Personal Statement.

Personal Statement.

Author: Tony

Social work has become one of the intrinsic essences that define my personality and identity. It embodies an emanation of my inner desires to help and provide assistance to people around me, including my own self and my family. Apposite execution of my duties as a social worker provides me with a sense of accomplishment, self-actualization, contentment, inner peace and a feeling of completeness. My aspirations to become a successful social worker are inspired by the life journeys and professional developments of successful social workers. Moreover, I aspire to assist individuals suffering from mental health conditions, especially among Asian-American, to recover completely, and also to remove the stigma attached to mental diseases in Asian-American communities. Most successful social workers have a prior history of attending to human needs before enrolling to high school or college, and I am not in any way different from them. Prior to my arrival to the US, I attended to the needs of my Grandmother who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. At that time I was virtually unaware about most aspects of Alzheimer’s disease. I was thus only able to attend to (and alleviate) the most simple physical and emotional manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease. I also experienced how debilitating mental conditions do reduce the human dignity of a person. Due to these limitations and experiences, I made up my mind to study psychology, in order to get an apposite comprehension of mental diseases that afflict my family members and the wider society at large.

When I arrived in California, I realized that the state had a substantial population of the Asian minority community. After arrival, I undertook introductory classes to psychology at MSU (Michigan State University). Also, at MSU, I did a course that encompassed economics, introductory psychology, and calculus; but I majored in Finance. Nevertheless, I learnt about several psychological and psychiatric disorders, syndromes and diseases that afflict people. I had a GPA score of 3.68/4.0 when I graduated. Thereafter, at Pasadena City College, I did a course that encompassed the following: biology, philosophy, humanity, and statistics. I thereafter had a GPA score of 3.8/4. Finally in UCLA, I did my Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology which encompassed the following courses: Developmental psychology, research methodology and statistics. I had a GPA score of 3.8/4. Also, during my undergraduate years, I held several leadership positions in various students groups.

After completion of my undergraduate studies, I applied my newly acquired skills for the betterment of the society. I also did several studies and research on the common mental problems that are prevalent in my community. I also researched on the incidence and the incidence density of adverse mental health conditions within the Asian community. During these studies and research, I was able to observe that there was a high incidence and prevalence rate of adverse mental health conditions within the Asian community. Though, the Asian community is one of the minority communities within the area, they accounted for a disproportionately high percentage of people diagnosed with mental health problems, but the management of these conditions were inadequate due to socio-cultural differences between the service providers (the healthcare providers and their respective institutions) and the end-users(the Asian person suffering from psychiatric condition). I thus acknowledged that the Asian community needs quality and adequate mental healthcare services, which must be provided by a person well conversant with the culture and life of the community. This acknowledgment inspired me to make a decision that I must study for an MSW degree, and thereafter work as a social worker who will provide the necessary apposite services to my Asian community. This is the most basic and fundamental professional goal that I aspire to achieve.

As I acquire more experience in the field of social work, I hope to hone the skills that I acquired from my psychology classes and the subsequent internship period. Moreover, I also aim to comprehend the conceptualization of abstract psychological skills. Additionally, I also aim to hone and apply my analytical skills in the process of theorization of observed phenomena and inferential information. One of the particular skills that I had acquired in class, and I thereafter applied it successfully during my internship period is conflict resolution based on organizational psychology.

During my internship in the town of Qing Dao (which is my hometown), I learnt that my boss was experiencing several problems with one of his employees. At that instant moment, I decided to apply some of the skills I had learnt in the organizational psychology classes in this situation, in order to ensure that the employee was not dismissed from the company. I thereafter had separate conversation with all the employees, and I was able to convince them to freely express their thoughts, aspirations, advice and reservations about the internal operations and the state of employee-supervisor relationships within the company. I relayed this information to my boss, who was highly appreciative of my endeavors. Using the information that I had obtained, I was able to lay down the apposite groundwork for a meaningful conversation between the concerned employee and my boss. The resulting mutually beneficial conversation enabled them to resolve their conflicts. The results of this conversation afforded me with a feeling of contentment. Thereafter, I came to value my assistance to other people, especially if the assistance I provided enabled them to solve their problems.

After my internship, I worked as a Chinese TA volunteer at a local Chinese education center. In this center, I was able to interact and work with children who had ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). I was able to gain the trust of these children, and this assisted me to develop the appropriate healthcare provider-patient relationships, and this shaped my caring personality. I was also able to apply my analytical skills to identify emerging trends, and to monitor the established trends within the pupil populations in this center. This enabled me to categorize the pupils into several groups based on their probable prognosis.

I have worked as an undergraduate research assistant in Adjustment of Immigrants and Immigrant Minority families at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA. My main duties there included interviewing and interacting with parents and children, data entry, basic data management and analysis, library research, translating, and attending weekly lab. I also worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Social Affective Neuroscience Lab at the same university. My main duties there included working as a confederate, screening potential participants over the phone, entering and managing data, and helping out with similar tasks. Moreover, at the same university, I also worked as an undergraduate Research Assistant in Motion Adaption Lab, whereby my main duties were coding and analyzing data, suggesting ideas of improving the current pilot studies, attending weekly lab meetings, and reading and understanding the assigned research papers.

My other research experience was my work with Anna Lau. Anna Lau is an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of California, Berkley. I assisted Prof. Lau to conduct a research that was titled Tiger Mother. The aim of Tiger Mother was to investigate the parent-child relationship within Chinese immigrant families, and the influence that this relationship has on the long-term somatic functioning and the psychological well-being of the child. During this research, I learnt that my skills as a social worker would enable me to foster an apposite parent-child relationship and thereby improve the long-term prospects of the child developing into a holistically functional and conscientious adult.

My supervisors in these research projects did commend my research skills, and they recommended that I pursue an academic program that would enable me to apply my research skills for the betterment of my society. The apposite academic program for me to pursue is the MSW Program at UCLA.

The MSW Program at UCLA offers me the best opportunity to be a professional, holistic and socially-conscious social worker who would be able to identify, investigate and manage any adverse mental health conditions that exists within the community. The mission statement of the MSW program is compatible with my aspirations as I intend to use my leadership skills and knowledge gained from the Institution to benefit the emotionally-unstable and mentally-ill members of our society.  Also, the program aims to empower the community, in order for it to promote social justice. The MSW program would adequately prepare me to address the myriad needs of individuals from minority communities who suffer from psychiatric conditions. Moreover, the program would provide me with the adequate skills and know-how that will enable me to improve the essential systems of patient care and management of mental conditions among the Asian minority community in California. This would ensure that such patients are accorded their human dignity.