As I always been most passionate about Art, especially computer generated art, most of all Graphic Design and Motion Graphics. This professional interest is deeply embedded in my understanding of the world and my desire to make it a better place. After a thorough review of opportunities for study, I have decided that my first choice is XXXX University because of the vast diversity of course offerings and my desire to study in a world-class university. Since I enrolled in primary school, I have dearly loved my art classes; I fondly remember being first exposed to both cool and the warm colors and making my first sketch. This passion continued throughout high school as I continued to excel in my art classes, winning many contests. I began studying graphics design at the age of thirteen, being especially engaged with with animation through Macromedia Flash 4, I used to read and even write tutorials in the biggest Arabic flash committee forum website of the epoch. Within one year of joining, the administrator of the website upgraded my membership administrator, despite the fact that I was one of the youngest members of the forum. Soon, still only 13, I designed my own website to teach others about Flash technology, which won the Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah Information Award for best website in Kuwait designed by a teenager. Within the next two years, by 15, I had mastered Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe Dream Weaver and other critically important tools that have went on to define our generation. After graduating from high school, I wanted to pursue the B.A. Degree in Graphics Design; but, because that degree was not yet offered by Kuwait University, I majored in Video and Audio Production. Since that time, however, I have continued to educate myself in graphics design through books and web tutorials. When I began college, I was especially fascinated by the posters of students groups of and student elections hung on the walls throughout the university. Little by little, I began participating in these groups and helping to design the images myself. By 2007, my efforts were paying off and I was being recognized not only as the best graphics designer in my college but also on a university level; and I devoted much of my time to the Media Club, a group of students majoring in media who sought to enhance student abilities in media, filming, montage, graphics design, press, public relations etc. I began by designing the logos and the reaction was very supportive and encouraging. Soon, I became the team leader of the media committee. My business career began early as well, at 15, designing personal websites, flash cards, and web ads, and I learned that my passion could be profitable, which further enhanced my interest in design. I continued to learn new design techniques, especially insofar as they helped me to better design the project that I was working on. Early on, I did graphic design for free, so as to establish my reputation as a creative artist, which generated a lot of interest in my work. By the time I was 19, I was an experienced professional with my own company—along with my associate. We remain one of the leading web hosting companies in Kuwait and our business is thriving. In 2008, I also accepted a position with the XXXX Industrial Group in the Public Relations Department. This position continued to enhance my level of self confidence as I learned how to more effectively connect and communicate with people from different parts of the world. I have become much more adept at business dealings and more insightful and creative concerning customer service, the ‘art’ of pleasing clients. In late 2009, I had the opportunity to become a part of the biggest media organization in Kuwait –AlWatan-- with both a daily newspaper and a TV channel. Here at XXXX, I began by doing graphic design for newspapers ads, and soon progressed to website design, web ads, video reports, video ads, montage and motion graphics. After six months, I was promoted to the position of team leader, leading my own creative team doing graphics/video work. I hope very much to be accepted to your world-renowned program at XXXX because I have so much more to learn. In fact, I am devoted to lifelong learning and feel very strongly that your program represents the most solid foundation available in my area. I have so many unanswered questions about graphics design, motion graphics and how to combine them to make them most effective for a variety of media fields. I want to make the world a better place to live, to be able to share what I learn with others and to help my community to thrive through more effective communication. My primary long term goal in life is to motivate and inspire others to make the most of media, bringing our vast world together and increasing our understanding of each other, helping to avoid conflict and build solidarity.

