My Admissions Statement

Since I'll be chronicling my adventures of online college, I thought I'd start out by sharing my admissions statement. Unfortunately, I was the process of submitting all my information to the college when I heard about the Sandy Hook school shootings. I found it difficult to get the news out of my mind, and it reflected in my writing.

December 14, 2012

As I sit here and try to write my personal statement for graduate school, my thoughts are in Connecticut with the children and faculty of Sandy Hook Elementary School. What has happened in the past twenty years that has led to such a violent society? More importantly, how do we change it?

Today, more than ever, I am reminded exactly why I write. I write to ask individuals to look for solutions other than the most obvious. I write to start a debate about the pros and cons of any situation. I write to open communication between adversaries. And sometimes, I write to express my heartache when violence pervades our lives.

To me, communication is vital, whether it be written, oral, or visual. When society fails to communicate, assumptions are made, decisions are ill-informed and solutions are difficult to find. I’m reminded of a game played in childhood, when one person whispers a sentence to another, who whispers it to his neighbor, and so on, until the last child in the class states the sentence out loud. By the end, the original sentence is so twisted and tattered that it wouldn’t recognize itself if standing in front of a mirror. As children, the game is good for a laugh or two; as adults, the consequences can be much grimmer.

My goal in pursuing a Master of Arts in Professional Writing is to reach people through my writing and hopefully make a difference. One of the causes I am most passionate about is the stigma surrounding mental illness. I have witnessed so much needless suffering due to our society’s view of what it means to be mentally ill. I want to take what I learn at New England College and apply it to writing for businesses and organizations that seek to educate our society on the facts. It is my goal to help others live fuller, more peaceful lives.

My background in writing started out fairly similar to every other American child. Beginning in elementary school, we learned about nouns and verbs and how to form agreeable sentences. In junior high, we groaned about diagramming sentences and conjugating irregular verbs. Somewhere in high school, though, I learned that writing had power. A well-written article on a hot topic published in the school newspaper could set the entire student body abuzz and cause the administration to shift anxiously in their seats. A good essay on an exam could mean the difference between an "A" and a "C". A thoughtful prose about the importance of a college education for a kid raised in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains could get you a scholarship to a four-year university.

Professionally, my experience in writing has been more on the editing side. After college, I took a position as a proofreader and graphic artist at my hometown newspaper. Since then, I have waivered back and forth between theatre management (not for the faint of heart) and the publishing field. Working in the theatres afforded me the ability to take college classes during the day while working evenings and weekends; yet the publishing industry is where I feel I thrive most. Today I work for a technical communications company, and while my title is Production Artist, I do much more than paginating documents and placing art. I check manuals for style consistency, grammar, and clarity. I also proofread manuals and create final files for the clients. At the end of the day, though, a part of me just aches to write.