04-11-2008, 05:13 AM
I wanted to go to grad school for College Student Personnel, or at Northern Illinois University, where I am planning on going, it is called Adult and Higher Education with specialization in student affairs. Here is my NIU essay that I would like to share. To protect the privacy of those mentioned, they are based only by their first name and last intial.
Adult and Higher Education Goal Statement
I want to pursue graduate work in Adult and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University because of my own experiences at both Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg and Western Illinois University in Macomb. During my time at both CSC and WIU, I participated in different organizations that deal with the different aspects of college life: residence hall life, volunteer services, disability support and awareness, student government, and my sorority. My involvement in various aspects of college student affairs gives me both the ability and the flexibility of working in different fields. Combined with both my involvement and passion in the student affairs field, it helps me to actually pursue it as a career.
When I first attended CSC, I joined Student Government Association to be able to make a difference in the CSC student population after serving in Student Council during my senior year in high school. I did this by serving the interests of the student body of CSC and also planning different programs for them. For programming ideas, we attended a programming convention in Peoria as a way to bring programs to the CSC student population. From the convention, we got the idea to bring the musical artist John Rush to perform at the annual spring picnic. My involvement in SGA got me involved in the college life, but it was not the area that led me into a career in student affairs, it was residence hall life.
Residence Hall life is the one area of student affairs that I served the longest and have the most experience in. During my time serving in residence hall life, I served in both the capacity of hall government and being one of my residence hall representatives in Inter-Hall Council. The one area of residence hall life that I did not serve in was being a resident assistant. To me, serving in residence hall life is about making an impact in your residence hall, whatever you are an RA or not. I made an impact in my residence hall without being an RA. It was in residence hall life that I realized that the student affairs field is the career for me.
During my time in Higgins Hall Government, I served in both as a floor representative and an executive board member as both secretary/public relations and treasurer. The majority of my time in Higgins Hall Government, I served as a floor representative to act as a liaison to relay any information between my floor and Higgins Hall. During my time as secretary/public relations, I kept the minutes for both the general assembly and executive board meetings along with the general assembly attendance. I also worked with the rest of the executive board to design and implement creative advertisements for both hall government meetings and programs. As treasurer, I worked with the hall government advisor to coauthor the hall government budget of $3500 and also approved any budget requests along with the president and advisor. I also organized and implemented the Higgins Gold Auction by counting the residents’ tracking sheets and picking prizes for the event.
Higgins Hall Government is not the only area that I gained residence life experience in, I also represented Higgins Hall in Inter-Hall Council. Being in IHC, it not only allowed me to impact Higgins Hall, it also allowed me to impact all residence halls on WIU’s campus. IHC also allowed me to attend both the IRHA and GLACURH conferences to gain programming ideas that can be used on any campus. Both conferences impacted me greatly, IRHA led me to the student affairs field after my program “Autism: The Myths, Realities, and the Autistic Culture” received a Top Ten Program Award and GLACURH allowed me to gain more information about the student affairs field and gained four more student affairs contacts. If I could be remembered for one thing in IHC, I wanted to be the one that worked to get the flex plans changed from them to be only reloaded once a year to the option of having them being reloaded each semester.
Residence hall life is one area of student affairs that I served in, but it is not the only area that I served in. I also served in different capacities in student affairs, including being part of a sorority, volunteer services, disability awareness and support, and volunteering at the WIU Women’s Center. Being involved in these organizations allowed me the opportunity to gain both skills and experiences in various student affairs areas. I took this approach instead of focusing on just one area because I want the flexibly to be able to work in more than one area and this allows better marketing for both my skills and experiences.
My sorority experience was unique, as my sorority, Sigma Lambda Sigma, is a service sorority, not a social sorority, and was not a member of the Panhellenic Council at WIU. I joined Sigma Lambda Sigma because I wanted to join a service organization and being part of a sorority, and it allowed me the chance to do both of those things. We do activities like any other sorority, including learning about the Sigma Lambda Sigma history and social activities. After I became a Sig Lamb alumnus and left WIU for three years, the chapter later changed into a service organization called SOULS (Sisterhood of Understanding, Leadership, and Service) on campus and now currently disbanded. I will love to see Sigma Lambda Sigma restarted at WIU because I love my sorority and I will not trade being a Sig Lamb for anything in the world.
When I came back to WIU after a three year absence and because of my time in Sigma Lambda Sigma, I still wanted to volunteer, so I joined Western’s All Volunteer Effort (WAVE). The WAVE executive board provided the members with various volunteer opportunities around both WIU and the Macomb community. When I served as vice president, I also provided various volunteer opportunities, including my weekly event of helping out with the Special Olympics and organized and implemented the blood drive. As vice president, not only I provided WAVE members volunteer opportunities, I also assisted the president in both the general assembly and executive board meetings along with maintaining the constitution.
For my involvement in disability support and awareness, I should thank my friend Greg S. for getting me involved in Students For Disability Awareness (SDA). When I first met him at a residence hall diversity event [Higgins Advocating a Tolerant Environment Night also known as Higgins HATE Night], he and I talked about our two disabilities, he with dyslexia and me with autism. He then invited me to come to the next SDA meeting, in which I came and later became the public relations chair. If it was not for Greg, I might not got involved in SDA nor gained the experience in the disability awareness and support aspect of student affairs.
