DATE: Re: Dr. XXXX’s Recommendation Letter Dear Program Director, Please accept this as a strong letter of recommendation in support of Dr XXXX’s scholastics and personal attributes. She is a recent graduate of SRTR Medical College’s Clinical & Anatomic Pathology Residency Program in Ambajogai, India. I had the privilege of getting to know Dr. XXXX well over the course of her three years of participation in our program, in my role as an Associate Professor. XXXX is one of the most outstanding residents that I have seen in my career, very highly goal oriented. Although she is by nature very humble and polite, throughout the course of her residency training, I was pleased to see her gain increasing confidence and evolve into a highly competent, versatile professional who is able to work most effectively both on her own and as part of a team. During her residency, she learned a great deal from many of the distinguished professors in our department, developing and cultivating an excellent rapport with all of her professors, senior colleagues, and the entire staff in the department, especially because of her sincerity and respectful nature. She established a solid reputation as an excellent presenter and teacher with outstanding communication & presentation skills, throughout multiple seminars, and presentations of journal articles. She is especially good at making a logical and systematic presentation of her research and quickly convinces her colleagues with her articulate and flawless knowledge of her field. She was always very eager to tackle new and complex topics for her presentations, such as her research on hematology that she presented at a national-level conference. Dr XXXX has proven to be a hard worker who carried out all her duties both punctually and cheerfully. She has a profound dedication to research and was especially instrumental in helping us with two most challenging case reports: “Rhabdomyosarcoma of Testis” and "ITP with Wilm’s Tumor.” I consider her to be a most highly motivated physician with an especially well developed understanding of professional ethics. Thus, I feel privileged by the opportunity to write this letter of support on her behalf. I am convinced that Dr. XXXX would prove to be a most valuable asset to any institution of higher learning. And I am sure certain that any faculty would be as delighted as we have been to have such an excellent student. I wish her all the best for her future and I assure you that she will prove herself as a genius if her candidacy to your institution is accepted. I highly recommend her for your Residency Program. Sincerely,

No one values education more highly than those who have received little or none themselves. Such was the case with my parents, my father had attended school for only five years and my mother had never attended school and was unable to read and write. Thus, our parents were especially determined that their seven children would be able to take full advantage of whatever educational opportunities would present themselves. Despite our modest household budget, we had over 2,000 books in our home, and newspapers were regarded as a necessity rather than a luxury. I absorbed and have fully embraced this reverence for education and this is why I have always been as determined to learn and advance academically as my parents hoped that I might. School has never been difficult for me because of my love of learning and the boundless encouragement that was provided at home. Teaching is a career that carries with it high status, security and a good salary in my home country of Turkey. For these reasons, my parents encouraged me to major in classroom teaching at college, though I was not especially enthusiastic about the prospect of teaching. I disapproved of the generally restrictive attitude to female education in Turkey and felt that my own experiences of poorly prepared and indifferent teachers would likely be an indicator of the quality of training that I might expect to receive. After having studied in the program, my cynicism only increased as I was able to closely observe the way that many of my fellow students were much more interested in the personal advantages available to a teacher rather than in teaching itself. Much of this changed, however, when I met my teaching supervisor who was indeed a very successful teacher in the fullest sense of the word, who clearly loved to pass on her skills and enthusiasm. She provided a challenging but very positive academic environment and a well thought out training plan for her students. I found her enthusiasm for teaching to be highly infectious. I began to settle happily into my program and to truly enjoy my studies and internship training. After graduation, I could hardly wait to begin teaching. I was appointed to a suburban district elementary school in a poor area. The environment reminded me of my own schooldays, though the quality of teaching was even worse than I had suffered. I was teaching a class of 50 students in the fifth grade, some of whom could not even read or write. I decided that I would give my all, however, to help these children who had fallen between the cracks of the floor of our educational system. I used to stay for three or four hours extra every day after school to look after them, guide them, and help them. At this time, I thought that this was what I wanted to do with my life. Yet, while I enjoyed teaching, I love learning even more and also devoted myself to continuing my education, hopefully in the West, and striving for broadening horizons in education. While I enjoyed teaching very much, I began to long to be part of systematic changes and improvements to our educational systems through the design and implementation of much more effective evaluation and testing. I applied for a scholarship program offered by the Turkish Ministry of National Education that supports future academics and I was one of only five students who were accepted to the program for graduate education in educational sciences in the U.S. Thus, I began graduate studies at XXXX University in the Department of Educational Psychology. This program has been enormously beneficial to me. I was provided with insights into how students learn and the broad variety of ways in which learning can be supported and enhanced. I was also equipped with knowledge of quantitative methods and modern measurement theories of which Item Response Theory was particularly fascinating to me. Topics such as Differential Item Functioning and Program Evaluation have deepened my understanding of ‘fairness issues’ in education and how improper assessment practices can lead to unjust outcomes. I am enormously pleased to have achieved this level of study in education and it has given me the confidence to pursue studies on a doctoral level. I wish very much to continue to enjoy association in vibrant academic group and experiencing the educational culture that creates a mutual learning environment between academics and fellow students. I feel enriched by the sharing of experiences and the exposure to