I have dreamed for many years of becoming a professional economist. This is why I completed my undergraduate studies in my native India in the areas of economics and mathematics. As someone who very much loves to study the ways in which we must all struggle together for economic development, and as a result of my concern for the well-being of the common, ordinary worker, most of all, I look forward to devoting my life to the study of labor economics. I see XXXX University as a leader in this area and this is why it is my first choice for graduate study. Since I was raised in India and only moved to America as an adult, I am also especially attracted to the study of labor, trade, and economic relations between my native land and my new adopted home. While the problem of unemployment is receiving a lot of attention these days in America, it is even worse in India. My sensitivity to the issue of unemployment led me to begin a Master’s program in Labor Economics in India in 2007; I was unable to complete the program, however, since I married an American and immigrated here to northern Virginia. Since that time I have been busy building a new life for myself, alone. Our marriage failed; I am now divorced and have been learning to be self-sufficient economically. Once again, I have the chance to focus on my own education so that I will be able to contribute fully to American society and our joint economic development. I hope to someday publish in the area of comparative economic analyses of labor issues in India as compared to America. My most advanced skills that I have developed so far lie in the areas of calculus, quantitative methodology, micro and macroeconomics, as well as demographic studies. I have also done extensive course work in the areas of international trade and public finance (monetary and fiscal policy). I worked as a high school teacher (economics and mathematics) from March 2008 through March 2009. Currently, I am working as a part time sales associate with a retail company and I volunteer my time at the XXXX County Library. I am most intrigued by analyses of our global recession and the way in which it is related to trade and investment policies as well as stock market fluctuations. I am concerned with the broad range of challenges in our struggle for economic sustainability, especially poverty and unemployment. As a future citizen of the United States, I want to contribute to our economic well being as a researcher in the area of labor economics. I hope to someday work for the US government and I look forward to becoming part of the search for innovative strategies for helping the economies of developing countries like my native India to continue to rise and contribute further to our global economic development. I am convinced that XXU has the optimal program in economics that will provide me with the superlative foundation for professional advancement. I am drawn to the international character of your program as well as its location and I see it as the ideal program for someone who is also interested in becoming adept in the areas of public finance, econometrics and international affairs. I keenly look forward to giving my all to your program and I want to thank you for considering my application.

I am an applicant from China who attended High School in Beijing and studied in Australia for two years. I would like to apply to your program as a transfer student because I am enormously impressed with your reputation and faculty and I have a great deal of enthusiasm for the study of statistics. I have been studying towards dual degrees in Finance and Statistics with a special concentrations in quantitative finance and applied probability. My long term goal is to become a professional statistician. I am currently completing an internship doing an internship in the area of internal control with one of the big four accounting firms in China in the service of the largest coal supplier in the world. This professional experience has helped me to better appreciate the vast difference between studying finance and putting it into practice. I feel that I am a competitive applicant to your program who has demonstrated strong performance while undertaking a challenging curriculum—in addition to my practical experience. I have a very solid background in accounting and financial statistics and their practical applications for today’s business realities. I am a quick learner who is able to adapt easily to new environments, have spent one month in New Zealand and almost 2 years in Australia. I began to realize that statistics is my calling while studying at the university level when I found myself most enamored by learning how to perform t-tests and f-tests along with modeling and graphing, especially time series data sets that enable us to predict future trends or likelihoods. There are two principal reasons why I would like to transfer to your program. First, ever since I decided to focus my energies in the area of statistics, I have been learning everything that I can about developments in the field and I now realize that America is the leader in this area and, if I want to become a leader myself, I need to study in a program in America such as yours which is preparing leaders in statistics on the cutting edge of the field. The most dynamic and successful lecturers and professors in my university all graduated from American universities and they tend to agree that America is the most advantageous place to earn one’s advanced degree in this area. I have an excellent academic background with diverse educational experiences, finishing primary and junior high school in Inner Mongolia and I have studying in an Australian style since my senior year of high school and have thus learned a great deal from both Chinese Mongolian and Australian cultures. I have been doing complex calculations and working with time series models since high school. Furthermore, my professional work experience has helped me to develop a profound grasp of the numerous ways in which the field of statistics is associated with the practical needs of industry. I have found the use of what I have learned so far in my studies in its direct application to industry to be very powerful magic for me personally and it has greatly enhanced my confidence and already high level of motivation. I look forward to giving my all to your program and contributing to its diversity. I want to thank you for considering my application.

