Rehabilitation Counseling Personal Statement

Personal Statement
I am writing to express my continued interest in earning a graduate degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. I applied for, and was accepted in the Masters of Rehabilitation Counseling program at Northern Illinois University for the fall of 2016. However, as a result of conflicts with work and class hours I was unable to start attending classes until the fall of 2017.
Before I earned my undergraduate degree from the College of Health and Human Sciences, I volunteered in the AmeriCorps program for two years. During that time, I helped a variety of people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds improve their self-sufficiency skills. Ever since I could remember, I have always wanted to help people learn, grow, and make improvements in their lives. That desire has ignited a purpose in me to earn the appropriate degree and certification. This will enable me to render professional help for those persons whom may be facing physical and/or intellectual impairments.

After graduating from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science in Education, Cum Laude. I obtained employment at Camelot Therapeutic School in DeKalb Illinois. I helped students with physical and intellectual impairments enrich their lives by gaining academic knowledge. For instance, I taught in the sensory program for students diagnosed with autism, raising their self-efficacy. Subsequently, I continued to deepen my knowledge and skills by securing work with a juvenile justice facility; teaching and counseling youth offenders with profound intellectual disabilities. I learned a great deal from those experiences due to the art of helping others learn. I realized the lasting positive changes that I could bring in people lives, along with those experiences, my desire for further academic study has