Essay

personal Statement

I would like to begin my statement with a note of thanks to the Correctional Professionals Assistance Fund of Indiana for inviting me to share my story and aspirations. I highly appreciate this opportunity and will try to do it justice.

My roots

I was born in a small town of Ganta, Nimba County in Liberia, which is a republic on the West African coast. I was born in 1987, during the civilian National Democratic Party’s regime, but I was hardly two when the First Liberian Civil War started in 1989.

Born to uneducated parents with very limited resources, I had five (5) siblings. The financial situation of the family was such that we would frequently have nothing to eat at meal times, thanks particularly to the war that completely ruined the economy and left few opportunities for the people.

Growing up in a war-ridden country

All through my first 17 years, I never saw a day of peace. In fact, I never really understood what a safe, peaceful life felt like until I was able to move to the United States in 2009.

The two Civil Wars ravaged my land and took the lives of around a quarter of a million of my countrymen, including my father.

While I was child, like all other children around me, I witnessed – and endured – atrocities that cannot be described in words. It was a childhood without toys, games or leisure. It was a childhood focused on survival – and there were countless enemies of innocence lurking around. Many of the children I knew were taken by either side of the conflict to become child soldiers and committed many of those atrocities.

My father was killed when I was 15, and things started to get even worse for us. While the Civil War ended about a year after my father’s demise, things at home had gone out of control, and we saw no relief in sight. To help my widow mother with the family, I started working very early and mostly did odd jobs to support the family. During this period, we would sometimes get so desperate that I had to borrow money from friends and relatives just to put food on the table.

my love for education & Migration to the US

As a child, I loved the idea of going to school and learning about the world, though I could only attend class in fits and starts because there are no public schools in Liberia and my family could not fund my education. It wasn’t until I started working with the aim to support my family and education that I was able to attend school with some semblance of continuity.

In the early years, when life was all about surviving in the war, I had an epiphany: that I must never give up on my dream for higher education. Whatever little exposure I had to the possibility of a life without war had cemented my resolve for education. I saw this as the only escape from the hell the people in my country were forced to live in by the powers that were.

If granted this scholarship, I will continue to work in the prison system as an addiction counselor.

I dreamed of a day when I would complete my education and help the future generations of my people in whatever way I could.

Pursuing this dream, I graduated from high school at the age of 22, after which I found the opportunity to migrate to the United States.

further education & employment

When I arrived in the United States, my resolve to help the disenfranchised and the underserved became my calling in life. I studied for a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and graduated from Strayer University in summer 2017.

During these first few years of freedom and peace, I was able to focus on what I wanted to do with my life. With my extraordinary problem solving, analytical, and communication skills, I was advised to pursue psychology.

Choosing psychology proved to be a good decision. As I studied for Master of Arts degree in International Psychology, I realized this could be the road that would lead to my old dream of assisting people. Thus, I chose Trauma and Group Conflict Management as my majors for the degree and graduated December of 2019.

Over these years, as you would expect, I continued to focus on my education, but I took that outside of the classroom as well. Apart from the university, I received training and certifications in various relevant areas for professional grooming, as you will see in my enclosed resume.

I also stayed employed as I studied during this period. I worked in several roles most of which were related to mental health and public safety. These jobs gave me immense opportunities to learn about how a disciplined counseling and guidance system works for the people of a nation. I accumulated priceless counseling and advocacy knowledge and experience working with troubled children and youth, and their families, and offenders respectively.

my aspiration for the doctoral program at fielding graduate school

My university education and work experience in the correctional industry and advocacy gave me the confidence I needed to pursue my dream of becoming a correctional counselor who could do something significantly positive for incarcerated suffering from addiction problem.

a peek beyond the horizon

I would like to conclude my statement with two confessions. Firstly, I feel incredibly fortunate to have lived in the United States over the past 11 years. The education, training, opportunities for work and growth, and the experience of working with these amazing children and the correctional system has revived my hope for a better future.

Secondly, I would like to say that this application is the only step left for me to reach my destiny as an addiction counselor and live my dreams. If I am given the opportunity to participate in this program, I will work with all my heart to be a source of pride for this magnificent assistantship program.

Thank you,

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