Describe how your personal background and experiences influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Additionally, it should provide insight into your potential to contribute to a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn and work productively and positively together.
Your Personal Statement provides you with an opportunity to share experiences that provide insights on how your personal, academic, and/or professional experiences demonstrate your ability to be both persistent and resilient, especially when navigating challenging circumstances. It also gives you an opportunity to provide examples of how you engage with others and have facilitated and/or participated in productive collaborative endeavors. Additionally, it provides you with an opportunity to provide context around any perceived gaps or weaknesses in your academic record.
Content in the Personal Statement should complement rather than duplicate the content contained within the Research Statement of Purpose, which should focus explicitly on your academic interests, previous research experience, and intended area of research during your graduate studies.
Writing Prompt
Please describe (within 500 words) how your personal background and experiences influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Additionally, provide insight on your potential to contribute to a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn and work productively and positively together. Within your statement, you may also include relevant information on any of the following:
How your personal, academic, and/or professional experiences demonstrate your ability to be both persistent and resilient especially when navigating challenging circumstances.
How you engage with others and have facilitated and/or participated in productive teams.
How you have experienced or come to understand the barriers faced by others whose experiences and backgrounds may differ from your own.
If relevant, how your research interests focus on issues related to diversity, inclusion, access, inequality, and/or equity.
Your service and/or leadership in efforts to advance diversity, inclusion, access, and equity especially by those from backgrounds historically underrepresented and/or marginalized.
Additional context around any perceived gaps or weaknesses in your academic record.