I was born and raised in China until the age of 18 when I immigrated to the United States with my family. This was six years ago. Throughout these last 6 years, I have worked very hard to adjust myself to Western culture and the full time use of the English language. I now feel very comfortable in America and I graduated last August of 2010 with my degree in Mathematics. Unlike many girls, I have always loved numbers and science and excelled in these areas more than in other areas such as language and social studies. I want very much to be a scientist and I see statistics and the master science because of the way that it serves and the primary motor or foundation of scientific investigation. In addition to being extremely skilled in the areas of mathematics and statistics, I am also very well trained in computer skills, having mastered SAS programming, MATLAB & R, data interpretation, MS Office, data mining, and Mac OS in addition to MS Windows. Of the academic work that I have performed that has helped to prepare me for graduate school, I have done especially well in the areas of multiple regression analysis, mathematical statistics, experimental statistics, business statistics, probability, and numerical analysis. In addition to being a native speaker of Chinese and fully fluent in English, I am also learning Spanish. I also have important professional experience in the academic context that has helped me to mature, become professional, and has helped me to acquire the intellectual foundations that I will need to excel in your program. I worked as a Research Assistant at XXXX State University, completing an internship that lasted through much of 2008 through 2009. My duties included providing interdisciplinary training for undergraduate students in the biological and mathematical sciences, having the great privilege of collaborating with an eight-person team including members with academic majors in four different and complimentary areas. I helped to present and explain ideas to the group and also helped to design experiments and collect data. We analyzed data using Excel and MATLAB and derived a mathematical model from that data which enabled us to predict how to maximize total yield, increasing it by at least 30%. I am especially interested in doing research in the areas of statistics that are most relevant for business. My central interest is in the numerous ways that statistics can be harnessed to the practical needs of the business world, especially in the areas of banking and insurance. After completing your program, I intend to find work with a large corporation but I am also interested in someday starting my own business. I have worked very hard to develop excellent teamwork skills and I always get along very well with the people with whom I work. I shave good management skills which have even helped me to develop and operate my own small business running small business. I am an open mind person who is capable of working independently as well as part of a team. I also great delight in being creative and I hope very much to have the opportunity to excel in your highly esteemed program and I want to thank you for considering my application to your program.

I am a young Latino man from El Salvador who wants very much to earn a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am especially interested in doing research in the areas of manufacturing processes, especially nanomanufacturing, design, supply chain development and management, and computer engineering. I have known for some time that I wanted to pursue a career in Engineering and this is why I decided to major in this area as an undergraduate student and have already completed my Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. I keenly look forward to studying in your Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering Program, in particular, because of the high quality of your program and my attraction to the research interests of many of your faculty members. 10 years from now I would like to be managing my own engineering related company. I see engineering technology as the motor of the world and I work very hard to do my part to the economic development of our society and, by extension, our interconnected world. At some point in my career, I would also like to return to my native El Salvador to help my nation progress by assisting local engineering firms to expand and to streamline their operations. I would also like to create a foundation in El Salvador that is dedicated to providing scholarships to people with limited resources. I have always been a good student and I read, write, and speak French in addition to English and Spanish. I am a hard working and compassionate young man who has taken the time to tutor children on many occasions. Currently, I work at a consulting company that provides me with the invaluable opportunity to interact with numerous industrial companies, most of them in the manufacturing sector. This has helped me to appreciate much better how manufacturing companies work and I feel strongly that this will be very beneficial to the long term development of my own career in mechanical engineering. I am a highly self-motivated worker and a quick learner who is very passionate about his education. Growing up in a developing country has made me a frugal person who is always very careful not to waste any resources or valuable opportunities. As someone who was raised in Central America in a modest home to a family of limited resources, I feel that I can make valuable contributions to the diversity of your program. I am a distinguished student and, in fact, was the first graduating student in the area of mechanical engineering to receive the highest honor conferred by my university (Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Cañas). I was also elected to the post of student representative for 2 consecutive years. The greatest contribution that I might be able to make to society would be to create a company that will boost the industrial activity in my home country and could serve as an example for others in my area working in developing countries. I look forward to applying all of the knowledge that I will learn in your program to the service of economic development in Central America. I thank you for considering my application.