cultural differences, particularly among international students. My central goal in applying to your program is to enhance my knowledge of measurement methods and applied statistics to enable me to make the greatest contribution possible to our educational systems once I return to Turkey, where I hope to fill leadership roles in the improvement of evaluation and testing and, thus, the quality of education itself. I am especially interested in applied measurement methods and my research interests include, but are not limited to, the causal relationship between teacher education and qualifications and the quality of teaching provided, the role of the school in developing critical and analytical thinking skills and as a predictors of girls’ achievement and career choices. It is also my hope, once I have obtained the Ph.D degree, to undertake independent research and to share the skills and knowledge gained by teaching at the college level. I have carefully researched the doctoral programs available to me and feel that the one provided by E.D.M.S is the ideal ‘fit’ for me. I am particularly drawn by the promise of a supportive faculty possessing the very highest level of expertise available in my areas of interest, the breadth of the research opportunities offered and the very valuable opportunities to work on projects in research centers. I am aware that the program will attract many well qualified applicants. However, I genuinely consider myself to be an exceptional candidate. I believe that my life’s journey to date provides evidence of diligence, determination, academic ability, adaptability and great intellectual curiosity; I am convinced that these qualities, together with my relevant professional and academic career to date, will enable me to ‘add value’ to the academic community.

Born and raised in Saudi Arabia, education and the English language have been my two constant companions as I have prepared myself for a lifetime of professional service. I have known for some time that I wanted to build a career in education and this is why I completed my Master’s Degree in Educational Administration. I plan to return to my native land to contribute to the advancement of our educational system. As a woman in a country where women have to struggle to achieve leadership positions, I hope to inspire generations of young women in the future to also seek and attain positions of leadership in our educational system. My personal dream is to someday serve as the Rector of a prominent Saudi University. Initially, I look forward to many years of service as a university professor and distinguished researcher in the areas of education and educational leadership. I am especially interested in doing research in the areas of curriculum development and Improvement and the analysis of ways that the performance of educational institutions can be enhanced in such a way as to subsequently improve student performance. I especially look forward to advancing my knowledge of quantitative research as well as my general and research skills. Thus, I keenly look forward to a rigorous course work in the vast range of theories and methodologies that will prepare me for increasingly sophisticated analyses in the future. In particular, I look forward to developing a special research interest in leadership and how to maximize our ability as educational professional to promote the training of highly successful and inspirational leaders in education. I look forward to a long and highly productive career as an educational leader myself who is able to contribute increasingly sophisticated analyses of the Saudi Arabian educational system so as to contribute to the future of my people. I feel strongly that both my volunteer and professional work experience have helped prepare me to excel in your program since I have had invaluable opportunities to work with a broad range of diverse groups and people from all over the world, including many specialists in the area of education. This has helped me to become familiar with the characteristics and unique challenges of diverse educational systems and given me the ability to solve problems, meet challenges and to develop a critical focus on the most effective ways for enhancing student achievement. I have also acquired valuable experience in the most effective and efficient use of available educational resources, especially in terms of staff development. I believe strongly that living life in a meaningful way requires us to aim high, setting lofty goals for ourselves and working very hard to reach them. This is why I came to America, to learn how to set challenging goals for myself and how to reach them by developing as much experience in the field of education that I can, in order to be well prepared to make the maximum contribution possible to the development of educational institutions in my native land. I have had a very curious nature since childhood, having always loved learning for its own sake, even if it required a great deal of effort. This is why I decided early on to devote my professional life to the study of education. I am a very active and highly efficient young woman who has always been willing to openly defy those aspects of my culture and political system that attempt to limit the progress that a woman can make the level of professional accomplishment to which she can aspire. I am very pleased and encouraged by the way that the situation of women and girls in Saudi Arabia has improved notably over the last five years or so and I keenly look forward to supporting and broadening these trends as Saudi women march towards their full liberation and the achievement of a society in which they have equal rights with their male counterparts, despite the fact that this will be a long and arduous struggle, I remain undeterred. I have worked very hard to develop my leadership skills for some time, especially since high school when I participated in a lot of student councils and social activities both at school and in the larger community. I further strengthened my leadership experience at the university level where I served on the student council and spent countless hours organizing volunteer activities, especially for children with special needs and in the provision of services for orphans, helping to better organize libraries and to raise funds for their improvement. My in-depth research projects have dealt with numerous themes including theories and trends in team management, change management, motivation, and emotional intelligence. Educational administration has also been central to my research efforts, including the broad spectrum of different educational challenges that we face. It doesn’t only deal with administration by its self but also focuses on humans and their development and most importantly education. I am very proud to have earned a full scholarship from the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program, and I ask to be admitted to your program so as to have the opportunity to prove that indeed I merit this honor by giving my all to my studies.

