In this blog post, we’ll talk about how to effectively convey your empathy, responsibility, and field experience in your personal statement.

 

Growing up

I’ve always had a dog in the house since I was a kid, and I still remember the day I brought my first puppy home. I met the cutest little puppy at a friend’s house in the neighborhood, and all I could do was come home and talk about him. I also vaguely remember writing a long letter to Santa for Christmas, asking for a puppy to live with me. Santa didn’t grant my wish that winter, but my parents were able to adopt a puppy instead. Before we brought the puppy home, my parents asked me to make a few promises. They told me that a puppy is weaker than a person, so we should take good care of it, and that it has a shorter life span than a person, so we should take responsibility for it and take care of it until the moment when its fate is different. I actually remember crying my eyes out when I heard that. I thought I was going to have a cute little brother, and I couldn’t believe he was going to die before me. My parents told me that if I could accept and be responsible for both of those things, then I could bring the puppy and keep it. My brother and I thought about this all day, and then we realized that since there are still two of us, we can take turns taking care of the puppy, and that if he goes to heaven first, of course we will be sad, but if we love him a lot in the meantime, it will be okay. The puppy that came into our home and became part of the family grew up well with us and went to heaven, and now the puppy that he had from that child has grown up and is with us. Raising a puppy taught me how hard it is to be responsible for a life, but it also taught me the joy and love of the process. I think that’s probably what my parents wanted to teach us.

 

As a student

I think that if I can take care of someone, if I can help people in need, that’s the most rewarding thing I can do, and I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do to help the world. So naturally, I became interested in volunteering, and I was involved in my school’s service club, but I realized that the service clubs at my school had a lot of practical limitations in terms of reaching out to the community and the different groups of people in need. So I started to look for ways to do things that could be improved systematically or suggest ideas that could help the community rather than just helping out, and in this process, I expected that if there was something that actually needed our help or strength, we could make something better because we could implement it. So I applied to various competitions organized by welfare centers in each field, discussed various ideas with my friends, and thought a lot about what we could do.

 

Personality strengths and weaknesses

I am a very sensitive person. I easily shed tears at the slightest touch when watching a movie or drama, and if I hear a sad story on the news or radio, I’ll shed tears again. I am also a good listener and empathizer of other people’s stories and sometimes volunteer to play the role of a counselor. I could go on and on about the good things about people, but when it comes to dislikes or bad things, I don’t think they are subject to criticism because everyone has different tastes or inclinations. I would dare to say that this basic compassion and concern for people and knowing the power of a warm word are the basic qualities needed to fulfill the role of a social worker.
Because I am highly emotionally coded, I often have to remind myself that my emotions can get in the way of my work, so I always try to base my judgment on quantitative data and check my progress against a plan to make sure I don’t get off track.

 

Work experience (or something that shows your work ability)

I worked part-time for ○○, a global research organization, for ○ months. At first, I was in charge of various tasks to support the work of my seniors, from sorting questionnaires to organizing meetings. When I was assigned a task, I prepared for multiple cases, and the team leader, who noticed my ability to handle such tasks, entrusted me with some of the actual survey-related tasks after I became more familiar with the work. When I had to quit my part-time job to graduate and prepare for a job, they offered me a full-time internship. It was a good offer, but I was only grateful because I had a dream of becoming a social worker. Through my work here, I was reminded of how important accurate statistics and evidence are to my work, and I learned how to utilize them.
I applied for a policy assistant position at a welfare center near my home because I was curious about how welfare policy works in my community. The organization was in charge of youth welfare, so they were working with local middle and high schools to run some of their after-school classes. My main duties were to check the attendance of the students and to help them with any needs or inconveniences they might have in the class. I was like a teaching assistant for the school, and I think the fact that the students who participated in the program treated me like their own sister and brother and always came to me for consultation on small problems made me feel responsible and committed to the job. This made me think about the role of a welfare worker. I felt that a social worker needs to have a multi-player spirit, where emotionally, he or she needs to understand the other person’s position well and find out what is needed, and rationally, he or she needs to look at policies, practical support, and operations together.

 

Motivation and Aspirations

In order to have the qualities of a social worker that can be applied directly in practice, I obtained ○○○, ○○○, ○○○ qualifications as well as ○○○, ○○○ qualifications. I learned basic presentation programs as well as programs such as Photoshop in my spare time. Through my experience at the youth welfare center, I was able to get a realistic picture of the actual work of a social worker, and I received a lot of advice on the necessary qualities from the great seniors in the field. I believe that social welfare is a process of planning and executing tasks that move organizations to provide national and community support to those who need it. As society becomes more complex and aging, and as the gap between the rich and the poor grows, these systems will need to evolve, and I would like to expand my capabilities at ○○, which is at the center of this evolution and development.