Personal Statement

Zeidy Jaen

Plant-Purdue

Block 1

05 September 2013

Personal Statement

With disheveled hair and in pajamas, Ella lunges toward her brother, her foster brother.  Ella (a nine-year old) and her brother, Mark (an eleven-year old), are both children in the foster care system, yet you would not know this by just looking at them.  Like any other typical pair of siblings they fight over little things, from the fact that Mark went into her room and accidentally ruined her stereo to what they are going to eat for lunch.  Nonetheless, despite the problems Ella and Mark may have, at the end of the day, you always see them together, playing and laughing.  However, Ella and Mark are among the few lucky ones who are able to leave the system at such a young age.  While they have been given the opportunity to grow and flourish in a stable home, surrounded by two loving, attentive parents, there are many other children who do not have the same chance.  On September 30, 2011, there were an estimated 400,540 children in foster care, with only 25 percent being either adopted or in the process of adoption.  Nearly 40 percent of these children will wait over three years in the foster care system before being adopted by a family, and an even smaller 6 percent actually have established long-term foster parents.  

            Reading facts like the ones mentioned above have always left me broken-hearted, hence fueling my interest in the foster care system and my desire to be able to do more.  I would like to make a difference in someone’s life, to be someone’s hero.  For my future career, I aspire to become a social worker and be able to help the children and adolescents who are affected daily by the foster care system.  However, in order to do so, I must first attend college and receive the proper education and training.  I would like to attend Meredith College because I believe that there I can acquire my major in social work and receive the experiences needed to be successful.  Many social work majors have the opportunity to interact and help people in various different settings, such as at hospitals, child welfare agencies, and even through the criminal justice system.  I am positive that through Meredith College I will have the opportunity to go out into the community and practice the skills acquired in my classes.

           As John Holmes once said, “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”  I would like to devote my life to helping and guiding children and adolescents in need, those who have no one else.  I am positive that Meredith College is the perfect place to begin my journey of life; it is the first step in the process of obtaining my degree.