: Professional Portfolio—Personal Statement/Cover Letter

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: Professional Portfolio—Personal Statement/Cover Letter

Assignment 2: Professional Portfolio—Personal Statement/Cover Letter

For this assignment, you will submit the second document to be included in your Professional Portfolio: Your personal statement or a cover letter. As you near completion of your undergraduate education, you have probably been reflecting on your personal and professional development and goals. Summarizing so much personal information on paper is not easy, but it’s important. Many employers complain that in interviews and job applications, students do not seem to know how to articulate the skills and strengths that they bring to the job.

In preparation for writing the personal statement/cover letter, review Dr. Margaret A. Lloyd’s Web site at: http://www.psywww.com/careers/index.htm.  Learn what you can do with your bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Determine if you will pursue graduate school or employment upon graduation. Note choices that seem to apply to you and why. If more than one, rank these choices. Describe any concerns you might have regarding your interests. What level of education will you need to pursue? Have you taken any previous courses or trained in this area? These links in particular should be helpful:

For this assignment, find a graduate program (if you are preparing your Professional Portfolio with the Graduate School focus) or a job opening that you would like to apply to (if you are preparing your Professional Portfolio with the Employment focus). Look up the details for the application requirements, and tailor your personal statement/cover letter to these specific graduate school/job requirements.

Personal Statement (for those with the Graduate School focus)

This essay may be the single most influential component of a graduate school application. The statement you write for this portfolio gives you a forum for presenting yourself to the admissions committee, scholarship committee, and others who want to know something about you. 

In preparation for writing the statement, read the document “Preparing Personal Statements” at: http://www.creighton.edu/soar/preparingapps/statements/. Here are a few of their suggestions:

  • find and use your voice
  • use concrete examples of what you’ve done
  • avoid generalizations, such as “I’m good with people”
  • proofread and edit (and ask others to proofread and make suggestions about) your statement to be sure it is free of grammatical and typographical errors, and informal language, “I’m okay with sciences but weak in math”

Cover Letter (for those with the Employment focus)

A cover letteris a way to introduce yourself to a potential employer. This letter should include details about yourself and why you feel you are qualified for the position. Summarize your undergraduate experiences, your strengths and weaknesses, the reasons you are applying and how they will help you meet your professional goals.

Write a cover letter to a prospective employer. The letter, which should accompany your resume, should summarize why you are interested in the job and what qualifications and skills make you an ideal candidate or match for the position. Limit your letter to one page.

Follow this link for advice on writing a cover letter:http://www.uwec.edu/ORSP/IRB/about/submit/Cover-Letter.htm.

Submit your Personal Statement or Cover Letter to the M2: Assignment 2 Dropbox by Wednesday, April 16, 2014/strong>.


Assignment 2 Grading Criteria and Respective Point Value

Maximum Points

Presented a personal statement reflecting personal development and goals. Included specific examples of experience and achievement.

OR

Cover letter was clear and concise, while discussing undergraduate experiences, strengths and weaknesses, and reasons for applying to the selected job.

40

Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources, displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

10

Total:

50



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Letter:

“I am, that I am, that I am.” I say that due to the fact that I have raised myself for over three quarters of my life. When we were young there were always fights between my parents as my mother is very controlling and my dad had his attentions elsewhere. Believing at three years old that I was the problem causing all the upset. There was the oldest a brother, a sister, then me and a younger sister. We were once very close as we knew we only had each other on whom to depend. Realizing that “I was a mistake” told to me by my mother. After the separation of my parents I realized mother did not even like children. With this knowledge I stayed close to my older sister as my brother joined the military to get out of the house. We took care of our youngest sibling as she stayed sick most of the time. She had her first kidney surgery when she was three years old with many more to follow. By the time I was eight the older siblings were gone and I was left to cook, clean, do laundry, and take care of my sister and mother. Waking up early fixing coffee along with a breakfast that mother could catch the bus for Votechnical College and then have supper ready that she could change clothes and catch the bus again to work at K-Mart. She would eat and drink her coffee, out the door she would run. This was a lot of responsibility for such a young child but I pulled it off with strides.

We knew what wax on, wax off was about before Karate Kid. Mother insisted that the floors be done with Johnson’s paste wax that was packaged in a can. I still have the scares from teaching myself how to iron. Mother also had extreme ethics and morals when it came to money. If you want something work and earn it, so we did. I would cut yards with the old blade lawn mower and trim them with hand clippers. Going door to door proved profitable by washing dishes, mopping floors or anything else I could do for a nickel or dime. Now at ten and eleven years of age, mother had graduated and landed a good job. We still live in the projects during this time in our lives and there was much to be done. At twelve my older sister moved back home.

I finally had some relief, so I thought but it got worse. They say trials make us stronger then I should be the world’s strongest woman. I went with my sister one night to her boyfriend’s house. There I encountered his brother and another young man. As we were leaving they called me back. They said they needed to ask me something but my sister went on. I was raped and walked home blocks with clothes ripped and totally in shock. I did not know what to do so I told my sister. She said to keep quite or she would be in trouble for not watching after me. To make this to point at thirteen now I was having a child and because I refused to go to New York to have an abortion I was put out of my mother’s house. They say when the going gets most fall flat on their face.

So I found a migrant workers house and rented it for $50.00 a month. I lied about my age to keep the welfare off my back and taking my daughter from me. That also meant no assistance from the welfare. I paid a baby sitter $35.00 a week. At this time I was making $0.75 an hour. I made it as I worked and took care of business and raise my daughter. Through determination, perseverance, at thirty I graduated with my GED. At fifty I went to college. Being of mild temper, with a strong constitution my goal is to be a social worker with a MSW to assist others as that is my passion. I know the school of hard knocks very well. This life has given me an enlarged heart and a compassion for people in need. My goal is to work where I have been for sixteen years and assist my patients in finding transportation, medications, assistance through the Red Cross, Kidney Foundation, Salvation Army and Veterans administration. I do this all to give God the Glory.