I am a very serious young who is ambitious and hard working. At only 22, I have come a long ways towards my goal of becoming a business professional and I look forward to a long and prosperous career on the cutting edge of finance. While born in Canada, I was raised in Hong Kong, which I see as my permanent home. I am pleased with my location in a global hub of development for the financial world, on the frontier of where the Chinese dragon has historically interacted with the West. I am currently working towards the completion of my undergraduate studies at the University of XXXX in the UK. I am especially interested in doing research in the areas of foreign exchange rates since my long term goal is to work for investment banks in Hong Kong. My short term goal, after completing my Master’s Degree, is to gain professional experience in my field working for prestigious firms in a variety of financial fields. I am a proactive person; and after 2.5 years of studying economics and finance my determination to succeed in these areas has become greatly enhanced. A Master’s Degree in finance will provide me with the chance to learn from leading practitioners in the field. I keenly look forward to learning from your world-class faculty, especially about how to put the latest academic thinking and business strategies into practice. After my last summer internship at the Bank of China in mainland China, I have become more sensitive to figures, and I am confident that the new skill levels that I have achieved in econometrics will enable me to excel in your program. I now feel confident that I have the requisite foundation to distinguish myself as a graduate student in terms of both my analytical and mathematical skills. Serving as the Sports Secretary for the Chinese Society at my university has helped me to become a better public speaker. I am now able to function at full capacity even under great pressure and I feel that I am finally equipped with the high level of communications skills that are necessary for optimal success in my field. I am an outgoing, persistent, and especially enthusiastic person. I have been training as a competitive swimmer for 8 years, since I was aged 13, and this has helped to maintain my high levels of motivation and focus. It has also helped me to develop excellent time management skills, learning to carefully balance my training with my academic endeavors. I served as Deputy House Captain at my boarding school while in the sixth grade in the UK; and I was Swimming Captain at my secondary school in Hong Kong I have been preparing myself for a career that requires extensive traveling, grueling hours and the mastery of a cut-throat lifestyle. I see critical thinking as the most essential ingredient for success in my field since every investment decision requires substantial analysis under pressure. When the investment sounds, making the right decision is its own reward—in addition to the money involved. I also realize that it is very important to contribute to the well being of society. Thus, I look forward to contributing to economic development, particularly international economic development, helping to create jobs in the impoverished areas, helping countries as well as companies to identify their competitive advantages for business, helping them to achieve sustainable development. I thank you for considering my application to your state-of-the-art program.

I was born in Korea, the first son of a young couple struggling to build a future for our family. My father was a rookie police officer who worked long, odd hours; I was happy to spend time with him once and a while. With what little free time he had, I remember my father reading and this inspired me, an enduring legacy from father to son. I soon began to read whatever was available, most well above my head, books, newspapers, anything I could get my little hands on, in English as well as Korean. By the time I was in elementary school, my efforts paid off, and I found myself winning writing contests. Little did I know at that time that I had yet to be introduced to my most enduring passion, Spanish; this would happen in Argentina. When I graduated from elementary school, I received a certificate for never having missed a single day of school for 6 years. It was at that moment that I began to reflect seriously about my passion for education. The daily strain of conflict and violence had begun to take a tool on my father. We were a politically conscious family and the threat of war has long loomed large on the Korean peninsula, as it still does today. My parents began thinking about escape, safety, a better world for their little ones. An opportunity soon presented itself through my uncle, who also longed to start a better life somewhere else. He left for Argentina with his family because someone his wife knew had offered him a job and a place to live. We stayed in touch, a year passed, and my family followed suit across the ocean to a new, unknown world, and a new language, the language in which I dream today; today, in fact, it is the language of my dreams. I am now 36 and it is time to follow my heart. I have been living in Miami for some time, learning the colors and styles of Spanish as it is spoken in immigrant America. I have focused on your MA Program in Spanish Language and Literature at the University of XXXX because it strikes me as especially progressive and creative since I am particularly interested in doing research in the areas of Spanish language insofar as it has been influenced by English, most notably in the production of Spanglish—a new language in which I am especially fluent. I seek a complete and sophisticated immersion in the study of the broad range of regionalisms (dialects and slangs), the study of the language of immigrants from a broad variety of Spanish speaking countries and the way that this is transforming the language and customs of urban America. My long term goal is to teach Spanish at the college level. I day dream of sitting in my office counseling students of all ethnic and linguist backgrounds who for one reason or another are studying Spanish. I believe that a good teacher must be compassionate and I am. I have long struggled to cultivate kindness as a personal quality. I joined a church group, for example, and we go every year to provide free dinners to homeless people on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have worked for a logistics company for the past three years in shipping, export and import. The experience has been valuable, since I have learned to be accurate and especially well organized, and I have had the opportunity to meet and deal with people from almost every conceivable ethnic and socio-economic background. meeting and dealing with people from different back ground. But I am bored. It is time to move on to a new destiny. It is time for me to return to my passion for education and to follow my heart into the quest for long-term fulfillment in life, my ultimate destiny, my