I am applying to the Ph.D. program in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies in the Department of Education at the University of XXXX I am applying for the position of doctoral fellow in the Advanced Quantitative Methods program in Education Research. My desire to attend XXXU is driven by my passion for research in the area of school counseling and college access. My primary interest lies in the work of Dr. XXXX since I have enormous respect for her research on issues of social class and school structure, access for African-Americans and Latino students, the role of counseling and academic opportunities, the impact of financial aid on college choice, private college counselors, affirmative action, and college admission policy. I am have also been personally empowered and highly motivated by the work of Drs. XXXX and XXXX. I very much appreciate their focus on the issue of college preparation programs and share their concern over the issue of a lack of guidance and funding for these resources. My own thesis explores the question of the extent to which (if any) that a significant correlation exists between the strength of school counseling programs, as represented by counselor density, on the one hand, and college-qualified students, as represented by UC A-G requirement completion and SAT and ACT registration in underrepresented and low-income communities, on the other. My working hypothesis is that indeed there is a statistically significant relationship between the number of college-qualified students, on the one hand, and counselor density, on the other. Data was collected on a sample of 20 Los Angeles Unified public Title 1 high schools through data made available through California’s Department of Education. Dr. Pete Goldschmidt, my chair and mentor, has been of great assistance. My work as a research assistant for Teachers of A New Generation (TNE) under Dr. XXXX has also proven to be an invaluable experience for proceeding in the most effective way with my own research. Having majored in Sociology as an undergraduate student, I was already quite familiar with the SPSS program, as a result of having taken a number of courses in statistics and measurement. While living and learning in Los Angeles, California I have experienced first-hand the lack of guidance that high school students receive and a seeming lack of importance ascribe to this issue the Department of Education and state school districts. I am concerned with the broad range of factors that directly influence college matriculation and readiness. While my passion for this field, as demonstrated by my own educational choices, research, and work experience, has been fueled by my own background and struggle. I began college as a Bio-Chem major, working thirty hours a week, struggling to keep my own head above water even as I played on the college water polo team. and tried to keep up with the new pace of college. In search of greater human meaning, however, I soon launched myself into the areas of Sociology, Psychology, Statistics and Trigonometry, along with Philosophy as an elective course. I soon learned that sociology and statistics were what fascinated me most. I started volunteering at a nursing home where I coordinated daily activities for the elderly and conducted interviews with nursing home patients, nurses and families as part of a facility evaluation. I transferred to California State University XXXX as a Sociology major and a new love for statistics emerged. Suddenly, I found myself glued to SPSS, randomly running simple analyses on different variables. I became consumed by numbers. As I was reading Marger’s “Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes” for an upper division sociology course, I decided to write my midterm paper on the issue of the veiled stratification system, coming into contact with Dr. McDonough s research on social class and school structure, and college access for minority students: I found my calling in life. By April of 2007, I started looking for a new job and received two offers, neither one of which I was able to turn down. One was as an Undergraduate Student Advisor at the EOP office at XXXX and the other was as a Site Supervisor for KYDS at XXXX Middle School- both serving under-privileged and “at-risk” students. Young, full of energy and passion, and my family being in financial need, I accepted both positions. I worked at XXXX in the morning hours, at KYDS from 2 to 6 p.m., and attended classes in the evenings. I want to devote my life to the study of evaluation and educational policy and I feel that the AQM program will prepare me to do so. For the first time in my life, I would like to have the opportunity to simply go to class and do research. Throughout most of my college life so far, I have worked over forty hours a week, and remember contemplating whether I would be able continue my education. I took as many classes I could in one semester so that I would pay less tuition and be able to find full-time work. As a result, my GRE scores suffered and I ask that my circumstances be taken into account in the evaluation of my application to your program. I keenly look forward to the opportunity to finally immerse myself in school without the pressure of having to work to support my family and I thank you for considering my application.

