Statement of Purpose

Andrea
Application to Graduate School
10 January 2007

I was born the first of fifteen cousins. At family gatherings, we love to go out to my grandpa’s farm and careen around the fields in his golf cart. A few years ago, I was sitting on the side of the pasture waiting my turn to drive when I heard my name being called. I looked up, and saw eleven faces looking at me pleadingly from a distance, and the golf cart mired in mud. Ten minutes and one freed golf cart later, as I sat in the driver’s seat going full speed and dodging cow pies and potholes I realized that my cousins really looked up to me. They watched my actions as guidelines and resolved my opinions to be the law. I decided I had better set a good example.
I began to think about who I looked up to, and realized that when I needed advice or guidance, I sought the opinions of my parents, aunts and uncles. Through the years I have seen their successes and failures. It seems to me that when they are happiest, they are following their interests and personal goals rather than doing something for money or to gain prestige. I hope to live my own life in this way. Many of my relatives have done so through pursuing their disciplines through graduate school, several at the University of Iowa. I can see how their lives have been enriched by their education and how it has allowed them to more fully explore their curiosities.
Going to graduate school would also allow me to set a good example for my cousins in the way my parents, aunts and uncles led me. Although I entered Butler University undeclared, I soon realized journalism and mass communications to be fascinating and the major for me. Perhaps because of the discipline’s inherent need to (or to attempt to) understand human nature and to promote communication spoke to my role within my family.
The most interesting elements to me were international communication and the role of gender within journalism. This is what I would like to study in graduate school. As a young adult I had always taken the equality of her gender for granted. It was eye opening to learn about the discrepancies that still exist between the depiction and prevalence of males and females in journalism; especially considering the explosion of sophisticated technology and means of worldwide communications that has occurred even within my lifetime.
As a graduate, I wish to continue to develop my interests and work in international communications. Some day maybe I can help to bring others the gender equality and the technological opportunities that I have enjoyed throughout my lifetime. I understand that this may be a little bit more difficult than coaxing a golf cart out of the mud. However I believe that the attempt will bring about quite a bit more personal fulfillment and most likely set an even better example for my younger relatives.