Personal Statement :: College Admissions Essays

Since the stemma of my academic endeavors, I have long cherished a daydream to be a member of the social science seek community, which gives our inn progressive insights into human ecology. I began my undergraduate studies at Ramapo College of New island of Jersey with a passion for ecological justice and with the intention of majoring in environmental studies. Ramapo Colleges progressive liberal arts foundation provided me with ample means to explore the multifarious array of social science courses. As I took more social science courses, however, my understanding of human social groups underwent a metamorphosis. As a result, I decided to pursue a class in Social Science, with minors in the two fields I felt most passionately interested in, Womens Studies and African American Studies.Two courses that were critical in my intellectual development were the Sociology of Social Movements and the kinetics of domesticated Violence. In the Sociology of Social Movements, I designed a research project, Women, War, and Resistance. In this piece I examined crucial issues surrounding wars on a global level, such as rape as a weapon of war, sexual trafficking, and various grassroots war-resistance groups formed by women on a local level. In addition, after taking the course on Dynamics of Domestic Violence, I had the opportunity of doing field work at a domestic violence shelter. For this independent study, I met with a professor of the womens studies department on a weekly basis to wrangle my experiences and to receive assistance in my research project The Effects of Domestic Violence on Adolescents. My motivation to research, discover, and stimulate social change is root in my childhood experiences. As a young child I grew up in a household filled with domestic violence, which ultimately ended with the suicide of my father. I subsequently came to know a variety of the typical American nuclear family a single parent household. As I began to study family dynamic s further, I was able to see my behavior experiences in a broader context. In hindsight, I now realize the impact and weight my own mother had on my personal development. It was through her strength, determination, and optimism that I was able to find the spark within myself to set goals and dreams for my future. She encouraged me never to accept anything at face value, including the way our society attempts to define my womanhood. As a result of this, I now question American tillages classification of a successful family and the factors that determine a stable family.