In this blog post, we will look at how you can write a compelling personal statement for public administration based on your essay writing and volunteer experience.
Write about your academic experience and what you learned
Essay writing education: the beginning is important.
I started studying essay writing when I was in my first year of high school. Usually, students think about preparing for the college entrance exam first, but I considered preparing for the rolling admissions process from the beginning. The reason was that when applying for rolling admissions, internal grades, school records, and essay writing carry more weight. Since I was stronger in internal grades and essay writing than in mock exam scores, I tried to prepare for essay writing early on. At that time, students with similar listening, writing, and reading abilities gathered together and started essay writing with their peers. Since we needed to acquire basic background knowledge for essay writing, we formed teams with students of similar levels. Through essay writing, we formed a sense of community among our peers, helped each other by sharing information on our assignments, and at the same time, we felt a sense of competition and a desire to do better.
My school offered a specialized program for essay writing. When four or more students formed a team, we could receive essay writing instruction from a teacher certified in reading instruction. We could also receive support for English essay writing and philosophy essay writing classes. Through this program, I was able to take English essay writing classes taught by native English speakers, which helped me expand my knowledge of English writing and grammar. In addition, if necessary, I was able to check my progress one-on-one through a college student essay mentoring system. So, while completing the one-semester curriculum, I was able to confirm with my college student mentor that I was receiving proper essay instruction and that the correction process was progressing step by step. By taking essay classes through team teaching with multiple teachers, my basic essay skills improved rapidly. As my writing and reading comprehension skills improved, not only did my essay writing skills improve, but my comprehension and reading comprehension in other subjects also improved, and my overall grades went up.
Major school activities and impressions
Participating in a reading and essay writing club.
In my second year of high school, I expanded the essay writing club I had started in my first year and joined a reading and essay writing club. In my first year, I mainly learned the basics of essay writing, such as introductory concepts, understanding essay writing terms related to philosophy, and reading and understanding essay passages from past exam questions. I learned new concepts and terms that I had never heard of before, and through repeated corrections, I was able to learn how to divide paragraphs and develop arguments and supporting evidence. In my second year, I applied what I had learned and began practicing extracting essay passages from books.
Some of my friends from my first year left the group because their abilities varied and they changed their goals for college. Instead, I formed a team with new friends I met in my second year, and we ran the group with a total of seven members. In my first year, there were only five members, but as the number of members increased to seven, we needed a leader. Since I had been participating in the group from the beginning, I naturally became the leader. To be honest, I wasn’t used to being a leader, so I didn’t really know what my role was, but I decided to take on the role of leader, thinking that I could replace the college student mentors who had been helping me.
First, I made a plan for the reading and essay writing group. Rather than making it on my own, I gathered everyone together to discuss and lay the foundation for the plan, and then decided on specific dates, meeting places, and rules, and wrote it all down in a report. I printed out a calendar and report with the meeting dates, what needed to be learned by then, and the amount of books to be read, and distributed these materials to the group members to encourage them to participate in the meetings. During the meetings, I checked and recorded the progress of our reading, noted which friends had given their presentations and how many times they had been corrected. Thanks to these efforts, my friends in the group followed my lead and praised me for my thorough records and attention to detail, trusting and relying on me.
Understanding their feelings, I felt even more responsible and worked hard to lead the group. I realized that leadership is not something you acquire, but something you develop when you feel a genuine sense of responsibility. So, I checked in with each member to see if they were having any difficulties in class and created a group chat on KakaoTalk to encourage active communication. As a result of these efforts, no one left the group during the year, and we were able to carry out our initial plan. In addition, more than half of the members of our group won awards in the provincial essay contest, and I also won an award in the contest, which made me feel very proud.
Examples of consideration, sharing, and cooperation, and my thoughts
Korean language volunteer work for international refugees
When I was in my third year of high school, I was busy preparing for the rolling admissions, but I took time out of my busy schedule to do volunteer work. At the time, I participated in Korean language education volunteer work for socially disadvantaged people living near my school. Led by the Korean language teachers at my school, we provided free Korean language education to married immigrants, international refugees, and foreign workers. I had been participating in essay writing classes and reading and essay writing clubs at my school for a long time, so I was able to use what I had learned to assist with the Korean language classes. Specifically, I typed and produced class materials, distributed them, managed the list of students, and provided guidance on the classroom.
During class, I also assisted with teaching. The classes I mainly participated in were for international refugees, and many of them had difficulty understanding even the basics of Hangul, so they asked me questions. The teacher in charge conducted the entire class, but the student volunteers, including myself, went around answering individual questions. The level of the students varied greatly, so our role was very important. Some people asked about the difference between consonants and vowels, while others asked about the differences in the nuances of sentences. In order to answer these questions sincerely, I studied Korean textbooks on my own so that I could respond to various questions.
I also studied the characteristics of international refugees. Since we met once a week, I thought I might make mistakes in dealing with them, so I looked for information to understand their situation and special circumstances. I grew up in a family receiving basic livelihood assistance, so I wanted to give back to society by helping the socially vulnerable. The process of growing into a member of society who can help others was very rewarding, and I felt a great sense of pride in helping someone else adapt to society.
Efforts and preparations related to motivation and career plans
Implementation of plans for rolling admission
I started preparing for rolling admission in my first year of high school. While I also had to prepare for regular admission, I decided to focus most of my efforts on rolling admission. The reason was that I was strong in my internal grades, school activities, and essay writing, and I was eligible for the equal opportunity admission system. My family is eligible for social welfare benefits under the National Basic Living Security Act, so I decided to apply for the university’s rolling admission system. In this system, document evaluation accounts for the largest portion of the evaluation, so I worked hard to incorporate my suitability for the major, personality, and process of overcoming adversity into my school records.
To demonstrate my suitability for my major, I managed my grades in major subjects and, in particular, my performance evaluation scores to show my diligence. In terms of character, I participated in Korean language education volunteer work at my school to demonstrate my spirit of service through social activities, and to show my ability to overcome adversity, I wrote about my activities as the representative of a club to develop my leadership skills. In order to develop leadership skills, I served as the leader of a reading and essay writing club for over two years, and I continued to participate in this club throughout my senior year of high school to prepare for interviews and oral presentations for early admission. Through this club, I learned the importance of community spirit and leadership, as well as the synergy that can be achieved through group work.
My career plan is to major in public administration at XX University and then continue my studies at graduate school. During my master’s program, I will gather information on international administration and apply for a doctoral program based on that information. I plan to major in international public administration. During my doctoral program, I will develop concrete plans to become a global human resource and work internationally, and to do so, I need to start researching the field early on. International administration is a growing field, and with the increase in international cooperation organizations, there are many new research topics. My ultimate goal is to work in this field and become an administrator at an international organization.
