Personal Statement
Program Applied: Education Administration
To the more utilitarian-minded people in China where most people have to struggle for the satisfaction of their materialistic needs of life, my present decision to apply for an advanced degree in Education seems incomprehensible. As I have majored in English Language as an undergraduate, this means that if I sought employment on the strengths of my English proficiency, I could easily be recruited by certain companies that are ready to pay me high salaries, as students with outstanding English competence are rare and the demand for those students is great in this era of rapid economic growth and globalization of China. Indeed, here I would like to indicate unequivocally my determination to pursue Education as my lifelong career and as the focus of my Ph.D. program. In choosing Education as my career objective, I have chosen to relinquish the tangibly materialistic awards of life. This choice is motivated simply by my deep love for the cause of education, as I myself is the very product of education. It has always been my ideal to develop myself into an accomplished educator whose thoughts can influence the mind of other people. Toward this objective, I am prepared to make the greatest sacrifices conceivable. The nobility of education dwarfs any profit or loss on the materialist level.

Even though the issue of education reform was raised in China a century ago, the situation still remains not encouraging at present. Although I grew up to become a qualified college student by receiving rigorous family education early in my life, followed by formal education, I refuse to consider myself as a successful product of the existing education system. On the contrary, I feel disappointed, perplexed and even agonized for this prevailing system because like the majority of other Chinese students I was subjected to the absolutely passive “test-oriented” education without being allowed to bring my individualities and potential into full play. My pre-university life was spent in utter fear of tests. If I failed to score over 80 points in my math test, I would invariably be reprimanded severely. Under such conditions, my individuality was suffocated, my mind rigidified. Hence, my antagonism to such a mode of education.

The backward conditions of Chinese conventional education are also embodied in the limited research in such basic fields as educational psychology and teaching methodology. Discriminations against students with lower scores are frequent. In Zhongshan University, a incident happened recently in which a student committed suicide for being falsely accused of being a thief. In the primary school I came from, a girl was always disliked by teachers and suspected of being a thief for her poor family background and her unsatisfactory coursework. Actually, the girl turned out to be quite veracious. Those phenomena have weighed heavily on the minds of Chinese educationalists and I believe our most urgent task is to assimilate useful experiences from the West.

My practical experiences related to education on a number of occasions have considerably enriched my understanding of education as a discipline. In 1999 I taught Chinese to American students receiving language trainings in China, an experience which made me aware of the importance of transcending cultural barriers in language acquisition. In the summer vacation of 2001, I launched a mini-scale English coaching class in my home, helping a group of 5 middle school students improve their English free of charge. In this 1-month coaching program, I experienced the sense of joy and satisfaction as a “teacher”. But I also felt sad, as those five students were regarded as “weaklings” by their school teachers. But when I taught them in a relaxed, casual and pleasant manner, they showed obvious improvements. As a matter of fact, they were by no means weak in their mental faculty. The only problem was with the teachers who failed to understand their psychology and to use appropriate teaching strategies.
My teaching experiences also include giving English lessons for nearly one year to students of the South Translation College of Sichuan International Studies University (SISU). I believe I am a person fond of keen observations of life and indulging in serious reflections on problems. My teaching career, tentative as it is, has equipped with valuable experiences that will prove meaningful to my future studies and research in education. My unchanging interest in education led me to choose Early Education on Language Skills as my graduation project, based on which I completed my BA thesis. In view of the special characteristics in children’s language learning and acquisition and the contribution of language teaching to the early development of their intelligence, I proposed specific measures that could be employed to motivate children’s involvement in language learning activities by providing effective stimulations.

As is universally acknowledged, English language is an important instrument. As a student of English major, I am convinced that I have unique advantages in this regard. SISU has a special status in China’s western regions in terms of English teaching. In its International Cultural Exchange College, I attained top 4th ranking in my overall academic performance. I was awarded the Best Heroine in the University’s English Evening and the third prize at English Speech Contest. At the English Teaching Evening, I won the honor of The Best Smiling Teacher. As a student majoring in Management of Foreign Affairs, I took a considerable number of optional courses related to management like Archives Management, Economic Psychology, Public Relations and others, courses that I was deeply interested in. In terms of personality, I consider myself very fit for being a teacher. I am of a sanguine disposition, easy-going and sociable, humorous and pleasant in speech. My friendliness enables me to win the respect of others easily. Good at establishing affinity with my classmates, I served as student leader of my class throughout the undergraduate program. I was also rather active in extracurricular events. I won the university’s first prize in a group dance contest, the third prize in social investigation report, and the second prize in a calligraphy contest. I have demonstrated a strong sense of responsibility and have a loving heart to contribute to collective welfare. In the middle school, I gave financial help to a poor student and in university I donated money to the Project Hope, a nationwide non-government charity program designed to prevent elementary and middle school students in impoverished rural areas from discontinuing their education.

The advanced systematic education I received in English language has brought me lots of advantages. I can know the Western world through first-hand materials, to read western classics on education to understand their true concepts undistorted. I have come to develop a relatively full understanding of western educational tradition and am strongly aware that both the concepts and the technology of western education far excel those of Chinese education. I am obsessed with a sense of urgency. Amid the rapid social and economic development in the 21st century, tradition ways and ideas of education have been affected like every other aspect of social activities. Meanwhile, people’s pursuit for improved quality of life has altered the traditional orientation of education—the test-oriented education model has been criticized and the emphasis is increasingly put on the build-up of a health psychological structure in learning to make students into responsible and constructive citizens. Accompanying those changes of ideas are drastic changes in teaching methodologies. As a result, Western education system has produced students far more innovative than their Chinese counterparts. There are many important things that Chinese educationalists can learn from the West. As an educational professional who is committed to this learning process, I am motivated to seek a Ph.D. degree in Education.

I apply for the esteemed University of _______ because your program in Educational Administration attracts me with its strong faculty and its nurturing academic atmosphere. I have long been impressed by the research achievements you have made in this field. I expect to lay a solid foundation by learning the basic theories in education administration and grasping fundamental concepts of education as a discipline. I plan to participate actively in teaching practices and exchanges and then focus on a specific subject of research that is closely related to a prominent issue in Chinese education. I believe that your program will give me new perspectives with which I can make important breakthroughs in my future research on Chinese education issues.

In writing this Personal Statement, I cannot help thinking about my past. I used to suffer from poor physical conditions as a child, mischievous and liked to weep. Now I have grown into a person strong in many athletic events and in willpower, but broad-minded and optimistic. I can influence my future students by citing my own experience of personal development. I believe that a good educator is someone who has something valuable to offer to somebody else. The professional trainings your program gives me will help me to share my experiences and knowledge with my future students in a more scientific way. This is the motivation in my present application.