I was born in El Salvador in 1978 but barely remember it since my grandparents brought me to my parents a few years later after they established themselves in California. Thus, I feel like I have always lived in L.A. As a Salvadoran, one has been among friends since LA. It is like El Salvador's second city. Yet, my journey from my homeland to the United States is also crucial to my identity, educational philosophy and interests, and professional goals. I celebrate diversity and seek to inspire a love for variety among my students.
I hold a B.A. in Psychology from XXXX University, graduating in 2001. My first choice for graduate study is at XXXX University to study for my Master of Arts in Education, Educational Counseling Degree. I aspire to become an educational counselor because this profession's members are people I have especially come to admire while growing up.
I see this occupation as having a profound sense of meaning and fulfillment that comes with struggling zealously to help students understand themselves better and overcome personal, social, and behavioral problems that hurt their educational and vocational success. I hope to make significant, positive contributions to the lives of many students in the years to come. I see this as the most profound contribution to my fellowman that I might be able to make, helping others to avoid some of life's pitfalls and find helpful direction and guidance along the way to becoming productive and creative citizens and responsible family members.
I am especially interested in doing graduate work in student retention and parent involvement/support. I very much look forward to becoming a school counselor and working diligently toward helping students stay in school by assuring that their educational, emotional, and vocational needs are met. I will do this by wrestling with and having an impact on such issues as bullying, peer pressure, depression, and academic and vocational challenges.
I look forward to catering to the needs of students based on their unique gifts, strengths, and challenges, helping educational development. I help to ensure that they are receiving the services that are necessary to address their needs fully. I labor to help my clients become better integrated with society and to live more fulfilling lives by taking a more active part in day-to-day decision-making that has to do with their schedules, opportunities, etc. I work collaboratively with teachers, parents, school psychologists, principals, and other school administrators through IEP meetings. I have an initial meeting with the client and their parents to establish their objectives and then meet with them routinely on an ongoing basis to ensure that they progress towards the goals we have set. I have learned how to advocate effectively on behalf of my clients and to network with professionals such as attorneys and doctors, helping to empower my clients and their parents so they can advocate for themselves as well.
I have consciously worked extremely hard over many years to develop my capacity for inductive reasoning, combining pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions and searching for relationships among what may at first appear to be unrelated events. I am also very conscious of the necessity of deductive reasoning, and I expend a great deal of concentration and focus on applying general rules to specific problems to arrive at answers that make sense and help to resolve issues. I have confidence that I will be an excellent educational counselor because I am resourceful, patient, a good listener, and can work well in a team or on my own. My greatest passion in life is to have the privilege to assist the school system of my community in better integrating family and school contributions to the child through collaboration between families and educational institutions in such a way as to prepare better future citizens who are highly responsible and productive.
My parents fled El Salvador to escape the civil war and to provide me with a better life. I am most grateful for their concern that I make the most of America's educational opportunities. Similarly, I look forward to continuing to help students, primarily through the difficult years of high school, to realize their full potential.
I look forward to helping students from disadvantaged families, helping to inspire the parents and students alike that they really can succeed in America even though they are from a minority community. What I most want is to assist underprivileged families in achieving educationally by pointing them in the right direction, helping them discover the various available resources to help students stay on track and not derail from their goals set for themselves.
MA Educational Counseling Statement of Purpose
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