dreams in Spanish, being loyal to that part of my soul that I left in Argentina so long ago: literature. My years in Miami have served me well. I have been able to observe and learn so much about Latino society and culture in the USA. Having myself grown up in 3 different countries, I am able to bond easily with ethnic communities, I treasure diversity, and my curiosity to learn about the immigrant Latino experience in the US knows no bounds. I have also become acquainted with other Latin American countries, most notably spending significant periods in Nicaragua and Uruguay. I took the time to make friends, study the politics and economic structures. I came to know both of these countries from the inside out, not just from the outside as a tourist. Nicaragua, the heat, the poverty, the smiles, has been an especially inspiring experience. When we arrived in Argentina, I knew virtually no Spanish and there were no language programs for foreigners; but I caught on in a couple of months. My parents started a new business of which I was communications director, filing permits, paying bills, we adapted. By the time I was in high school, Spanish was my favorite class and I excelled in my own special way. By the time that I began college in the US, in a language which I felt that I learned all alone so long ago, I had become convinced that, in fact, I had developed my very own system for language learning and adaptation. English came easily, learning what I had forgotten; living language makes it accessible. I now want to devote my life to learning Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, among other dialects, vocabularies, expressions, slang used by Hispanics in the USA. I want to study how our society has created Spanglish, regional differences. I have prepared myself for this course of study by spending years playing very close attention to my Hispanic co-workers, characteristics, dreams, identities, special challenges and virtues. I have worked with the Berlitz Language School, teaching Spanish. I have been trained in a variety of methods; I am skilled at teaching students through the use of gestures, pictures, repetition of words and phrases, teaching students as if they were children. I have learned that these methods are much more effective for learning how to speak on the street; and, of course, that they have most limited value in terms of learning to write well, especially with respect to grammar. After graduate school, I dream of developing new methods of language that mix traditional methods with the strengths of the Berlitz system while at the same time taking advantage of Computer Assisted Language Learning. I would like to contribute to making Spanish language instruction a more practical art form that takes full advantage of the power of cultural symbols and resources—an eclectic mix of computer generated resources with the old fashioned intrigue of human interaction, a hybrid mix of classic and contemporary language with the draw of street theater, reaggaeton, the music of life. I look forward to studying how Spanish is taught to foreigners in places like Mexico and Costa Rica. In short, I look forward to spending the rest of my life studying Spanish so that I can teach it to others, and do so in increasingly creative ways.

I am a young woman from Mexico who wants very much to dedicate my life to helping my country to develop economically, especially through the advancement of technology and its application to operations management. I feel very strongly that another of the greatest contribution that I might be able to make to my society would be to help change the perception of Mexico in the world. Over the course of the next generation, I want to help my country to become well known not only for its drug violence, cheap labor, and beautiful beaches, but for its advanced technological applications and industrial infrastructure. In Mexico, many if not most of our strategic positions are occupied by foreigners and I want to work to change this as well. Completing your program will prepare one young Mexican woman to occupy the place of a foreigner and to serve as an example to new generations of Mexicanas that they too can become economic leaders in our beloved country that, unfortunately, is also famous for its machismo and lack of appreciation and support for female professionals. The Business School at XXXX is my first choice for several reasons. I profoundly admire British culture and look to the UK as the educational leader of the world. After an extensive search of programs in my area of interest, I have settled on your new 12 month MSc Programme because I seek an intensive immersion in a rigours programme that will expose me to the vast breadth of understanding essential for a successful career in logistics, supply chains and operations management. Your programme is exceptional in its capacity to provide me with the academic preparation that I seek in this area. I am also attracted to the flexibility of your program insofar as students are allowed to select modules of study in accordance with their own interests and the special areas of interest in which they want to do in-depth research. After giving my all and excelling in my first two academic semesters, I keenly look forward to writing my dissertation of the summer; of course, it will deal with the challenges faced by my beloved Mexico. My long term goal is to become an Operations Director at a manufacturing company with an international presence. Over the short term, I look forward to gaining many more years of additional professional experience in a manufacturing environment. I already have an advanced understanding of process planning and optimization, productivity improvements and cost structures, and the development of new and creative methods to enhance customer satisfaction. I am highly motivated with a great deal of personal initiative and I see myself as an agent of change. I have experience serving in a leadership position at Ford where I worked as an analyst of critical situations developing highly advanced teamwork skills that resulted in my receiving the coveted Peer to Peer Recognition Award, resulting from my leadership on a "high-risk project" (becoming the 2nd buyer in Mexico to win this award). I look forward to working with my peers in your program as part of high performance teams. I am not only well read for my age, but I am also well traveled, a cosmopolitan Latina who has taken two summer courses in France and also visited Italy, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Luxemburg in 2004. I visited Canada in 2006 and have gone to the USA at least 3 times on business. My travels have helped me to become open minded and a quick learner who adapts rapidly to new environments. Foremost among my accomplishments has been my conquest of English, as well as extensive vocabulary in other languages along with exposure to a variety of methods for communication with people who speak neither English nor Spanish.

