Personal Statement

Program: Master in Public Policy (MPP at Kennedy School of Government)

Late every night when I returned home after a day’s busy work, I would look at my child who had already fallen asleep and keep reminding myself that I should try to be a nurturing mother. Looking at my husband who was equally exhausted from a day’s heavy work, I could not help feeling guilty for not having been a caring wife. To be a nurturing mother and a caring wife, that is the ideal of womanhood according to China’s conventional framework of womanly virtues. I had tried my best to conform to this image and though I cannot say that I had succeeded completely, I did really try.

Nevertheless, as if destined, I cannot be the nurturing mother and the caring wife that I am expected to be, at least not for the immediate future. This is all because of the Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Program. Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, the program has been recruiting scholars from more than 60 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America over the past decade. By now, LEAD scholars are working every part in the world on important positions of power in government and non-government organizations, business world, media profession, academic and international organizations, playing an important role in facilitating the sustainable development of the world. The program, designed to train young and middle-aged international leaders who are equipped with foresight and strong problem-solving abilities and who can make contributions to the welfare of not only the present generation but also the future generations by striking a balance between economic development and environmental protection, exposed me to the realities of the developing countries. Through this “window”, I witnessed poverty, the kind of poverty much more shocking and real than what I have read about in fictional works.

I majored in literature both in my undergraduate and in my graduate programs. In my study of literary works，poverty and backwardness, disease and death, those constituted the prevalent themes. However, my understanding of those concepts developed on a mere superficial and literary level. In xxxx, I distinguished myself from a total of 300 candidates and became one of the 15 qualified members of the LEAD-China Program. Relying on the international educational resources of the program, I not only received systematic trainings in advanced international theories and analytical methods in economics, sociology, environment and development, but also made field trips to South America, Southeast Asia and Europe where I witnessed the real life of the local inhabitants. In some countries, the disparity between the rich and the poor was simply alarming. Of course, factors related to limited natural resources and geographical isolation underlie such disparity, but there is definitely a human factor which should not be neglected. The failure to frame scientific and effective public policy can account for the underdeveloped conditions of those countries and regions, in my own country as well in foreign countries.

Before embarking on the LEAD program, I had seldom realized that the research on Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development I have been engaged in could produce such a far-reaching impact on the improvement of global human welfare. The emotional journey that LEAD program has led me through effected a radical change and re-orientation in me. I decide that I must suspend my redemptive plan to be a “nurturing mother and a caring wife” because I feel I am called onto a new vocation that will require me to leave behind my child and husband for the time being so that I can go to the best institute of political science—KSG of xxxx  University—to receive advanced education and training in public policy. I hope that in the future I will develop into a leader and a practitioner of public service, a person with advanced concepts of public policy-making and powerful leadership. I also hope that the achievements I have made and will make in facilitating human survival, environmental protection and the sustainable development in developing countries can exemplify the ideal of my life—the sustainable development of the woman in a developing country through intellectual pursuits.

From a middle school teacher to a part-time journalist and editor of a local TV station, from an undergraduate to a graduate and finally to a middle-level government official，I have come a long way educating and perfecting myself as a person. Coming from a small village on the bank of the Yangtze River, settling in Beijing, the capital of China, and traveling to nearly 20 countries and regions, my formative experiences over the past decade represent a history of constant personal development. As a middle school teacher, I had endeavored to influence my students by imparting them knowledge and giving them my loving heart. I taught them how to develop an optimistic, positive and healthy view of life and let them understand how education could change their destiny. As journalist and reporter of a local television station, I have tried to record and present the realities of a changing society, the pains and joys of the general public, and how government policies impinge on the life of the ordinary people. I traveled deep into the primeval forests where snakes and wild beasts abound in order to document the effects produced by human activities on the environment and call people’s attention to the issue of environmental protection that they used to overlook. As a member of several non-government organizations such as “Friends of Nature”, I have participated in a number of social surveys and protection campaigns.

By far, the most important factor in my personal and career development is my work experience since xxxx at central government departments, first at China National Assets Administration and then at the Ministry of Finance, during which I have become exposed to and engaged in public administration and public policy making. With my promotion in xxxxx, I became the youngest middle-level government official in the Ministry of Finance. I participated in, planned and organized a number of poverty-relief and social development programs initiated by the State Council，brought funds, technology and professional people to some of the poorest parts of China’s rural area. In xxx, as chief coordinator, in collaboration with some major academic institutions in Beijing including Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, I launched the International Symposium on the Development of Market Economy in China at which renowned international scholars like Prof. xxxxxx from the School of Economics of Harvard were invited to make presentations. In xxxx, I helped PANOS, an international organization, organize and launch a large-scale academic conference Implications of TRIPS on Pharmaceutical Industry and Public Health in China. In my own LEAD program, I attended various conferences held in different developing countries. They include “Diversity and Society in Transition: Challenges for Sustainability in a Globalized World” (Marchxx, xxxx, Sao Paulo, Brazil), “Sustainable Development in Traditional Societies and Communities” (August xxx, xxxx, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia), “Disintegration or Integration: the Sustainability of Societies in Transition” (September xxx, xxx, Moscow, CIS).  On those occasions, I made important exchanges with young leaders from other developing countries concerning the role of public policy in the social and economic development. In xxxx xxxx, as part of the LEAD-China program, I edited and published a book xxxxxx  in China. Those experiences and lots more have helped me realize that I have grown into a career woman with sound leadership, management skills and a rewarding future.

Now, with more than 10 years of rich professional experience, a sophisticated understanding of the meaning of my life, a strong sense of social responsibility, and an intense concern for the sustainable development of human society, I here solemnly file my application for a Master’s program in Public Policy at KSG of xxxx University. I know that this program will produce an unusually profound impact me in my future as a female in a developing country.

The study of Public Policy as an academic discipline is characterized by an interdisciplinary and applied nature. Its aim is to provide a theoretical framework and analytical methods for the decision-making process in the public policy sector for government departments, non-government public service organizations, and public policy consulting institutes.  It is beyond doubt that KSG of xxxx University is a Mecca for those committed to a career in public policy as KSG’s faculty and the achievements made by this faculty in the teaching and research on public policy enjoy an unparalleled reputation in the entire world.

To study and research on public policy with the elites of professors and students will be a most memorable and proud experience for me. Press and Public Policy and Policy Analysis and Leadership are the fields that I am interested in. In my study plan, I will first learn the fundamental theories of public policy to gain a comprehensive and accurate understanding of public policy as a science. Second, I will learn the analytical methods involved in public policy making, and the mechanisms of policy making. They will improve my practical ability to solve problems that I will encounter in my future policy making process. Finally, I will apply my knowledge to the study of specific issues of public policy, with special emphasis on the public policy issues in developing countries. Under the guidance of my prospective advisor, I will focus on a meaningful subject and, by performing in-depth research on the subject, complete my dissertation.

“CLOSER TO TRUTH”, this is the title of a book by Robert Laurence Kuhn that I translated into Chinese in 2000. In this book, the author invites 50 elites working in different fields to present their views on 10 issues that they believe are most concerned by mankind and to probe into man’s destiny in the future. What will the future of mankind be like? What will be my own future? I often ask myself those two questions. I believe that “to be closer to truth” might be an appropriate answer to those questions. There is no ultimate truth and there is no ultimate answer. All we can do is to make persistent efforts to approach our ideals. This requires concerted efforts of the mankind. But first and foremost, the totality of human efforts consists of individual efforts. For me, each individual effort I make will be a step that brings me closer to truth.