During my time in SDA, I took the time to volunteer at the Disability Awareness Day and I got a chance to talk to several students about autism and they enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about autism from my prospective. They even asked me if their simulation that consists of listening to music full blast, button a shirt while wearing gloves, and getting touched with a steel wool is accurate. I mentioned to them that I would do two iPods playing two different songs with a song playing in each ear full blast to make it more accurate.
Even with all of my activities, I took the time to volunteer at the WIU Women’s Center. In the Women’s Center, I assisted the staff with various projects, included the display of “Women and the Constitution” at Malpass Library. At the Women’s Center, I learned about many issues that women go through, even here in the United States to this day. I do know about this because when I was eighteen, a girl that I went to school with was killed by her boyfriend, who later committed suicide, leaving their three year old son to grow up without his parents.
In my activities, several people influenced me in different ways, especially with my choice of working in student affairs, especially Megan T. and Marc M. They both see my passion in student affairs and they helped me out. Megan believes that I will make a great student affairs professional someday because she saw my passion during my work in Higgins Hall Government, both as a floor representative and secretary. Marc also saw my passion and he believes that I will never lose my dedication to service. They were just two people that helped me along my journey, but there are countless of others that also helped.
My college activities and the people that I worked with through them are not the only influences that I have that lead me into the student affairs field. There is another organization that also influenced me greatly, and that is Sigma Chi Fraternity at Western Illinois University. I got a chance to work with many of them through SDA and they allowed me the chance to present my autism presentation at their house as an educational. I believe that they not only influenced me greatly, but I also greatly influenced them. Just before my graduation, I passed a memory book for people to sign, in which many of the Sig Chis signed to congratulate me on my graduation, wishing me luck in the future, and also thanked me for supporting them. The entry that I received from one of their members, David A., said, “Thanks so much for everything that you’ve done for our house. No one has given so much support to Sigma Chi like you have.” To me, Sigma Chi is not just any organization on campus, they are my friends.
When I looked at this program, I saw that it have different areas of specialization in Adult and Higher Education, especially the Student Affairs option, the area that I want to pursue. I also saw that there is a class that deals with community college student affairs, in which I believe it will be beneficial to me because I graduated from a community college and I could use my community college experiences in both the class and the program. I also saw that it is possible to also earn a certificate of study along with the degree and with my time working in the Women’s Center, I also want to earn a certificate in women’s studies along with the degree. I believe that with my experiences, that I will make a great candidate for the program because I have experience in different student affairs areas, not just one.
Adult and Higher Education Goal Statement
I want to pursue graduate work in Adult and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University because of my own experiences at both Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg and Western Illinois University in Macomb. During my time at both CSC and WIU, I participated in different organizations that deal with the different aspects of college life: residence hall life, volunteer services, disability support and awareness, student government, and my sorority. My involvement in various aspects of college student affairs gives me both the ability and the flexibility of working in different fields. Combined with both my involvement and passion in the student affairs field, it helps me to actually pursue it as a career.
When I first attended CSC, I joined Student Government Association to be able to make a difference in the CSC student population after serving in Student Council during my senior year in high school. I did this by serving the interests of the student body of CSC and also planning different programs for them. For programming ideas, we attended a programming convention in Peoria as a way to bring programs to the CSC student population. From the convention, we got the idea to bring the musical artist John Rush to perform at the annual spring picnic. My involvement in SGA got me involved in the college life, but it was not the area that led me into a career in student affairs, it was residence hall life.
Residence Hall life is the one area of student affairs that I served the longest and have the most experience in. During my time serving in residence hall life, I served in both the capacity of hall government and being one of my residence hall representatives in Inter-Hall Council. The one area of residence hall life that I did not serve in was being a resident assistant. To me, serving in residence hall life is about making an impact in your residence hall, whatever you are an RA or not. I made an impact in my residence hall without being an RA. It was in residence hall life that I realized that the student affairs field is the career for me.
During my time in Higgins Hall Government, I served in both as a floor representative and an executive board member as both secretary/public relations and treasurer. The majority of my time in Higgins Hall Government, I served as a floor representative to act as a liaison to relay any information between my floor and Higgins Hall. During my time as secretary/public relations, I kept the minutes for both the general assembly and executive board meetings along with the general assembly attendance. I also worked with the rest of the executive board to design and implement creative advertisements for both hall government meetings and programs. As treasurer, I worked with the hall government advisor to coauthor the hall government budget of $3500 and also approved any budget requests along with the president and advisor. I also organized and implemented the Higgins Gold Auction by counting the residents’ tracking sheets and picking prizes for the event.