I have taught a broad variety of students along the way. And, as an educational administrator, I have dealt with the concerns of an almost equally broad variety of parents. have different needs. The joy that I have found over the years in both positions, teacher and administrator, has been enormous. Even though I majored in Economics and had worked in the field of finance, I always dreamed of becoming a highly effective teacher capable of helping children and their parents to prosper through a fuller appreciation of the importance of making the most of one’s educational opportunities. I longed to become a mentor so as to help people to lead happier and fuller lives. I began developing a career as an English teacher, although I knew from the beginning that I did not want to stay in a teaching position. Later, I accepted a position in consultation and management, assisting Korean students with all of the details involved in living abroad for more than 3 years, as well as preparing for specialized examinations for entry into South Korea’s highly competitive university system. I am most pleased to have had this opportunity to experience and learn from a highly diverse pool of students, some coming from Africa, others from Russia, etc. As someone who went through this process himself in the US, I have been able to understand and relate well to students that experience anxiety as a result of beginning university studies in a foreign language and culture. What I was aiming for all along, however, was more than a simple teaching or educational counseling position. I wanted to run my own educational initiative, although I had limited capital with which to operate. I was fortunate, however, to have been hired by the XXXX Language Corporation, run by individual contractors (mostly teachers). For top performers, there has been ample room for upward mobility and the CEO offered me the opportunity of launching new endeavors at the highest level. As a result, I have been working at the heart of curriculum research and development for several years. I have also been able to publish my own books. Even though not many copies have sold, this experience has boosted my confidence as an educator. Nevertheless, the passion that I used to have for my work is withering and I am in need of new challenges. I want very much to study towards the MBA Degree at the University of XXXX because I realize that education is fundamentally business and I look forward to full time immersion in the professional study of the business of education. My wife is from Toronto; thus, it is my second home. I have visited UXXX and I am most impressed by how friendly people are. Toronto also has a high ratio of Koreans, many suffering from language barriers, struggling to assimilate at the same time that they maintain their cultural identities, and I want very much to study this population. An MBA from your program would help me to launch increasingly creative educational initiatives, especially for Korean students.

I am most interested in professional exploration of the achievement gap between black and white boys and the way that this is related to the social-economic challenges of each child’s background and social environment. I am distressed by the fact that even those black males raised above the poverty line still lag behind many white males raised in poverty. I want to dedicate my life to this issue because I was one of those black boys surrounded by the pressures that distract, even alienate black male children from the quest for academic success. In my case, I was able to fend off temptations for instant gratification and the negativity and destructiveness of racial stereotypes. I focused on positive role models and was thus able to develop a consistent work ethic that laid the foundation for my education and professional success. I was able to close the gap, and now I want to labor so that this achievement gap is closed by future generations. For most of my adult life, I have been a part of the consumer electronics industry, with the last twelve years focused on the video game industry. I spent years understanding what makes a good game and how to design distribution systems to get these games to millions of people. My career has sent me throughout both the United States and the European Union having lived on both coasts and internationally in Iceland and the United Kingdom. During this time, I have mentored young men and volunteered for various programs. While my career to this point has been lucrative and I have especially enjoyed the travel and multicultural experiences, I need new challenges that would be more fulfilling on a human level. I want to devote myself to research in education. I have also been motivated to respect and take advantage of educational opportunities by the fact that several members of my immediate family are accomplished school teachers. Over the past couple of years, I have increasingly come to feel the calling as well. All around me I see the need to improve the consistency of how children learn and the importance of developing increasingly innovative tools and methods that will enable them to learn more effectively so as to be successful in today's increasingly competitive academic and professional environments. In fact, I am concerned not only with the achievement gap that continues to widen between black vs. white boys, but also the gap that is widening between America and the rest of the world. Frankly, I feel guilty because I have personally both perpetuated and profited from this gap in my work designing and selling video games. I am painfully aware of the fact that young men and boys of all ethnic groups spend too much time playing video games, learning how to kill their opponents or win a sporting event in virtual space—while they learn little to nothing about how to survive in the real world. Yet, I see an excellent opportunity for me to redeem myself in the future through a search for ways that the passion for interactivity responsible for the success of video games might be harnessed to educational purposes that result in a new generation of effective learning experiences. If properly used as a tool by teachers and parents this technology has enormous potential. I look forward to doing research in the future on the ways in which game mechanics might be developed as a pedagogical tool, especially in grades K-6, for use in the US educational system. Most specifically, I would like to develop a series of longitudinal studies that might shed light on the effectiveness of this methodology for narrowing the