I am a young woman from Bangkok, Thailand who very much loves the earth, our planetary home, and the study of everything having to do with protecting our environment. I have always been good at math and statistics; so this is the area in which I want to make my contribution. The material that I especially look forward to working with for my doctoral studies in statistics is Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Studies, and Environmental Science. I am currently studying towards the M.S. Degree in Applied Statistics at XXXX University and I will be graduating as soon as I defend my thesis. I want to pursue a doctorate because I am especially interested in doing research in the areas of environmental and atmospheric science, applying what I have learned and hope to continue to learn in your program to solving problems in these areas. My Master's Thesis has been concerned with air quality using the categorical time series and generalized linear model theory to categorize the Air quality Index without knowing the ozone concentrations. I look forward to continuing to do research in the area of air quality. My long term goal after earning the PHD Degree is to do research and teach in my native Thailand. The King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadei, has long been a powerful inspiration to me because of his tireless defense of the environment in addition to his concern for the common man. I want to help my country to develop economically in a way that protects our environment. My country is very much in need of good statisticians since there are very few. There are also few PHDs trained in the area of environmental science. I want to spend my life using my knowledge and experiences to contribute to the struggle to save our environment. I am especially concerned with global warming and hope to be at the forefront of preparations to confront this challenge in Thailand. For me, mathematics and statistics are the central keys to scientific progress. This is why I fell in love with these subjects and never tire of studying them. I keenly look forward to doing computations for the rest of my professional life. I am especially concerned by the fact that research suggests that there have been and continue to be frequent miscalculations concerning the precise level of pollutants in our environment. And if this is true in the Developed World, then it is even more so the case in a developing country like Thailand. Thus, we need to begin almost from scratch, developing the correct tools and resources to measure pollutants if we are ever going to be successful at combating pollution and cleaning up our world. This is why I want to continue my study of advanced statistics, so that I can apply state-of-the-art techniques to the development of solutions for our environmental problems and challenges. I want very much to build upon the research represented in my Master’s Thesis by using advance techniques in order to come up with more accurate in forecasting. I am especially good at using statistical programs such as Matlab, SAS, Minitab, Eview, and Stata9. I assure you that, if accepted to your program, I will give my all to my studies so that I excel, for the planet, my country, my family, and the sheer joy that I find doing research. I 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 am a 28-year-old Saudi Arabian man who has dedicated his life to communication in English and I have a special love for translation. I love the idea of a global language, and for better or for worse, history has chosen English. Translating English into Arabic is something that I labor to make a fine art. I am especially interested in doing research in the areas of Translation Studies particularly the translation of poetry and other creative writing including prose, novels and plays. After completing your program, my short term goal is to become an assistant Professor of Translation at XXXX University-Saudi Arabia. My long term goal is to serve as a distinguished scholar in translation studies, especially with respect to related areas of linguistics. I look forward to decades of research in translation and interpretation, laboring to create new, more effective strategies and techniques in translation from English to Arabic and vice versa. I hope to one day be regarded as a leading figure in Saudi Arabia with respect to many aspects of Arabic/English communication. While studying towards the BA, I worked part time job for the ELS language Centers in Riyadh-Saudi Arabia for two years as a student coordinator and adviser. This position helped me to vastly improve my own English as a result of my constant association with the teachers, all of whom were either American or British. I particularly appreciated the opportunity to translate for students whose English were very weak. This was also a good environment for exploring ideas, strategies and solutions to many problems in translation and interpretation that are common in Saudi Arabia, as well as become much more conscious of cultural issues and the way that they related to translation. After receiving my BA in Translation in 2008 I worked for XXXX University in the Rector’s Office as a translator. This position also helped me to rapidly advance my appreciation for the complexity of linguistic and cultural differences between Arabic and English speakers. I also had a lot of opportunity to practice written translation from English into Arabic and vice versa. In 2011, I received the MA in Arabic/English Translation and Interpreting from University of Durham. I was then appointed by XXXX University (Saudi Arabia) as a lecturer in English Language as well as a counselor for the Vice Rector’s Office for Academic and Educational Affairs. Being appointed a lecturer in English Language has given me confidence and helped inspire me to pursue my studies further. I feel strongly that the greatest contribution that I might be able to make to society would be to establish a distinguished translation studies center which would provide introductory as well as advanced courses in translation. I see my long term goal as serving as a guide for translators in Saudi Arabia. I especially look forward to translating a number of English books into Arabic which will be helpful for fostering intercultural communication between speakers of English and Arabic. I lived in the UK for a-year-and-a-half, culminating in my MA Degree. This of course was the most professionally formative experience that I have had thus far as a language professional. I began with Intensive English courses for 3 months in Basil