Higgins Hall Government is not the only area that I gained residence life experience in, I also represented Higgins Hall in Inter-Hall Council. Being in IHC, it not only allowed me to impact Higgins Hall, it also allowed me to impact all residence halls on WIU’s campus. IHC also allowed me to attend both the IRHA and GLACURH conferences to gain programming ideas that can be used on any campus. Both conferences impacted me greatly, IRHA led me to the student affairs field after my program “Autism: The Myths, Realities, and the Autistic Culture” received a Top Ten Program Award and GLACURH allowed me to gain more information about the student affairs field and gained four more student affairs contacts. If I could be remembered for one thing in IHC, I wanted to be the one that worked to get the flex plans changed from them to be only reloaded once a year to the option of having them being reloaded each semester.
Residence hall life is one area of student affairs that I served in, but it is not the only area that I served in. I also served in different capacities in student affairs, including being part of a sorority, volunteer services, disability awareness and support, and volunteering at the WIU Women’s Center. Being involved in these organizations allowed me the opportunity to gain both skills and experiences in various student affairs areas. I took this approach instead of focusing on just one area because I want the flexibly to be able to work in more than one area and this allows better marketing for both my skills and experiences.
My sorority experience was unique, as my sorority, Sigma Lambda Sigma, is a service sorority, not a social sorority, and was not a member of the Panhellenic Council at WIU. I joined Sigma Lambda Sigma because I wanted to join a service organization and being part of a sorority, and it allowed me the chance to do both of those things. We do activities like any other sorority, including learning about the Sigma Lambda Sigma history and social activities. After I became a Sig Lamb alumnus and left WIU for three years, the chapter later changed into a service organization called SOULS (Sisterhood of Understanding, Leadership, and Service) on campus and now currently disbanded. I will love to see Sigma Lambda Sigma restarted at WIU because I love my sorority and I will not trade being a Sig Lamb for anything in the world.
When I came back to WIU after a three year absence and because of my time in Sigma Lambda Sigma, I still wanted to volunteer, so I joined Western’s All Volunteer Effort (WAVE). The WAVE executive board provided the members with various volunteer opportunities around both WIU and the Macomb community. When I served as vice president, I also provided various volunteer opportunities, including my weekly event of helping out with the Special Olympics and organized and implemented the blood drive. As vice president, not only I provided WAVE members volunteer opportunities, I also assisted the president in both the general assembly and executive board meetings along with maintaining the constitution.
For my involvement in disability support and awareness, I should thank my friend Greg S. for getting me involved in Students For Disability Awareness (SDA). When I first met him at a residence hall diversity event [Higgins Advocating a Tolerant Environment Night also known as Higgins HATE Night], he and I talked about our two disabilities, he with dyslexia and me with autism. He then invited me to come to the next SDA meeting, in which I came and later became the public relations chair. If it was not for Greg, I might not got involved in SDA nor gained the experience in the disability awareness and support aspect of student affairs.
During my time in SDA, I took the time to volunteer at the Disability Awareness Day and I got a chance to talk to several students about autism and they enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about autism from my prospective. They even asked me if their simulation that consists of listening to music full blast, button a shirt while wearing gloves, and getting touched with a steel wool is accurate. I mentioned to them that I would do two iPods playing two different songs with a song playing in each ear full blast to make it more accurate.
Even with all of my activities, I took the time to volunteer at the WIU Women’s Center. In the Women’s Center, I assisted the staff with various projects, included the display of “Women and the Constitution” at Malpass Library. At the Women’s Center, I learned about many issues that women go through, even here in the United States to this day. I do know about this because when I was eighteen, a girl that I went to school with was killed by her boyfriend, who later committed suicide, leaving their three year old son to grow up without his parents.
In my activities, several people influenced me in different ways, especially with my choice of working in student affairs, especially Megan T. and Marc M. They both see my passion in student affairs and they helped me out. Megan believes that I will make a great student affairs professional someday because she saw my passion during my work in Higgins Hall Government, both as a floor representative and secretary. Marc also saw my passion and he believes that I will never lose my dedication to service. They were just two people that helped me along my journey, but there are countless of others that also helped.
My college activities and the people that I worked with through them are not the only influences that I have that lead me into the student affairs field. There is another organization that also influenced me greatly, and that is Sigma Chi Fraternity at Western Illinois University. I got a chance to work with many of them through SDA and they allowed me the chance to present my autism presentation at their house as an educational. I believe that they not only influenced me greatly, but I also greatly influenced them. Just before my graduation, I passed a memory book for people to sign, in which many of the Sig Chis signed to congratulate me on my graduation, wishing me luck in the future, and also thanked me for supporting them. The entry that I received from one of their members, David A., said, “Thanks so much for everything that you’ve done for our house. No one has given so much support to Sigma Chi like you have.” To me, Sigma Chi is not just any organization on campus, they are my friends.
When I looked at this program, I saw that it have different areas of specialization in Adult and Higher Education, especially the Student Affairs option, the area that I want to pursue. I also saw that there is a class that deals with community college student affairs, in which I believe it will be beneficial to me because I graduated from a community college and I could use my community college experiences in both the class and the program. I also saw that it is possible to also earn a certificate of study along with the degree and with my time working in the Women’s Center, I also want to earn a certificate in women’s studies along with the degree. I believe that with my experiences, that I will make a great candidate for the program because I have experience in different student affairs areas, not just one.