As a single mother who has confronted homelessness and poverty, I am committed to reforming public education. I have a particular interest in improving the accessibility of schooling to homeless individuals, single mothers, and disadvantaged women of color. As a result of my own experiences, I am familiar with the despair and frustration endemic to individuals struggling to survive. I am convinced that increasing individuals' access to education can make the difference between despondency and hope. I am applying for my doctorate in educational leadership so that I can pursue my life-mission: to make education accessible to all.

I began preparing for this mission by volunteering as an intake coordinator at the Christian Assistance Ministry (CAM). Although I had many responsibilities, the role that consumed most of my time and energy was interviewing clients and assessing their physical and emotional needs. One of my greatest contributions was streamlining and updating the paperwork associated with CAM's intake process. I also generated an updated resource list that included many service agencies in the Houston area. By personally contacting each agency to acquire contact information and to learn about its services, I facilitated greater communication between service organizations and ensured that my clients had access to necessary aid.

In my present position as Research Analyst at SeaNet, my primary role is ascertaining the needs of client networks. As an umbrella group, SeaNet has only limited contact with small business development centers, and my job is to ensure that our organization meets these centers' needs. When I took the initiative to send out surveys asking agencies to rate our group's effectiveness, I received an overwhelming response. The information I compiled was so revealing that it was published in the quarterly report that is sent to our funding agency in Washington, D.C. In addition, I have been involved in a number of special, innovative projects. Recently, I analyzed the availability of renewable energy resources in Southern Texas in tandem with The Economic Development Center, Solar Energy, Brooks Air Force Base, and research universities in Texas.

As part of my master's thesis, I collaborated with Upward Bound, Peace Center, and the Davis Education Foundation to underline the importance of community cooperation in public schools. I also provided informational brochures and handouts detailing other such organizations that could assist with the individualized needs of schools. I was gratified when my efforts resulted in teachers and administrators contacting several of the organizations I had mentioned so that the organizations could start outreach in their educational districts.

Although I have not yet been employed in the educational sector, my master's work, as well as my life experiences, has given me a nuanced and sophisticated knowledge of the educational field. I have acted as a mentor at Davis Middle School for many years and have tutored a number of home-schooled children. When my own children attended school, I was involved in their schools' organizations and often took on a leadership role on educational committees. I served on many boards and was active in assisting both instructors and administrators. Fifteen years of experience has familiarized me with the diverse needs of Houston's students, and it has prepared me to act on their behalf.

My short-term goals include advancing my knowledge of quantitative research using programs such as SPSS and Microcas, and acquiring a sophisticated understanding of how to become a leader in the educational field. I wish to use these skills to promote empirical studies in education that can help direct educational reform.

I am attracted to the doctoral program at Texas A&M for precisely this reason. Only Texas A&M offers the kind of collaborative experience that suits my personal needs and professional goals. Over the past four years, I have seen the department blossom into a challenging and innovative program. I am excited about the program's direction and its emphasis on practical application. I appreciate that every course offers the opportunity for independent research, and that the faculty is open to student suggestions for improvement. The flexibility and patience of the faculty and the talent of the students makes Texas A&M a singular choice for my doctoral degree.

My long-term goal is to use my past experience and Texas A&M training to help make education accessible to all, particularly the underprivileged. Whether I am working in the public or private sector, I look forward to addressing the nation's urgent need to educate its citizens efficiently and comprehensively.

評(píng)語(yǔ)：

這篇文章主要是想表達(dá)出申請(qǐng)者致力于普及教育，對(duì)教育改革能有所作為，在最后兩段寫(xiě)出選擇學(xué)校的原因和未來(lái)發(fā)展目標(biāo)。作者提供了很多有關(guān)個(gè)人經(jīng)歷的素材，如：基督徒援助會(huì)咨詢、網(wǎng)絡(luò)公司客戶意向分析研究、研究社會(huì)組織和學(xué)校合作的畢業(yè)論文、給學(xué)生作輔導(dǎo)、參與教委會(huì)議等等工作。可以看出，申請(qǐng)者確實(shí)有過(guò)很豐富的經(jīng)歷，對(duì)教育行業(yè)有過(guò)自己的探討，但是給讀者的感覺(jué)可能是：這些素材放在一起可能會(huì)有一點(diǎn)雜亂而找不到方向的感覺(jué)。但實(shí)際上，作者是想讓讀者感受到體會(huì)一種需求并想辦法滿足這種需求的過(guò)程。所以，較好的辦法是把這條特征放在文中總結(jié)起來(lái)，使讀者能夠更快地發(fā)現(xiàn)作者想要表現(xiàn)的觀點(diǎn)。

譯文：

作為一個(gè)單身母親，我曾經(jīng)經(jīng)歷過(guò)貧窮與無(wú)家可歸的境地，并決心要為學(xué)校教育的改革做點(diǎn)貢獻(xiàn)。對(duì)于提高孤兒、單身母親以及處于弱勢(shì)群體的黑人們的入學(xué)機(jī)會(huì)，我一直特別感興趣。由于我自己也有過(guò)和他們相近的經(jīng)歷，我很清楚這些人一直在各種絕望與挫敗感中掙扎著。我堅(jiān)信，提高他們的受教育程度能夠使他們走出絕望，看到希望。所以我申請(qǐng)教育管理學(xué)的博士學(xué)位課程，希望將來(lái)能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)我一生的愿望：讓所有人都能接受教育。