Paterson College in Edinburgh. Then I moved to Durham. First, I took an English course for academic purposes for 3 months in the University of Durham then I started my Master’s studies and finished in one year. I visited the USA for 2 weeks on behalf of the language centre where I worked. We visited 6 States including New York, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Texas, in order to closely observe ESL centers. We also went on similar discovery missions to visit ESL centres in France, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain. I have always gravitated towards the Liberal Arts and especially languages and translation. I seem to be drawn to path of the language professional as a result of a very early identification with words, and began learning English while still a small child as well. Thus, throughout the course of my life thus far, my capacity in English tended to serve as a measure of self worth. And this has inspired me to work very hard, to the point where I now hope to enter a doctoral program to study towards the terminal degree in my field. Saudis have a tendency towards isolationism and self-absorption, and are often noted to be somewhat rigid and inflexible, especially with respect to educational reform, and this is true. I hope to labor to open up Saudi Arabia more to the world through greater levels of more effective preparation in our global language. My experience thus far has helped me to better appreciate the complexity of many of the problems in English language learning, and the special or peculiar way that they tend to manifest themselves in the Saudi classroom. I have learned a great deal from the teachers with whom I have worked, sharing their experiences. I made it a point to spend as much time as I could with each teacher, especially the foreigners, so as to learn from their unique experiences in the Saudi classroom. Dealing directly with students and their issues helped to inspire me to pursue graduate studies. The strongest part of my application is probably my professional employment trajectory, since I was first a student coordinator, then translator, and finally a lecturer in English, covering a variety of areas including grammar. I seek admission to a rigorous program in translation such as yours and look forward to a full immersion in theory and fundamentals. I am convinced that, with your program as a springboard, that I will have the preparation that I need for a lifetime of valuable contributions to the study of translation in the KSA. I especially enjoy strategies and solutions to English language learning—most particularly as this involves tools for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The greatest contribution that I might be able to make to society would be to facilitate the acquisition of English as an international language by designing everything from new methodologies and techniques to the laboratories where they would be put into practice. I also plan to be very involved in initiatives to stimulate further investment on the part of the government of Saudi Arabia in the area of Translation as well as English Education. I am a dedicated and very hard worker, which is why, for example, I helped to build a fence to protect wild plants that are threatened with extinction in my region where I live. I thank you for considering my application to your distinguished program.

I ask for admission to your program to pursue the PHD Degree in Communication and Information, with a focus on Library Science, because I am convinced that doing so will inspire me to meet my long term career and professional goals. I want to devote the balance of my life to the advancement of living museums and I am very excited about the increasing amount of research that is taking place now in your department in this area. I have also currently been taking a research intensive course, “Course Title,” which was recommended to me by Professor XXXX, so as to gain greater research experience in the hope of being admitted to your doctoral program. I would like to focus my doctoral research on the voices of women in community throughout United States history, the unique ways in which American female voices have been influenced by the nature of the given writer’s community, as expressed in newspaper articles, non-fiction, novels, poems, journals, even recipes. I want to argue that there is a tendency among female writers to express their community bonds in special ways that are not typically shared by their male counterparts. In fact, I want to explore the hypothesis that a unique, symbiotic relationship tends to arise between women writers and their communities, resulting in unique patterns of contribution to the community in which women have tended to distinguish themselves. This research will draw on work that has been done in psychology that suggests that women tend to see the world quite differently than do men, who generally tend more towards more rugged individualism, as opposed to the complex social web in which the woman almost invariably tends to locate herself. Of course, this is a broad subject area; nevertheless, this is also an area of academic inquiry where one can find ample material for investigation. My work would be distinguished by its emphasis on regionalism, exploring community motifs as they are voiced by women across generations, but in the same regional or geographical context in the USA. In short, I would like to explore the ways in which changes in the voices of women are mirrored by, or probably better put spring from, the evolving structures of society, particularly the role of women, The greatest contribution that I might be able to make to society would be to help inspire future generations of students through the development of library collections of women writers group according to epoch and geographical region. I feel strongly that it would be beneficial to create collections with a regional basis, comparing the female voices of that region over time, observing the way that new motifs in women’s concerns tend to mirror changes in community structures and concerns. My long term goal is to dedicate myself to the maintenance and preservation of collections of artifacts and writings at a (probably regional) living history museum. I date my interest in library and museum science to my early childhood playing in our attic amidst the old books filled with intricate etching and engravings. My sisters and I would arrange the mini balls arrayed in line and dress up in authentic Civil War costumes complete with hoop skirts and satin gowns. My childhood