EDD Educational Administration and Policy Personal Purpose

Team of diverse professionals engaging in a dynamic discussion on educational administration and policy, surrounded by charts and data visualizations highlighting strategic planning and analysis.

I am a young woman who was born and raised in Thailand. Becoming a teacher has always been my dream. And because of a lot of hard work and good fortune, I was able to enhance my education to the point where I now feel qualified and confident in asking for admission to study towards the doctoral degree in your world-renowned university.

I began school in the Thai countryside where my mother was an elementary school teacher. The single greatest influence on my life so far, I cherish her example and pray that I might be able to someday inspire my own children in such a distinguished manner. I always excelled in school and attained my undergraduate degree in Thailand in English. I have had a love affair with the English language ever since I can remember, closer than a sibling, I now dream in English, and it has become a full-fledged expression of my soul. Also in Thailand, I went on to earn my M.Ed. Degree in Educational Psychology. I did this in keeping with my dream of devoting my life to education, giving everything that I could to teaching.

 My dedication to my career in education became derailed, however, by my new life in America, which began with my arrival 8 years ago. I must confess that the quite American bug of materialism infected me, I wanted to get rich, just like so many that I saw around me in this land of plenty. As a result, I dedicated myself to the task of attaining an MBA with an emphasis on marketing. Yet, as time went on, I began to realize my error, the shallowness and emptiness that accompanies the rat race and I decided to return to school to prepare myself as a public servant.

A diverse group of individuals engage in a collaborative discussion on educational administration and policy, surrounded by charts and materials, reflecting a dynamic and inclusive approach to education reform.

I was an ABD for a Doctoral Degree in Public Administration until last August of 2009. It was the early part of last year when my general good fortune in life let me down. The dramatic events which caused me to be unable to complete my MPA degree are highly personal—I asked for a leave of absence and it was denied—and I do not wish to try to explain these events here, because they are now in the past. I have had some time to reflect profoundly about my life and family circumstances, and I have recalibrated my outlook on my own future and wish to make a shift, while I begin again, in the right direction.

I want to return to another doctoral program and begin again, now that I have my personal problems fully resolved. I also wish to follow my heart, my mother´s ever-present example and inspiration, and devote myself to full time study in Education—my longstanding, cherished dream. I want to focus on Educational Policy rather than Administration and my short-term goal upon completing your program would be to start a non-profit educational organization devoted to networking and public education in Thailand while I would join a college or university as an adjunct professor. I want the central focus of my studies to be educational organization, and this is the primary reason I have my heart set on attending XXU, because I see your program as especially distinguished in this area. And I am particularly attracted to your manifest concern for the education of children in developing countries.

A varied team of professionals gathers around a table covered with charts and graphs, engaging in discussions about educational administration and policy strategies.

 I want very much to become a leader in the field of education and to make important improvements to the underdevelopment of my country of origin, Thailand. I am especially interested in the education of women and girls who often are singled for being left behind by the system. As a woman, I hope to benefit my country women through a show of strength, dedication, and self-esteem that is courageous and tenacious in the face of the resistance of traditional boundaries and mores.

 I strongly believe that this kind of bold courage and assertive leadership initiatives are entirely necessary to achieve widespread and sustainable progress in making necessary and long overdue changes in well-established (and male dominated) bureaucratic organizations that by their very nature resist change as a result of narrowly defined personal interests for the short term—greed, pride, corruption. I ask for admission to your program so that I can become a militant for progressive education reform in Thailand that would help to benefit coming generations of girls and young women who all too frequently find no greater professional solace in life other than entering prostitution.

 I would like to author a doctoral dissertation about educational policy in Thailand and how it is biased towards the educational success of boys and men at the expense of women and girls. Only by fully exposing this injustice and describing its entrenched character in both society and the educational bureaucracy can we hope to find the tools to make progressive education towards the liberation of woman a reality.

EDD Educational Administration and Policy Personal Purpose