Graduate Admissions Committee,
I am applying to your master’s program in Criminal Justice / Applied Behavioral Analysis, to begin in March 2016. Since earning my undergraduate degree in Psychology from Fordham University, I have been employed as a Therapeutic Support Specialist, with Pathways of Pennsylvania, and I am also a Corrections Officer, with the Department of Justice, Bureau of Prisons. I have had an interest in criminal justice since I was in the seventh grade. Growing up in the neighborhood that I grew up in I witnessed a lot of criminal acts of all kinds take place. i also saw abuse of authority by those who were sworn to protect and serve the people of my community. From my life’s experiences I swore that I would make a difference and a change for the better to ensure that crime was not so rampant in low economic communities, and that those in positions of authority could no longer abuse their powers.
As long as I can remember I have always wanted to make a change for the better in the lives of other people. I love, enjoy and am passionate about working with children. It wasn’t until my little cousins born addicted to drugs and alcohol which caused developmental and intellectual disabilities and some communication deficiencies, did I begin to develop an interest in the behaviors of others. Throughout high school I would volunteer at hospitals, child care centers, and cerebral palsy foundations. I have over 15 years work experience applied behavior
I remember when I was in middle school and high school how I used to volunteer at the local Head Start Program where my mother was a teacher. I enjoyed helping her with lesson plans and craft projects for her class. During school breaks I would often volunteer at the Head Start Program. I enjoyed reading to the children and helping them with arts and craft projects. It was rewarding to watch them as they learned. In high school, I took a class that offered child care for the local mothers. This state government funded program exposed me to early childhood education once again. I now realize that I was rehearsing for what would become my ultimate destiny, my future career.
Before enrolling into Hilbert College, I was unaware of what career I wanted to pursue. After completing two criminal justice courses during my time in high school, it was clear that criminal justice was the perfect field for me. Taking a plethora of criminal justice courses in college, I became captivated by the different criminological theories. This influenced my goal to one day become a criminologist, in order to continue researching why an individual commits a crime, and its impact on society. After achieving my bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, I am now ready to continue my learning and achieve a Master of Science in Criminal justice Administration degree.
I have had the pleasure of being a part of Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. Spending my time as a role model for my “little sister” has made a huge difference in not only her life, but also my own. Seeing her progress academically and behaviorally is very uplifting and gives me motivation to work with other at-risk youth. The organization plays a huge part in my decision to become a school social worker. I intend to remain a volunteer with the organization through adulthood. Along with Big Brothers and Big Sisters, I also spend time volunteering at Renaissance Care Center, a nursing home in Canton, IL. Renaissance Care Center has provided me the experience of working with the elderly as well as people with developmental disabilities. I truly enjoy my time spent volunteering with each age group, and will successfully apply my experiences to my future work. I am now completing my practicum at Heartland Healthcare Center. I have been able to apply my knowledge to the workforce, and have been reminded daily that social work is the job for me. It will be hard to leave the facility upon graduation, and have been asked to come back as a volunteer or activity assistant. Either way, I know I will be coming back to visit the residents and
At that same time in my life, a close friend worked for a non-profit foster care agency. She told me they were hiring for a position mentoring foster children. I ended up getting hired and served as a behavior skills coach for children ranging from ages five to fourteen. While working at the mental health private practice and the non-profit foster care agency, I was able to gain an extensive amount of experience. I worked directly with case managers, psychologists, counselors, and others who allowed me to observe each of their jobs. After more than two years of working in the human services field, I knew I wanted to work with people and to help them
Since a young age, I have always felt a special connection with children and how they are affected by physical disabilities and psychological disturbances. In this instance, all I can do is volunteer at different organizations to achieve my life purpose. Helping children feel better has always been what makes me feel glad. Currently, I am in the second semester of my psychology major, which I plan to extend to the fullest. Becoming one of the most distinguished women in child psychology in my residential area, being able to help children overcome traumas and frustrations, would stand for my goal completed. My belief is that every bit of who you become as an adult is because of how you felt as a child. I want to be there for those low-income families with children with behavioral disorders, who are not able to help pay for the consultations. When I have enough funds necessary my plan is to establish my kids' organization focused on helping children with a mental
I am applying for the Juvenile Detention Officer position at the Juvenile Division of the Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DAJD). I discovered this position through online job search via monster.com. I recently graduated from the University of Washington Bothell, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Community Psychology and minors in Human Rights and Diversity Studies. This position grabbed my attention because I’m passionate about motivating youth to change by helping them access the resources they need.
Please accept this personal statement as a part of my application for the doctoral program in criminal justice starting the fall semester of 2016. The University of Southern Mississippi is my ideal location for the achievement of a doctoral degree. I would like to demonstrate my knowledge, experience, and research ability in the field of criminal justice and correctional studies. Having majored in the discipline as a former graduate student, I want to further my education to assist and promote future changes in criminal justice and correctional policy. I am looking forward to the opportunities your program has to offer and I believe my background and perspective in criminal justice will help enrich the program, as well.