curiosity led me to wonder to whom these books once belonged; what was the house like where these curtains once hung? Surrounded by artifacts and memorabilia of bygone eras, a seed was planted in me that has nurtured a love for history ever since and I feel most at home in the world of antiquities. For me the preservation of literature and historical record is a noble cause that springs to life as a result of our field, since we are the people on the cutting edge of finding new ways for new generations to more effectively access historical material in increasingly creative ways. Pursing a Ph.D. at Kent State University will enable me to devote myself full time to research in the rich history of artistic creativity and community expression found in the voices of women. Your Master’s Program in Library and Information Science program at Kent State has prepared me for the rigors of my current position as the District Librarian for the North Olmsted City Schools. I have come a long way to mastering the art of collection development, equipment management, differentiated instruction, media literacy, and staff management, all of fundamental importance to the orchestration of a district library. I feel strongly that this experience has also helped to prepare me for doctoral studies. I come from a family of five children and meager means; nevertheless, our upbringing was very culturally and artistically rich in multicultural experience. My dad was a school teacher and my mom was a nurse who worked at home. We even developed a summer musical production performed exclusively by my family- complete with homemade life size scenery, music sung in three-part harmony and homemade refreshments for all after the performance, right in our backyard with not an inch of space for another folding chair. And we hosted many a cohort of exchange students from various cultures. People young and old from all walks of life beckoned through the portals of our home. It was not unusual to have visitors from Communist Romania or far-away Irian Jaya. Closer to home, lumberjacks of Newfoundland and homeless inner-city men from New York City would share our table. The Lithuanian neighbor came over frequently with her kolotchke cookies to share with a cup of tea, while several streets away offered a clan of Italian aunts, uncles and cousins. This eclectic mix of various ethnicities and cultures enabled me to develop a profound appreciation of diversity. Going to France as an exchange student in high school helped reinforce my multicultural world view. I also home schooled five boys until the 8th grade, studying a kaleidoscope of cultures. I profoundly appreciate the importance of feminism to our public discourse. As a historian, a librarian, and a woman, however, I am most interested in the contributions of women who were at home, on the farm, struggling to keep a family alive rather than debating in the public square. I am most passionate about the importance of the recovery and preservation of the female voices in our histories, especially for future generations of women that can learn from and celebrate these histories, thereby coming to a better understanding of themselves.

I was just a freshman in high school when 9/11 occurred. I saw how it affected so many people yet brought so many people together. I was so young but I wanted to help. That was a critical year for me in my development. It was 911 that aroused my sense of patriotic duty and helped me to understand how being an American citizen is a big part of my identity. Both of my parents were born and raised in Haiti and I also identify with the island of my family origin; I am especially proud to be a Haitian American women and I look forward to serving as a positive role model for other young Haitian women. Now, 11 years after our country was attacked, I have realized my dream of doing something to make America safer, especially traveling in America. I adore my job as Supervisory Transportation Security Officer (STSO) for the TSA and I enjoy explaining to people how the TSA was created in 2002 in response to 911. I am in charge of running a Security Checkpoint that screens the traveling public. I enjoy the feeling of almost always running a very smooth operation. The trust and respect of the officers that I work with is particularly important to me. I feel a profound sense of accomplishment when I see a plane taking off with the passengers that we have just screened. It feels good to serve the public. Now, I want to advance professionally. Without a graduate degree, I have reached a professional ceiling and will be unable to advance. But I am also hungry to return to full time study because of my passion for learning and the many new things that I want to explore on professional levels. I want to learn how to serve the public more effectively, and to earn greater and greater levels of responsibility. My mother and father are very proud of me and want I am doing and have accomplished thus far. They are also fully supportive of my application to graduate school. Their full support is one of the reasons why I am confident in my ability to excel in your program. I want to earn my Master’s Degree in Homeland Security and develop a special focus on policy and organization. Throughout this period, I plan to work very hard, continuing to prepare myself and refine my skills so that I will be able to assume increasing professional responsibility as my career progresses. After completing your distinguished program, I plan to continue to work for the federal government. My long term goal is to serve in an executive management position I feel that I am already highly skilled at developing indispensable levels of trust and highly productive working relationships with subordinates, colleagues, and supervisors, helping to unite us all in the achievement of our goals and objectives. As a black person and a woman, I am also very much engaged with discussion of Civil Rights programs and policies and I am elated by the great progress that has been made in this area. 911 was the first of two disasters to shape my adult values and sense of cultural identity; the other was the earthquake in Haiti 2.5 years ago. Even though I saw it only on TV and the Internet; this level of suffering made me keenly aware that these are my people. I want very much someday to return to Haiti at some point in my career, especially in some professional capacity as a servant of the USA, putting my fluent Haitian-Creole to work in the improvement of the lives of those who need me most. I thank you for considering my application to your program.