achievement gap between African-American vs, white boys. In this way, I will have the opportunity to put all that I have learned about video games to good use: video-game culture and my well-developed understanding of current policies, trends, and research initiatives in this area. ‘Gamification’ is a newly created buzzword in the industry which refers to the possibility of adapting the mechanics, interactivity, and emotional commitment associated with video games to other aspects of society. My objective is to learn more about the process of learning and the current efforts to improve and innovate the educational system so that I can combine my game industry knowledge to "gamify" education, to the extent that this might be possible, especially for the African-American male. I want to harness the passion for interactive experience and put it to use in the design of constructive pedagogical goals. I am convinced that this would be the greatest contribution I could personally make to society. While my central concern will always be African-American males, I sincerely hope that the contributions that I hope to make in curriculum development might advance the cause of enhancing education for all children, at least those in my own country. I want very much to be part of the movement dedicated to better equipping future generations of our society to re-train, re-skill and adapt to changes in labor needs so as to ensure a more flexible and capable workforce on a national level, and one that is more competitive on an international level. I started my own company, XXXX, incorporated in Washington State, dedicated to building new and engaging interactive experiences targeting African-Americans. Unfortunately, I have not enjoyed the right combination of time and financial support that would be necessary to build software and online services that teach users rather than simply entertaining them. In addition, I lack exposure to the most current research directions in this area; I need to learn what has been tried before, what has worked and what has not. It has been suggested that I hire experts in pedagogy and educational policy, but I would prefer to develop my own first-hand knowledge of the education ecosystem and how technology is being used to innovate learning. Once I decided to pursue the Ed.M. Degree I began to study the research work taking place at various institutions and I am convinced that the XXXX is where I belong. The Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) and Dr. XXXX work on addressing the achievement gap, specifically as it pertains to African-American males, are especially important factors in this decision. I am also most impressed by Dr. XXXX's work and real world experience as Vice-President and Chief Academic Officer at XXXX Production. The ability to interact with and take classes from a professor who is working on the front lines of educational software development is not something easily found at another institution. Only XXXX is distinguished in both of my areas of special interest, the achievement gap and software development. Thus, I sincerely thank you for considering my application to your program.

I am a 26-year-old woman who was born and raised mostly in South Korea and I have devoted myself throughout the course of my studies primarily to the English language and literature. My English language skills were especially enhanced by the fact that I completed grade K through 4 in the United States. I hold a BA Degree in Foreign Studies from Hankuk University with a major in interpretation and translation and I am currently completing my Master’s Degree at the same institution in English Literature. I am especially interested in pre Anglo-Saxon cultures and how they had an impact on medieval literature. In particular, I want very much to continue to study how the Celtic monastic tradition of martyrdom resounds throughout the literature of the period. My long term goal is to become a permanent faculty member of my current university in Korea. I intent to devote myself to the translation of English literature into Korean. As a teacher, I look forward to introduce students majoring in English to works of literature from the medieval period, an epoch that has not yet received much attention by the Korean academic world. Since our country is heavily influenced by western culture history and culture, I feel that students would be fascinated to learn that many of the literary issues of our times date back to this epoch. I hope to continue my studies of the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods in your highly esteemed program and thereby build a solid base of knowledge in the area of the establishment of early English literature how it arose as a response to cultural factors and historical events. In addition to Korean and English, becoming proficient in Japanese has also helped me to appreciate many of the subtleties of language and linguistic issues. I am confident that I will be able to rapidly adjust and adapt to a new academic setting due to my previous experience in a western country and various volunteer projects that I have undertaken on an international level. I have served as a TA for the English Literature Department as well as a tutor for XXXX University of Foreign Studies where I taught an introductory English literature course and various other English-related classes. These experiences provided me with the opportunity to interact with a broad variety of people, including colleagues, professors and students from many different nations. I have distinguished myself by my avid curiosity and willingness to face academic challenges I have greatly benefitted by my study of literary works such as “Beowulf,” “Dream of the Rood,” “The Battle of Maldon,” “Sir Gawain,” “The Green Knight,” and the Canterbury Tales, in their original Old and Middle English forms, under the guidance of my advisor Prof. XXXX, perhaps the only scholar in Korea who teaches from these original texts. I feel strongly that I will excel in your program because I have grown up with stories of knights in shining armor, dragons and dragon slayers, wizards, the legends of King Arthur etc. I am enthralled by the study of the origins of these tales and how they represent embodiments of the cultures in which they were produced. I look forward to the chance to study abroad as a graduate student and have a first-hand opportunity to embrace the culture and atmosphere that lies behind the literary pieces I have indulged in over the years. I thank you for considering my application to your program.

