Admission Essay
What significant relationships and life experiences have you had in giving or receiving help that have motivated you to enter the field of social work?
My experience in the military plays a major role in my wanting to venture into social work. In my years in the military I was able to brash shoulders and interact with the vulnerable and defenseless in different communities in India and Indonesia. During my service in South Korea, I was privileged to volunteer as an English teacher to children whose parents had been in the military but had died. I found this experience to be satisfying. I also got the chance to give back to society without expecting anything in return. This experienced enabled me to realize that although in a small way I can be able to give back to the society by helping the vulnerable and less fortunate. The military also taught me the value of self sacrifice and service to all irrespective of whom they are or their background. After my experience in South Korea, I realized that I had so much self gratification so I decided to go for a volunteer mission in Mexico.
My military training experience also played an important role in my motivation. When I first entered military school, I was a naïve, clumsy, out of shape, undisciplined, and hated people yelling at me—all qualities that kept me on every Drill Sergeant’s Radar. I was very close to being kicked out in the first week, and I almost let them. I wanted to run and never come back. But to where? I couldn’t go back to school; I couldn’t get a job making enough to support myself, because I really did not possess any skills. This was the only thing that I could do. I went to the Drill Sergeant and asked him for another chance, he gave it to me. Saying “This is not high school; if you want something, you are going to have to work hard and earn it.” From then on I pushed harder, did pushups and sit-ups every night while people were asleep. I told myself that it was not alright to quit, and I did not quit. It was hard, but I ended up graduating with my peers. This motivation of knowing that I can archive anything with hard work is what motivated me to apply for a social work career.
The USC School of Social Work prepares students to prevent and mitigate severe social problems, which challenge the viability of multifaceted diverse populations. Discuss your experiences with and feelings about working with populations different from your own.
During my period in the military I was not only able to work with colleagues from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, but also to interact with other people from different parts of the world such as India. These interactions not only assisted me in learning more about this people but also helped me learn about their cutlers. Most of the countries that I was posted to were countries that were less fortunate than our beloved countries. These countries were ravaged with a lot of social injustices such as war, famine and poverty. It was quite sad to experience what this unfortunate people were going through and feeling the need to help them yet knowing that I can only be able to help one person at a time.
On a lighter not, I enjoyed learning all the different cultures that I was exposed as well as the different languages that I learned from this people. I also got to understand the different ways of living out there and how these populations adopt to these ways of living. This experience and knowledge will greatly help me in social work since in this field I also have to interact with different people from different backgrounds and cultures.
The USC School of Social Work is dedicated to providing excellent graduate education for people destined to create social change. What social welfare areas interest you and why?
I am most interested with public administration, due to the fact that I worked for public service under the military. I am also interested in community development. Community development will help me utilize the skills I learned and acquired in the military and apply them in my work.
What social problem(s) most concerns you that might be addressed with an MSW
The biggest problem that concerns me and which I would report to an NSW is child maltreatment. In the year 2004, there were 3 million reports of child maltreatment in the US alone. It was approximated that four children die of maltreatment everyday and a large number of these deaths are unaccounted for. For a country that claims to love our children, this is a large number so yes, given an opportunity to address an MWS I would definitely talk about child maltreatment.
