Psychology Personal Statement

a) I plan to complete my bachelor's, master’s, and Phd in psychology at McMaster University with the aspiration of becoming a clinical psychologist and helping those with mental illness. Receipt of this award would greatly aid in me in achieving this goal because I come from a single parent household and my mother hurt her back which had caused her to be unemployed shortly after my birth. Due to this unforeseen circumstance, my mother makes and income of less than $20,000 and therefore cannot afford to fully pay for my university tuition. I have been working since grade 10 at the Hamilton Public Library to help alleviate my mother of financial burden by paying for things myself (i.e school fees, trips, clothes, food) but balancing work alongside school and extracurriculars is very difficult so I can only work at

b) A great deal of my community service has been focussed around helping others and in correspondence with this I hope to become a psychologist to help those who are struggling with mental illness. I started my volunteering in the summer of grade 6 at the Hamilton Public Library as a “reading buddy”. In this position, I helped kids improve their reading ability. We read gradually more difficult books until the end of the summer where they could then read with more confidence and at a more complex level. This experience at a young age gave me so much happiness to know I had helped in building their confidence and pride. Later, I volunteered in grade 7 and 8 as a Jr. Coach with an organization called Running and Reading . I coached younger students to run a 5km marathon whilst at the same time developing their reading skills by reading books with them at the end of every run. Going into grade 9 I volunteered with my elementary school as a daycare staff member which has given me patience and resilience in dealing with