I was raised in Armenia until the age of 14 and then lived in Russia for one year. At 15, I immigrated with my family to the USA. I began learning both English and Russian as a small child; thus, I am a near-native speaker of both languages. What I want most for my professional future is to help the republics of the former USSR, especially my native Armenia, to develop economically, have greater respect for human rights, and make increasing progress towards a fuller participation in our global economy. As in other parts of the Developing World, progress in these areas is largely a product of the work of NGOs rather than governments. Your program is my first choice for graduate school because it is specifically designed to prepare well qualified professionals that will be able to contribute to the work of NGOs or pursue careers as diplomats. I keenly look forward to learning everything that I can about international cooperation and conflict resolution, how to foment greater levels of mutual respect and cross-cultural understandings, among nations, especially those that have historically been in conflict, as is the case with Armenia and Azerbaijan. I want to devote myself to in-depth explorations of the contributions of NGOs to cultural as well as political and economic development. All of the former republics of the former Soviet Union--including Russia--face myriad and very grave problems. Thus, I hope to develop a special focus on this area of the world, doing comparative analyses of trajectories, successes, and failures of these neighboring nations. I have traveled extensively not only in Russia, but all three Baltic states, Georgia, and the Ukraine. I have also visited Turkey and Finland, both of which, especially the former, play critical political roles in this area. I am most interested in studying precisely the central social and political questions of the day that are addressed by your program, global processes of change and international development as they have emerged as a result of historical patterns of international relations. I see the world as indeed engaged in an epochal transition marked by greater interdependency taking shape in novel ways as a result of the increasing interconnectedness of nations. I am also very much attracted by the fact that a six-month internship and/or study abroad experience is an integral part of your program. My long term goal is to build a successful career as a diplomat or work with NGOs. Thus, I seek an advanced understanding of how both governmental and non-governmental organizations function. My professional experience so far as a corporate paralegal in a multi-billion dollar publically traded corporation (NYSE:HCP) has greatly enhanced my communication and teamwork building skills, working with people from many different backgrounds in the areas of tax, accounting, law, investment, treasury, etc. My education from a world class research university with a renowned political science department has also helped to prepare me to excel in your program. I have been cultivating my multicultural sensitivities since childhood. Growing up in Armenia, I chewed fruity Turkish chewing gum and played with Chinese game consoles, at the same time that I closely observed a people painfully digging itself out from underneath the rubble of the 1988 earthquake that took thousands of lives. Although still a child, I noted how the world came together in its response, helping us despite Cold War tensions. Studying in a Soviet-style secondary school, we used both Russian and English textbooks. I preferred the latter: Shakespeare, Conan Doyle and Alexander Dumas, among others. My intellectual development was also very much impacted by my father’s unjust detainment and torture by State Police for voicing his disagreement with the lawlessness and corruption of the newly independent Armenian republic. From a very young age, multiple cultures and international conflicts have touched my life and shared in the formation of my identity. It is for this reason that I feel strongly that the greatest contribution that I might be able to make to society would be to help enhance international cooperation by improving the mechanisms through which nation states relate to each other both through the development of foreign policy and well as the cultural exchanges that take place through NGOs. I want to dedicate my professional life to the promotion of respect for cultural differences and the building of bridges between nations so that there will be greater harmony, solidarity, and cooperation in decades to come: less hostility, hatred, conflict, and tension, much of which is based largely on misunderstanding and a failure of communication.