Psychology Personal Statement

Psychology or law: this sums up my personal conflict in choosing a career. From a young age, I aspired to be the first person in my family to receive a bachelor degree and subsequently enroll in law school. After completing my first psychology course during my senior year of high school, the conflict between becoming a psychologist or a lawyer began. This tension continued throughout my undergraduate studies in which I double majored in psychology and pre-law. In fact, I ended up taking both the LSAT and GRE. Ultimately, my interest in working with children won out. I decided that a profession that allowed me to work with children and adolescents was my ultimate goal and I applied to and was accepted to the School Psychology program at the University of Northern Colorado.

Throughout my graduate training, I have sought out opportunities to work with these populations. This interest has led to my experiences in Title 1 schools where the majority of students are from low income and/or non-native English backgrounds. My clinical experiences have exposed me to cognitive and social-emotional assessments, cognitive behavior therapy, behavior therapy (e.g. classical and operant conditioning), working within a response to intervention framework, and consultation with teachers and administrators. I have worked as a member of multidisciplinary teams with speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, teachers, and administrators. Through these experiences, I have found that my strength is working with youth whom others find “difficult.” For example, I immediately bonded with a youth in foster care with disruptive behavior. I found myself looking forward to our weekly counseling sessions, an experience that peaked my interest in working with youth in the court