Reflective Evaluation of an Experience Completing a General Studies Degree - Personal Statement Example

Part A Being an international who has attended college in the United s for the past 4 years, I have to say that the experience was a truly enlightening one.Having arrived here as an ESL learner, I have to say that I have come a long way in my studies and my use of the English language as my primary form of communication with my friends, classmates, and professors. The extra English classes that I attended definitely helped me get over my learning hump as the tutors were quite patient with me as they helped me understand my lessons and work on my English comprehension skills. I am truly grateful to the university professors for their support as I completed the general education requirements of this course. Although the courses were all quite interesting and engaging, I knew exactly which courses were of particular importance to someone like me. Which is why I made sure to pay particular attention to these courses during the course of my education. Being fully aware of the fact that I am enrolled in a course that requires me to understand the evolution of our society in general, I found myself particularly interested in topics covering History, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, and Sociology. The reason that I decided to pay special attention to these courses is because I believe that these are the courses that lay out the foundation of an excellent Social Science worker. By understanding the historical context of the social evolution on these important fronts, I will be allowing myself to gain a better idea as to how our society and culture managed to get to its current point in terms of social evolution. Moving on through the semesters, I discovered the importance of classes in Communication, English, Humanities, Liberal Arts, and the like. This was the turning point in my educational career because everything that I had been studying in the past all seemed to fall into place and interconnect under the aforementioned classes. Communication and English in particular proved to be vital for me because it helped me understand the importance of being able to converse and ones thoughts to others using the gift of words. Without the gift of words, the study of Social Sciences would fail to exist as far as I am concerned. I will be the first to admit that i did not think that the general elective courses offered by the university for my major was of any importance. Mainly because when I hear the word “elective”, I take it to mean that it is a throw away course that I have to take but it has no relation whatsoever to my major. Little I know how wrong that opinion was as I was actually able to find elective courses that could be of relevance and use to my specified major. These three components are of the utmost importance to me because of its relevance to my personal and professional goals. As a future social science worker, I am required to have the ability to apply the concepts of interpersonal communications and group dynamics in a global historical context in order to provide every person with the relevant human services based on an understanding of social psychology. Without that kind of understanding, I will not be an effective social worker in the future. I am very lucky to have been given an opportunity to study all of the relevant courses over a 4 year period of time. Part B I came to the United States to study Social Sciences straight out of the Hong Kong Educational system which is a strange mix of British and Chinese educational standards owing to the British occupation of Hong Kong. Although our educational system has slowly been evolving and beginning to direct itself mostly towards a Chinese based curriculum, I went to a school that still combined the two educational platforms when it came to teaching the students. That is probably why I was strongly culture shocked when I started my Freshman year in the United States. There were too many stark differences between the two educational standards that left me confused at times. The American and Hong Kong educational system is truly as different as night and day. As a student in Hong Kong, I found myself attending classes for nine hours every day from Monday to Friday with a special class taught for four hours every Saturday. I followed a crazy academic schedule that required my attendance in school everyday. Any absence would simply make me fall too far behind in my class. Each academic day was filled with assignments, quizzes, and exams. There was simply no time to relax even on Sundays when I was supposed to be resting. No, those days were reserved to catch up on homework and school reading. It was truly a grueling schedule that took the life out of me. There was no time for friends or socializing. Only school and study. That all changed when I moved to the United States for the final leg of my academic career. It turns out, the college academic life in the United States is far more relaxed and enjoyable that what I was used to. College life in the United States is a far cry from the rigid academic life that I endured in Hong Kong. I had to get used to the idea that in the United States, students are not only encouraged to socialize, make friends, and become part of school related activities or organizations, the university or college actually supports, endorses, and sponsors such events. Events which help the student learn better during the academic week because they are given a chance to relax both physically and mentally. I never knew how much better I learned after a weekend of relaxation before I experienced the difference for myself. More importantly, I was prepared to simply follow the dictates of the university and enroll in pre-selected courses that were meant to enhance my academic achievements and prepare me for the workforce. There is not much freedom given to Hong Kong national students when it comes to their tertiary education so I was fully expecting the same treatment in the United States. So you can imagine my joy and excitement when I was informed that I could not only choose my course load in terms of units, but I could also choose what classes I wished to take during any given semester. This was a type of academic freedom that I had never experienced before. By allowing myself the freedom to learn at my own pace I actually ended up learning more than I thought I would while in college. This freedom to choose my classes is something that I consider to be a part of my evolution as a person. Which, I might add, directly relates to my Social Sciences major. I was able to make a direct comparison of two cultures based simply upon the way they treat their students and conduct their academic system. That to me is a first hand observation of the importance and difference of cultural styles and how it affects the people involved. Read More