I have long been sensitive to the need for black male role models, and I have tried to become one. I find my greatest joy in my service as a member of United Methodist Men. We do various types of volunteer projects to assist the community, such as food drives, assisting the elderly and mentoring youth students. I have worked for the Federal Government in various capacities now for the last 20 years. In the beginning, I had a share in the maintenance of our nuclear weapon systems. After that, I moved into the area of intelligence. Next, I had the privilege of working with Congressional Liaison for the Air Force. There, I learned a great deal about how the Air Force thinks strategically by traveling with members of Congress around the globe looking at various projects. Currently working for Congress in the Office of the Parliamentarian, I have the opportunity to analyze travel-related legislation with respect to the impact that it has on our national security interests. With these experiences, I feel that I have developed an excellent background upon which to build in your highly esteemed program. Your program is ideal for me because I seek a most rigorous, full time immersion in the study of the complete range of analytical and operational aspects of our national security in the international context. I also think that your program will enhance my critical thinking and provide me with greater confidence in my writing abilities. I am also very much attracted to your non-classroom professional activities that promote networking and career advancement. Your accelerated program also has the flexibility that I am looking for. I hope to fill leadership positions in the future as a civilian employee working in interagency security coordination. Ten years from now, my ideal position would be with one of the intelligence agencies in the Washington, D.C. area working in some type of oversight or operational capacity. Working and traveling with members of congress, coupled with my work in the intelligence community, has provided me with a very high level of motivation to continue to serve the security interests of our country. I look forward to one day starting my own security-related business so that I can continue to serve the security community in a more independent fashion. I am intrigued with the enormity of the task of moving systems from one part of the world to the other, and the security concerns involved. It is here where I hope to make my mark as an entrepreneur. The other principal long term goal that I have is giving something back to the youth in my community. I hope to have a major share in providing them with the kinds of social, professional, and academic opportunities that I did not have when I was growing up. By serving as a positive role model, boys learn to respect the benefits and advantages of obtaining an education and making good use of it. I have traveled extensively over the last 12 years, having been to six of the seven continents and to more than 90 countries. Visiting mostly the major cities that serve as seats of government, for short stays of 3 – 4 days. I have profited greatly from this up-close look at so many different cultures and the different ways in which America relates to the world. Thus, I am especially attracted to the international emphasis of your program and I thank you for considering my application.