為了這個(gè)理想，我曾自愿在基督徒互援會(huì)的接待員。我做過(guò)各種工作，但是占據(jù)大部分時(shí)間和精力的是和客戶面談，了解他們的物質(zhì)和精神的需求。我覺(jué)得自己比較突出的一項(xiàng)貢獻(xiàn)就是很好地組織并改善了基督徒互援會(huì)接待工作中的文書(shū)工作流程。我還整理出了一份包括休斯敦地區(qū)所有服務(wù)類資源的最新的列表。通過(guò)親自和這些服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)的溝通，獲得他們的聯(lián)系信息與服務(wù)內(nèi)容，我建立了一個(gè)更強(qiáng)大的通訊網(wǎng)絡(luò)，使我們的客戶能更方便、快捷地獲得各類援助。

我現(xiàn)在是Seanet網(wǎng)絡(luò)公司的研究分析師，主要工作是了解客戶對(duì)網(wǎng)絡(luò)的需求。由于Seanet網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)組對(duì)外比較封閉，他只與少數(shù)的幾個(gè)商業(yè)發(fā)展中心有聯(lián)系。而我的工作就是要確認(rèn)我們的服務(wù)能夠使這些商業(yè)中心滿意。我主動(dòng)給商戶們發(fā)調(diào)查問(wèn)卷，希望他們?cè)u(píng)價(jià)一下我們網(wǎng)絡(luò)的效率，他們很積極地回復(fù)了我。我收集到的這些信息對(duì)公司的發(fā)展很有啟發(fā)性，這些內(nèi)容被登在了公司的季刊上并郵寄到了我們?cè)谌A盛頓的基金機(jī)構(gòu)。除此以外，我還參與了許多特殊項(xiàng)目的開(kāi)發(fā)。最近，在德州經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展中心研究太陽(yáng)能分部、布魯克斯空軍基地和一些大學(xué)研究中心的共同努力下，我對(duì)南德州可重復(fù)利用的能源資源的可行性作了分析。

我的碩士論文是與教育部“攀登”基金項(xiàng)目、和平中心、戴維斯教育基金會(huì)合作完成的，論文主要是想強(qiáng)調(diào)社會(huì)團(tuán)體與公立學(xué)校合作的重要性。我還提供了一些這類幫助人們接受教育的社會(huì)組織的宣傳冊(cè)和新聞報(bào)導(dǎo)。有些學(xué)校的老師們和管理者們聯(lián)系了一些我提到過(guò)的社會(huì)組織，這些社會(huì)組織因此在教育領(lǐng)域有了更多的發(fā)展，這也令我很有成就感。

雖然我沒(méi)有在教育行業(yè)工作過(guò)，但是我的碩士論文以及我的這些經(jīng)歷使我對(duì)教育領(lǐng)域有了很深入的了解。我在戴維斯中學(xué)當(dāng)過(guò)好幾年指導(dǎo)老師，還給一些學(xué)生做過(guò)家庭輔導(dǎo)。當(dāng)我的孩子開(kāi)始上學(xué)時(shí)，我在他的學(xué)校教導(dǎo)處擔(dān)任職位，并經(jīng)常在教委擔(dān)任領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職務(wù)。我參與了許多會(huì)議并積極地協(xié)助教學(xué)和管理。在這一行15年的閱歷使我對(duì)休斯敦學(xué)生各種各樣的需求都十分了解，這也幫助我去更好地為他們服務(wù)。

我的短期目標(biāo)是增強(qiáng)我使用SPSS和Microcas軟件進(jìn)行數(shù)量分析的水平，以便于更了解如何在教育領(lǐng)域成為一個(gè)好的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。我希望能夠利用這些技術(shù)改善一些尚處于試驗(yàn)階段的教學(xué)方式并對(duì)整個(gè)教育改革有一定的幫助。

我對(duì)Texas A&M大學(xué)的博士課程比較感興趣的原因就在于，只有這所大學(xué)提供了許多合作項(xiàng)目的機(jī)會(huì)，非常符合我個(gè)人的偏好和專業(yè)目標(biāo)。在過(guò)去的4年中，我看到這個(gè)系別發(fā)展了很多很有挑戰(zhàn)型和創(chuàng)新的項(xiàng)目。我對(duì)這些研究項(xiàng)目和它們的應(yīng)用非常感興趣，我特別喜歡它為每一個(gè)課程設(shè)置獨(dú)立的研究項(xiàng)目，而且學(xué)生可以經(jīng)常接受教授的親自輔導(dǎo)。正是因?yàn)閷W(xué)生能夠很方便地得到教授的耐心輔導(dǎo)，而且在這里學(xué)習(xí)能接觸到許多非常有天賦的學(xué)生，所以我選擇到Texas A&M大學(xué)繼續(xù)我的博士課程。

我的長(zhǎng)期目標(biāo)是根據(jù)我過(guò)去的經(jīng)驗(yàn)以及在Texas A&M大學(xué)接受的教育，能夠幫助更多人獲得受教育的機(jī)會(huì)，尤其是那些生活水平處于社會(huì)下層的人們。無(wú)論是公立的還是私立的機(jī)構(gòu)，我都希望能夠幫助我的祖國(guó)解決這些問(wèn)題，提高教學(xué)的效率，擴(kuò)大受教育人群的隊(duì)伍。