As a single mother who has confronted homelessness and poverty, I am committed to reforming public education. I have a particular interest in improving the accessibility of schooling to homeless individuals, single mothers, and disadvantaged women of color. As a result of my own experiences, I am familiar with the despair and frustration endemic to individuals struggling to survive. I am convinced that increasing individuals' access to education can make the difference between despondency and hope. I am applying for my doctorate in educational leadership so that I can pursue my life-mission: to make education accessible to all.

I began preparing for this mission by volunteering as an intake coordinator at the Christian Assistance Ministry (CAM). Although I had many responsibilities, the role that consumed most of my time and energy was interviewing clients and assessing their physical and emotional needs. One of my greatest contributions was streamlining and updating the paperwork associated with CAM's intake process. I also generated an updated resource list that included many service agencies in the Houston area. By personally contacting each agency to acquire contact information and to learn about its services, I facilitated greater communication between service organizations and ensured that my clients had access to necessary aid.

In my present position as Research Analyst at SeaNet, my primary role is ascertaining the needs of client networks. As an umbrella group, SeaNet has only limited contact with small business development centers, and my job is to ensure that our organization meets these centers' needs. When I took the initiative to send out surveys asking agencies to rate our group's effectiveness, I received an overwhelming response. The information I compiled was so revealing that it was published in the quarterly report that is sent to our funding agency in Washington, D.C. In addition, I have been involved in a number of special, innovative projects. Recently, I analyzed the availability of renewable energy resources in Southern Texas in tandem with The Economic Development Center, Solar Energy, Brooks Air Force Base, and research universities in Texas.

As part of my master's thesis, I collaborated with Upward Bound, Peace Center, and the Davis Education Foundation to underline the importance of community cooperation in public schools. I also provided informational brochures and handouts detailing other such organizations that could assist with the individualized needs of schools. I was gratified when my efforts resulted in teachers and administrators contacting several of the organizations I had mentioned so that the organizations could start outreach in their educational districts.

Although I have not yet been employed in the educational sector, my master's work, as well as my life experiences, has given me a nuanced and sophisticated knowledge of the educational field. I have acted as a mentor at Davis Middle School for many years and have tutored a number of home-schooled children. When my own children attended school, I was involved in their schools' organizations and often took on a leadership role on educational committees. I served on many boards and was active in assisting both instructors and administrators. Fifteen years of experience has familiarized me with the diverse needs of Houston's students, and it has prepared me to act on their behalf.

My short-term goals include advancing my knowledge of quantitative research using programs such as SPSS and Microcas, and acquiring a sophisticated understanding of how to become a leader in the educational field. I wish to use these skills to promote empirical studies in education that can help direct educational reform.

I am attracted to the doctoral program at Texas A&M for precisely this reason. Only Texas A&M offers the kind of collaborative experience that suits my personal needs and professional goals. Over the past four years, I have seen the department blossom into a challenging and innovative program. I am excited about the program's direction and its emphasis on practical application. I appreciate that every course offers the opportunity for independent research, and that the faculty is open to student suggestions for improvement. The flexibility and patience of the faculty and the talent of the students makes Texas A&M a singular choice for my doctoral degree.

My long-term goal is to use my past experience and Texas A&M training to help make education accessible to all, particularly the underprivileged. Whether I am working in the public or private sector, I look forward to addressing the nation's urgent need to educate its citizens efficiently and comprehensively.

評語：

這篇文章主要是想表達出申請者致力于普及教育，對教育改革能有所作為，在最后兩段寫出選擇學校的原因和未來發展目標。作者提供了很多有關個人經歷的素材，如：基督徒援助會咨詢、網絡公司客戶意向分析研究、研究社會組織和學校合作的畢業論文、給學生作輔導、參與教委會議等等工作。可以看出，申請者確實有過很豐富的經歷，對教育行業有過自己的探討，但是給讀者的感覺可能是：這些素材放在一起可能會有一點雜亂而找不到方向的感覺。但實際上，作者是想讓讀者感受到體會一種需求并想辦法滿足這種需求的過程。所以，較好的辦法是把這條特征放在文中總結起來，使讀者能夠更快地發現作者想要表現的觀點。

