. So, there must be plenty of cases in which the owners believe that the flavor of dishes attracts customers, but other factors draw customers instead of the flavor. Looking back, it is my distinctive and unwitting habit that I always try to look for the reason why this restaurant has the rush of customers and why that restaurant has literally no customer at all. The funny point is that there are many cases in which the food of the restaurants that have no customer was tastier and more delicious than the ones who have overflowing customers. I want to make sure that if what I have believed so far about the factors that led such restaurant to the big prosperity can be theoretically verified.
My personal ultimate dream is to become a professor in Korea. Even though there is a number of people who go abroad to study, there are much more who are not able to afford to pay such expenses due to the financial lack. I would like to give them quality and valuable knowledge, from my own experience I obtained by meeting and treating customers in the real field, and experience and knowledge I would gain from the USA where a numerous foods from all over the world become fusion. Some students who are interested in such learning might seek for information through the internet or magazines. However, it is axiomatic that they still lack information. I would like to help them open their doors to the world so that they could indirectly encounter the different world. In the end, they will become nongovernmental diplomats who introduce distinctive Korean customs, foods, ultimately Korea by itself. Perhaps, I can do it. Yet, one person's work is generally not as effective as two people do.
I think the ideal student for this major is the one who has been seeing how restaurant works from experience, and I am the one who perfectly meets this condition. There must be a lot of students who are intelligent and almost expert in theory, and there also must be a number of people who were raised in a family that runs a restaurant. Yet, I wonder how many of them among those who meet the both conditions want to study on? I guess only a few meets this condition.
Lastly, all I can say to you is that I believe in my diligence and application, and I am sure that I will run by far faster and study harder than any others so I can reach my dream as quickly as possible. If you give me an opportunity to study in Pennsylvania State University, I promise you that I will absolutely become such a diligent student that everybody loves.
Thank you for considering me for Pennsylvania State University's graduate program.