Thank you for your considering my application to the Applied Behavior analysis program. For all of my life I have known that I was going to help people. It could be said that it is in my DNA. I just never suspected what the capacity would be. On December 15thI graduated from Albright college, I began working at Melmark on December 16th. My first thought, on that first day was “Oh no, I can’t do this, I need to quit” That was over two years ago, and I have gone to work every day, with a smile on my face. While working at my first position, out of college, I discovered my passion. My passion, I find, is working with children and adults with autism and with people who suffer from addiction. Watching the smiles on their faces, the determination when they work to complete a goal, and just the progress makes every hardship worth it, I love it. Each day, in my position as an ABA, I run behavior support plans, IEPs, teaching plans and other protocols, and each day I truly wish that I could have contributed to these plans, protocols, and IEPs. I ponder the recommendations that I could come up with, I wonder that if I had been able to participate in these conversations to create these plans could I have brought something else to the table, a different viewpoint. Affecting the way that the plans are written and in turn ran, I feel that I could make a big difference in the lives of the children and their families also. Every two weeks each child’s team meets to discuss his or her
I am currently a senior this year and will be graduating at the end of May with the Class of 2016. I will be attending Dixie State University this Fall 2016. My intended major is Criminal Justice with emphasis in Corrections. I have always been interested in the Criminal Justice system, the way they use evidence to solve hard cases and how much Criminal Justice can make a difference to society. I also want to take that knowledge and bring it back to my community to help improve the Criminal Justice system on the Navajo Reservation including other neighboring different tribes. We have all seen the imperfect police officers and how they treat other ethnic groups or people who are in need, I want to show people that not all police officers are
My true passion for helping others begins with my mother. My mother, Carla worked for Gallipolis Developmental Center for many years as a nursing assistant. Unfortunately, she sustained a severe back injury that ended her career. In 2006, she was rushed into emergency back surgery after several herniated discs ruptured. This left her with severe back pain that she will suffer with for the rest of her life. As a result, I learned to care and to have compassion for those in need. My passion to work in pediatrics stems from my experience of being an aunt. I became an aunt at the age of four and I am now an aunt to six beautiful,
For a majority of my life, I wanted to be a pediatrician when I grew up. I had wanted to be a pediatrician due to my passion to work with children, in addition to enhancing the lives of children. As I continued to grow up, I realized that science is not my strong suit and I would never survive medical school. I do not recall how I learned about the profession of social work, but around the eighth grade I have known that social work was the profession that I wanted to pursue. The idea of helping others is what initially struck me as compelling because I did not understand social work in it’s entirety, but I knew that I would relish a life of helping other individuals.
Starting from being a certified nursing assistant, to becoming a unit secretary for a hospital that specialize in wound care, I have always known that I wanted to help individuals in need. However, I noticed that I was not happy with helping individuals in medical need. It wasn’t until I decided to continue my education that I introduced to the world of social work. Going up with a single mother that suffered from drug abuse, my family depended on social services for a lot of assistance, from everything such as food stamps to family counseling. This life experience helped guide my thoughts on pursuing social work as a career. I know that I want to help individuals that are down on their luck, but I want to take it one step farther, by providing individual counseling to adults that may need more one on one time, than what is normally given from a social service agency. Counseling will also give me a chance to do what I love most and that is to talk and get to know the individuals that I am helping make like changing decisions. Working as a clinical social work has my interest because it does not put limits on what I can do or who I can help, and it will set me up for my future goal of becoming a licensed clinical social worker. Being my own boss and changing my community is my dream job, opportunity and goal. I am currently on my way with changing my community and living my dream, because I am currently working for a non-profit
Starting my career as a social worker and working with children and families is where I feel as though I belong. I have the compassion, the drive and the withstanding endurance to make the area of child and family social work my passion. Working with children requires patience, dedication, resilience and so many other trusting characteristics. Relationships within children’s immediate families have a profound impact on their state of being. Becoming a child and family social worker is undeniably tough and arduous work but the reward of seeing families meet their set goals and becoming a stronger more united family unit come to fruition surpasses anything else. When I become a child and family social worker, my job days will be over and my career starts. Going to worker everyday knowing that I’m making a difference will be the best feeling. A great person once said, “It’s your mistakes that make you human, and it’s your humanity that makes you influential.”
The origin of my passion for helping children emanated from my own family history. I was born into a low-income family; the eldest daughter of two immigrant parents. My parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic, and barely spoke English. Being a young bride, my mother had her first child when she was just fourteen years old, and subsequently, bore four more children. My father worked menial jobs to make ends meet and support the family. Unfortunately, with little education or knowledge of the English language, these jobs yielded meager monetary earnings.
Besides the enjoyment of helping others, I want to become a Human Service worker to provide the assistance that was not available to me while I was growing up. I don’t just want to help people; I also want to save a specific group of people that I sense are in danger. From personal experience living in a dangerous neighborhood in the Bronx, I feel that my knowledge and experiences will enhance my effectiveness in this field, because I can comprehend what my client is going through and what are their everyday struggle since I personally been through it myself. Having good social and communication skills is also going to improve my success in this field because I will be able to properly assist my clients with what they need to hear and what