譯文：

作為一個單身母親，我曾經經歷過貧窮與無家可歸的境地，并決心要為學校教育的改革做點貢獻。對于提高孤兒、單身母親以及處于弱勢群體的黑人們的入學機會，我一直特別感興趣。由于我自己也有過和他們相近的經歷，我很清楚這些人一直在各種絕望與挫敗感中掙扎著。我堅信，提高他們的受教育程度能夠使他們走出絕望，看到希望。所以我申請教育管理學的博士學位課程，希望將來能夠實現我一生的愿望：讓所有人都能接受教育。

為了這個理想，我曾自愿在基督徒互援會的接待員。我做過各種工作，但是占據大部分時間和精力的是和客戶面談，了解他們的物質和精神的需求。我覺得自己比較突出的一項貢獻就是很好地組織并改善了基督徒互援會接待工作中的文書工作流程。我還整理出了一份包括休斯敦地區所有服務類資源的最新的列表。通過親自和這些服務機構的溝通，獲得他們的聯系信息與服務內容，我建立了一個更強大的通訊網絡，使我們的客戶能更方便、快捷地獲得各類援助。

我現在是Seanet網絡公司的研究分析師，主要工作是了解客戶對網絡的需求。由于Seanet網絡服務組對外比較封閉，他只與少數的幾個商業發展中心有聯系。而我的工作就是要確認我們的服務能夠使這些商業中心滿意。我主動給商戶們發調查問卷，希望他們評價一下我們網絡的效率，他們很積極地回復了我。我收集到的這些信息對公司的發展很有啟發性，這些內容被登在了公司的季刊上并郵寄到了我們在華盛頓的基金機構。除此以外，我還參與了許多特殊項目的開發。最近，在德州經濟發展中心研究太陽能分部、布魯克斯空軍基地和一些大學研究中心的共同努力下，我對南德州可重復利用的能源資源的可行性作了分析。

我的碩士論文是與教育部“攀登”基金項目、和平中心、戴維斯教育基金會合作完成的，論文主要是想強調社會團體與公立學校合作的重要性。我還提供了一些這類幫助人們接受教育的社會組織的宣傳冊和新聞報導。有些學校的老師們和管理者們聯系了一些我提到過的社會組織，這些社會組織因此在教育領域有了更多的發展，這也令我很有成就感。

雖然我沒有在教育行業工作過，但是我的碩士論文以及我的這些經歷使我對教育領域有了很深入的了解。我在戴維斯中學當過好幾年指導老師，還給一些學生做過家庭輔導。當我的孩子開始上學時，我在他的學校教導處擔任職位，并經常在教委擔任領導職務。我參與了許多會議并積極地協助教學和管理。在這一行15年的閱歷使我對休斯敦學生各種各樣的需求都十分了解，這也幫助我去更好地為他們服務。

我的短期目標是增強我使用SPSS和Microcas軟件進行數量分析的水平，以便于更了解如何在教育領域成為一個好的領導者。我希望能夠利用這些技術改善一些尚處于試驗階段的教學方式并對整個教育改革有一定的幫助。

我對Texas A&M大學的博士課程比較感興趣的原因就在于，只有這所大學提供了許多合作項目的機會，非常符合我個人的偏好和專業目標。在過去的4年中，我看到這個系別發展了很多很有挑戰型和創新的項目。我對這些研究項目和它們的應用非常感興趣，我特別喜歡它為每一個課程設置獨立的研究項目，而且學生可以經常接受教授的親自輔導。正是因為學生能夠很方便地得到教授的耐心輔導，而且在這里學習能接觸到許多非常有天賦的學生，所以我選擇到Texas A&M大學繼續我的博士課程。

我的長期目標是根據我過去的經驗以及在Texas A&M大學接受的教育，能夠幫助更多人獲得受教育的機會，尤其是那些生活水平處于社會下層的人們。無論是公立的還是私立的機構，我都希望能夠幫助我的祖國解決這些問題，提高教學的效率，擴大受教育人群的隊伍。