I am applying for admission to your MFA program in Studio Art because I wish to hone and develop my artistic vision and to forward a career teaching art. Growing up I always felt as if art were some strange sorcery that only certain people could wield, and as I came to have a greater understanding of art itself, I realized that art did have a certain power to it that cannot be replicated in any other medium. Art has the power to change the hearts and minds of people who view it. As a child of parents who were heavily involved within the justice system, I am very interested in standing up for people who have been oppressed, fixing the way that we treat people in this country, and ultimately repairing the schisms of hatred that come between people.