Now 29 years old, I was born in Korea and came to America to build a new life with my family at the age of thirteen. I am writing in support of my application to your distinguished MPA Program at XXXX University because I hope very much to excel for the balance of my professional lifetime as an administrator. Since I already have two master's degrees – MSW and MS Gerontology to complement my BA in Psychology, all from the University of Southern California – I fear that you may suspect me of wanting to simply collect master's degrees by earning my third. I am sensitive to the all-too-true stereotype of Korean people, that they tend to take their emphasis on the importance of education to the extreme. I need the MPA Degree to compliment what I have done so far and to realize my long-term aspirations in Social Work/Health Care Administration, to make my maximum contribution to the care of our elderly residents.
I love the diversity of America and I seek to cultivate a special interest in the less privileged and underserved members of our community. For this reason, while I cannot say that I am yet fluent in Spanish, I have worked very hard to get my ability in this language up to an intermediate level – and continue to do improve daily - because of the fact that Spanish is the first and often the only language of so many needy members of our community here in California. I also feel strongly that understanding the needs of and providing care for patients in their first, often only, language is especially important for our older residents, many of whom have extremely limited English ability.
I feel honored to share in our response to the fact that our population is aging in America, with our senior citizens comprising a greater percentage of our population each day. As a Public Administration professional with expertise in the non-profit sector, I look forward to developing programs that provide social services that are both efficient and cost effective for clients, employees, and funding sources. I look forward to a long professional lifetime giving my all to non-profit social service agencies contracted with government. I dream of starting my own agency at some point dedicated to the promotion of healthy aging and helping people to plan better for their retirement in numerous, interconnected ways.
I now have experience with two non-profit organizations: Special Service for Groups in Los Angeles and SCAN Health Plan, Independence at Home in Long Beach, CA. The target population of both organizations is people over sixty-five. I particularly look forward to developing special expertise in marketing and communications strategies for new health care initiatives geared for new generations of senior citizens.
Since 2013, I have also been volunteering at Volunteer Action in Aging where I help to organize and assist at events for residents of senior housing. I also provide translation for monolingual Korean-speaking residents. Every Thanksgiving for the past 4 years I have delivered dinners to seniors who live alone.
Thank you for considering my application to earn my third and final master's degree at the University of XXXX.
Sample MPA Public Administration Statement of Purpose