Writing a personal statement

Personal Statement                                                                                       January 30, 2007

 

Who is Rick Politician?  What makes him special?  I can think of three main things.  I hold strong ambitions, apply talents and appreciate other individuals.

My ambition pushes me to always look for ways to further improve myself and those around me.  I see a challenge and, if it appeals to any of my values, I take hold of that challenge and overcome it.  Currently, I work as director of marketing at Poulson Leadership Consultants(PLC).  I like that there is not ceiling on what I can do there.  My boss, Britt, supports me in taking on any projects that will add value to the company.  This allows to push the limits branching out into new areas to create success for the company.  The lack of a ceiling is also one thing I appreciate about the AKPsi.  Members have the freedom to improve the fraternity in a million ways. distinct to each individual.

As well as ambition, my talent sets me apart from others.  Whether I am finishing a project for at PLC, giving a speech or problem solving, my talent shows.  I recognize talent as the ability to excel at something.  I believe talent is results from work ethic, intelligence, creativity and a number of other things.  One area where I see my talent is in the ability to learn and adapt quickly.  For example, when I took the responsibility of pledge educator, I asked tons of questions to older members, members from other chapters and new members in order to design an upgraded pledge process.  I also gathered information from team-building websites and the current pledges through mid-pledge process performance appraisals.  On the other hand, there are numerous areas where I lack talent, but that's where I work the hardest, ask for help or delegate to a better person for the job..

Even more than my ambition and talent, I am most proud of my love of people.  The relationships I have with my friends and my family are my most important values.  I am sincerely interested in the well being and happiness of others.  This empathy combined with my enjoyment of interacting with people, were my main reasons for becoming pledge educator.  Being a pledge in the pledge process, was not enjoyable for me.  I did not why I had to go through the initiation procedures.  I felt like I was being abused and not sticking up for myself.  To make sure future pledges did not got through the same experience, I became a pledge educator.  I worked hard to make the pledges felt supported, respected and understood why AKPsi was putting them through the different parts of the initiation process.

The characteristics of ambition, talent and appreciation of other people distinguish me.  I have applied all of my characteristics to benefit AKPsi during the more than 100 hours I spent at AKPsi events and developing the pledge process over the past year.