As I prepared to retire from the IBM Corporation, my 102-year-old grandmother reminded me of the Cherokee tradition, where one is not an adult until age 51. The Cherokee believe that it takes time to sense and understand the many subtle life flows of one’s energy and knowledge. But I was not planning to retreat from the world; in fact, I was leaving IBM to pursue a new career -- perhaps I should call it my "adult" career.

I had been quite successful at IBM, especially as a tax policy strategist. Still, I craved more personally meaningful work in a culturally diverse community, where making a living and helping others could be equal priorities.

Dispute resolution is the ideal vehicle for meeting these professional and personal needs. My interest in the field is long-standing. It began twenty years ago, when my systems engineering position at IBM relocated me to Atlanta. There I became a volunteer consumer affairs counselor at the Neighborhood Justice Center. NJC’s mantra was that workplace misunderstandings and conflicts could be avoided with proper communication. This approach sparked my interest in law school, and I quickly enrolled. My studies were surprisingly exciting. While the issue analysis aspects were similar to problem-solving at IBM, the stakes were vastly different: individual lives instead of dollars and cents. Despite my seventy-hour work weeks at IBM, I graduated with honors. When I passed the bar examination on my first attempt, I considered leaving IBM to pursue a career in law.

I stayed. My manager advised that my combined technical, marketing, and legal background made me uniquely qualified and well-suited for promotion. Also, the intensely adversarial culture of law school had been somewhat off-putting. I was more comfortable in business settings that encouraged teamwork, collaboration, and conciliation.

However, I soon learned that the corporate model of cooperation does not eliminate workplace conflict. As a manager in Baltimore, I often witnessed cases of employment discrimination, which at IBM alone were astounding: the manager who tried to fire a stereotypically ethnic employee because he "looked funny"; the marketing team that consistently excluded an Asian team member; the managers who mocked an employee for having an "offensive" toothpick in his mouth. Each of these employees eventually left IBM, and two of them filed employment discrimination complaints. I realized that these problems were caused by ignorance of cultural differences, and I believed that the application of conflict management systems could have prevented such problems.

These incidents in my workplace embarrassed and infuriated me, and I felt the need to take a stand against such insensitive behavior. In the Master of Law in Dispute Resolution program, I will gain the comprehensive background to prepare me for my long-term goals: teaching in an urban community or historically black college, designing multicultural conflict management systems, and participating in community mediation. I am particularly interested in the multi-disciplinary analysis, the independent research, and the global externship program. I’m confident that this path would satisfy and please my grandmother.

點(diǎn)評(píng)：

這是一篇比較優(yōu)秀的申請(qǐng)法律專業(yè)的PS，作者選取了自己在IBM工作的一個(gè)與法律相關(guān)的切入點(diǎn)“爭(zhēng)議解決”來表明自己對(duì)于法律的興趣和志向。爭(zhēng)議解決存在于生活的每個(gè)角落，作者在二十年前就開始擔(dān)任志愿的法律顧問，并且通過學(xué)習(xí)一次就考取了bar。雖然他在IBM取得了很大的成功，但是他對(duì)于工作中目睹的種種歧視卻是無能為力，他覺得要學(xué)習(xí)更多的法律知識(shí)來幫助那些被歧視的員工。整篇文章環(huán)環(huán)相扣，邏輯性很強(qiáng)，充分表現(xiàn)出作者對(duì)于法律的熱愛和對(duì)于社會(huì)的責(zé)任心，這些都是法律專業(yè)要求申請(qǐng)者所具備的素質(zhì)。因此這是一篇目的性強(qiáng)，表達(dá)充分的優(yōu)秀PS。

譯文：

當(dāng)我準(zhǔn)備從IBM公司退休的時(shí)候，我102歲的奶奶提醒我，在切羅基族人的傳統(tǒng)里沒有51歲不算成年。切羅基族人相信去感受和領(lǐng)會(huì)一個(gè)人生命中精力和知識(shí)的精妙之處需要很長一段時(shí)間。但是我沒有打算放棄，事實(shí)上，我離開IBM去追求一份新的事業(yè)――也許我應(yīng)該說這是我的“成年”事業(yè)。

