My intended major is Society, Ethics and Human Behavior and my career goals after earning the degree is to become a social worker. I want to be that person to help.

          

I was in a domestic violence shelter when I was 16, with my mother and my two-year-old brother at the time; which then followed with being listed as a homeless youth when I have moved to Seattle at the age of 17, with no set address to list. I believe that it was one of my major moments of realizing where I stood in the society that I live in and that I was deviant from what people would expect from me as an Asian American.

           

While in the shelter, there was a psychologist who came in to talk to the children to help them cope with the situation. My first meeting with her was very aggressive, there were questions that brushed upon the fact that I was Korean and that ‘we are very monogamous’ and asked what my mother had done wrong. As the conversation went on, it directed to the conclusion of me being the conflict of interest between my mother and stepfather. I felt miserable. I wanted to learn how to be someone in her position and do the job in a way that I know would have helped me in my situation.

 

After getting a GED and working for three years in Seattle, I felt stable enough to go to college where I originally wanted to major in Psychology. The courses that I took were about specific parts of the brain and how the chemicals worked in a way to create reactions or impulses and such. I realized that this was something that I wasn’t passionate about. I felt puzzled, but I ended up taking a sociology class for credits that I needed and realized that it had lit a fire in my heart. The fluidity of the subject fascinated me and the lengths that were covered under the umbrella of Sociology was a moment of awakening for me. I was excited about every aspect of it.

 

After taking two courses of Sociology, I had gained understanding of what I have went through as a teenager and what effects it had on me after becoming an adult. I have decided that I wanted to earn my Academic Concentration Certification in Sociology. I have explored the childhood in America, Sex and Sexualities, and Gender in the Social World. It has opened my eyes for the constant change and also not enough change in society. I have developed constant urges to know more and to understand more. To know how I can be of help to make necessary changes.

 

I believe that UW Bothell will guide me to build the expertise on the subject with the variety of courses that are offered in the field of SEB. I am also excited about the class setting that is unique to UW Bothell, the intimate setting between the professors and students in a smaller class size. I thrive in having direct conversations with my classmates as well as professors and to share ideas that will help me grow as a student and as an individual.

 

I want to offer the best help and protection I can to others but, to be able to do that, I need to build credibility and deeper understanding of the society. I aim to be better at recognizing great resources and a way to also utilize my skills to their full extent to help people in the most efficient and positive way.