I am a security professional who seeks to answer the call to serve my country and the great challenges presented in our day and age in the area of cyber security. I am only applying to XXXX U for graduate study because your online intercollege Master of Professional Studies (iMPS) in Homeland Security is clearly the leading online program in my area. It is most impressive that XXXX State has been designated by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a “National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.” Since these are among the government agencies with which I would most like to work; your program is clearly my best shot at distinguished service. I am firmly dedicated to lifelong education into how to better serve my community and my country. Now 50, I am not the kind of man who day dreams about pulling a camper from one trailer park to another in my golden years. Rather, I aspire to be of service to our national defense well into my 70s if not beyond. I want to work long hours until I am no longer able to do so because this is what I most enjoy: battling cyber intruders, spies, hackers, con-artists, thieves, and, with the help of your program, terrorists as well. While I enjoy my current position as Director of Security Compliance and Management for XXXX Hotel Group, I am applying to and highly motivated to excel in your program because of my thirst for greater challenge, on the one hand, and my desire to make a fuller contribution to our cyber-security on the other. I have enjoyed my employment with XXXX and have had the opportunity to learn many important things about security during my time here. I have been in my current position for 1 year and 2 months. Previously, I worked with them as an independent contractor for another 18 months (2010-2011). The greatest challenge for me has been educating management and co-workers with respect to the need for them to comply with security measures. Often if not generally, enhanced security requires that members of an organization change the way that they do certain things; and this can be difficult, flying in the face of habit and established custom. My appreciation of diversity has been enhanced, my understanding of numerous cultural factors involved in the way that we perform our roles professionally. With over 10 years experience as an information security and compliance professional, I have risen to top of my field as a respected consultant in the payment card industry. I have had the privilege of leading the Security Compliance and Management Organization for XXXX, the largest franchisor of hotels in the world. Hospitality presents the largest threat to individual privacy and is a significant source of identity and payment card theft. Much of what I have learned in the hospitality industry has certain relevance for other areas of security studies as well. For this reason I am confident that I will be able to excel in your program. I see the privacy and protection of individuals’ information as fundamental human rights. Helping to foster privacy and to be an advocate against the collection and misuse of personally identifiable information is what I see as my greatest possible contribution to humanity. My long term goal is to serve in a position, corporate or governmental, where I have an opportunity to shape policy concerning how we collect, use, and protect individuals’ data. Most probably, I would find my greatest joy working for the Federal Government as the Chief Security Officer or Compliance Officer for a governmental agency. Graduating with a Masters in Professional Studies in Homeland Security - Information Security and Forensics will enable me to move from a tactical problem solver to a strategic thinker and planner. I want to learn to see the bigger picture, from a law enforcement perspective, and to share in the creative march of ideas that will drive our greatest triumphs in cyber security into the next generation. I thank you for considering my application to your distinguished program.

Before my fascination for the media world developed I like everyone else was subconsciously a part of it. The news that was on TV, the magazines that I read and the commercials that urged me to buy the products I bought. The media and the world it creates around us are always there whether we are aware of it or not. Then becoming a media student was like learning the tricks of the trade, being let in on all these secrets and I loved knowing why the media did things and how they accomplished them. By studying media at a degree level I feel I will be able to enhance my interest for the subject as well as expand my current knowledge and be able to gain new skills that will enable me to both advance and flourish within this area as well as taking great pleasure in doing so. I have been involved in different aspects of media (especially advertising) for a few years. I have studied Media at both GCSE and A Level. When on these courses I worked on producing a variety of media projects including creating and airing a community radio station, producing and starring in an episode of a soap opera and comic book production. Whilst at 6th form I have worked on publicity shots for a variety of projects such as prospectuses and open evenings. I am also the design editor of the school paper a feat of which I am very proud. As well as participating in media related tasks on an educational level, I have taken my interest out side of just academic projects. For the government run scheme Connexions I worked on a PR campaign which involved me participating in many media based tasks such as designing a print based advert which was distributed throughout all the senior schools and colleges in the Birmingham and Solihull areas. I also created a website for a local youth club called the Den a council run scheme. I'd like to think I have a positive impact on my school and 6th form where I am head girl. I was previously a prefect and ran a friendship group for new year sevens and eights. I try my hardest to change things for the better and enjoy working with pupils of all ages in the school in activities such as the school council and mentoring. In the summer of 2005 I undertook work experience with a drama group which taught young children morals through plays and I greatly gained from the experience. Along with media I am undertaking English and Photography A levels as I feel that both of them can greatly aid me in a media orientated direction. My outside interests span a wide variety. I love to read some of my favourite authors being ''Dan Brown'' and ''JKRowling''. I also like to write and have recently had one of my poems published in a young author's collection. Photography and graphic designs are huge personal passions of mine; they give me the ability to express my self in a creative and positive way. Since July 2005 I have been part of the Birmingham and Solihull Youth Board and worked up to being a senior member. I enjoy spending time with my friends participating in social activities such as paintballing, laser quest, the cinema and bowling. On Saturdays I also have a part time Job at a library where I have to be organised as well as computer literate and complete tasks independently or part of a team. Last summer I spent 3 weeks travelling Europe and went to places such as 'Auschwitchz in Krakow and the 'Reichstag' in Berlin. The experience was amazing and allowed me insight to other countries cultures and lifestyles. Media is a huge part of both my academic and personal life and I truly feel that placement on this course would help me in my future career ambitions in the media world. Living so far away from home whilst on the course would also help me gain independence and life skills.