我在IBM是相當(dāng)成功的，特別是作為一名稅務(wù)政策戰(zhàn)略家。但是我仍然渴望一份在多元文化社區(qū)內(nèi)的更加具有個(gè)人滿足感的工作，我可以謀生并且?guī)椭渌巳〉霉降臋C(jī)會(huì)。

爭(zhēng)議解決是實(shí)現(xiàn)這些個(gè)人和職業(yè)需求的良好途徑。我對(duì)于這方面的興趣是由來已久的了。那是二十年前，當(dāng)我在IBM的系統(tǒng)工程師的職位被重新安排到亞特蘭大時(shí)候我開始對(duì)爭(zhēng)議解決產(chǎn)生興趣。在那里我在鄰里司法中心志愿擔(dān)任消費(fèi)者事務(wù)法律顧問。鄰里司法中心的宗旨就是工作場(chǎng)所的誤會(huì)和爭(zhēng)端都可以通過正確的溝通來避免。這種方法激起了我對(duì)法學(xué)院的興趣，我也很快就入學(xué)了。我的學(xué)習(xí)出奇地令人興奮。雖然這里的案例分析跟IBM的問題解決很相似，但是本質(zhì)上卻有很多的不同：?jiǎn)为?dú)的個(gè)體代替了美元和美分。盡管我在IBM一周要工作70個(gè)小時(shí)，我還是很榮幸畢業(yè)了。當(dāng)我第一次去考bar就通過的時(shí)候，我開始考慮離開IBM去謀求在法律領(lǐng)域的工作。

我暫時(shí)留在了IBM。我的經(jīng)理建議我說我身兼的技術(shù)，市場(chǎng)和法律背景使得我在晉升的時(shí)候處于獨(dú)一無二的有利地位。而且法學(xué)院激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)氛圍也有些令人不愉快。他認(rèn)為我更加適合在團(tuán)隊(duì)協(xié)作，相互支持的商業(yè)環(huán)境中生存。

但是，我很快發(fā)現(xiàn)公司的團(tuán)隊(duì)模式并不能消除工作場(chǎng)所的沖突。作為在巴爾的摩的一名經(jīng)理，我看見許多職場(chǎng)當(dāng)中的歧視現(xiàn)象，僅僅是在IBM這種現(xiàn)象都是非常嚴(yán)重的：經(jīng)理會(huì)因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)少數(shù)民族職員長得“搞笑”而解雇他，市場(chǎng)部長期排斥一個(gè)亞裔成員，經(jīng)理也會(huì)因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)職員嘴里咬著一根“攻擊性”牙簽而嘲笑他。每一個(gè)被歧視的員工最終都是離開IBM，他們當(dāng)中的兩個(gè)還提出了職場(chǎng)歧視的起訴。我意識(shí)到這些問題是由于忽視文化差異而產(chǎn)生的，我也相信沖突管理系統(tǒng)的應(yīng)用可以防止這些問題。

這些發(fā)生在我工作場(chǎng)所的事情讓我感到尷尬甚至憤怒，我覺得自己需要堅(jiān)決反對(duì)這些冷漠的行為。在爭(zhēng)議解決的法碩課程，我可以獲得一個(gè)全面的知識(shí)體系，為自己的長期目標(biāo)做準(zhǔn)備。而我的長期目標(biāo)就是在城市的社區(qū)和黑色學(xué)府做教師，設(shè)計(jì)多元文化的沖突管理體系，還會(huì)參與到社區(qū)仲裁中去。我還特別喜歡多學(xué)科分析，獨(dú)立的研究和國際實(shí)習(xí)項(xiàng)目。我相信這個(gè)歷程會(huì)讓我奶奶感到高興和欣慰。