PERSONAL STATEMENT:
I have always been interested in the psychosocial, social structural and demographic influences on the life course since my undergraduate study at Western Michigan University. I received advanced education at a young age from my mother who held a master’s degree in early childhood development from Michigan State University. I excelled at academics between pre-school and eleventh grade when my mother died from cancer. I did not notice the fact that her nurture was the direct cause of my effortless distinction through early childhood academics until midway through my undergraduate work. After encountering minor scholastic struggles through undergrad, I witnessed first hand how a support network can influence even the grade point average of a single student in an undeniable manner. This point was driven home when my academic performance rose exponentially while obtaining my master’s degree in public administration from Central Michigan University.
WHY SOCIOLOGY?
An advanced degree in Sociology from Michigan State University will allow me to perform better at the work I currently do at hospice. It will also enhance my performance as the volunteer Executive Director of the OMIA Foundation and public benefits application assistant with Michigan’s Coordinated Access to Food for the Elderly (MiCAFE).
Volunteering for MiCAFE, I have contributed great effort toward determining how to maintain the health and effective functioning of people in middle and later life, which is the central issue of sociology of aging. I have examined how (mental) health and aging have become increasingly intertwined as I determined that the major cause of failing to apply for food stamps by the elderly was not because of a full stomach. The biggest hurdle to overcome to influence a senior citizen to apply for welfare is between the ears.
MY FIELD OF INTEREST: RESEARCH EXPERIENCE & CREATIVE OUTPUT
I established the OMIA Foundation during my graduate work at Central Michigan University so that I could apply my new knowledge of non-profit management as practicum while simultaneously expounding my interest in alternative early childhood education. As a result of the Foundation’s chosen age group, my research during the incorporation involved analyzing K-12 schooling, tracking, and teenage intelligence. I focused on diversity in the classroom and synthesized my research with the groundwork that formed the function of the Foundation.
MiCAFE allows me to work intimately with the elderly whereas my volunteerism with the OMIA Foundation is directly with K-12 children. At McLaren Visiting Nurse and Hospice, our volunteers consist of those whose ages range between sixteen and eighty five years. Because of the uniqueness of Hospice Volunteerism, I am able to witness interpersonal and spiritual connections among bereaved older adults. Religion and emotional compensation, either as a result of widowhood or other factor, is also prevalent at hospice. This occurs amongst volunteers, between employees of the company, and sometimes involves hospice patients and their families.
Hospice is diverse. Our patients’ ages have included those measured in months and those greater than one century. I have always optimized diversity when I have encountered it. My research in graduate school included an examination of the benefits of diversity in K-12 classrooms. A simple paper titled “Music in Classrooms Increases Diversity” put an original slant on a run of the mill assignment. I proved how music, when used as a mechanism, can diversify scholastic subjects, classroom ethnicities, and curriculum bases.
In my research involving K-12 education, music was a tool to create diversity. Throughout my graduate work, I have implemented devices that enable growth and development of knowledge. My extracurricular project, The OMIA Foundation, was formed by the research contained in my paper titled “How Leadership Applied to the Formation, Planning, and Initial Operative Stages of the OMIA Foundation.” I understand the importance of establishing solid theories behind creative endeavors.
I also recognize the value of applicability. As an employee of Michigan’s Coordinated Access to Food for the Elderly, I realized early on that I could enhance my productivity by applying my graduate work directly to the program. When I wrote “Some Eligible People Actually Are Too Proud To Beg: Recommendations For Increasing Food Stamp Participation of Eligible Households” I had appositeness at the forefront of my preparation and development. I made certain that my research was both significant and pertinent to my graduate program and vocational contribution. I will do the same while at Michigan State University’s Sociology Department.
UNIQUE WORK & VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCES
The blend of sociology through generations is what interests me the most, which is why I am devoted to focusing on the life course. I see the most intermingling during my time within State government, particularly the State of Michigan House of Representatives. I carry my view of Michigan’s rapidly aging population, which is garnered through public benefits application interviews, to the Legislature where I witness first hand accounts of social policy creation including income support strategies that influence elderly health.
With the Department of Human Services, the unification occurs when food stamp policies are guided by the principles of healthy eating. MiCAFE is focused on elderly food stamp enrollment but food stamps are, of course, intergenerational which is why the program was headed toward that center of attention as I left employment there and shifted to solely volunteering.
CONCLUSION
I look forward to studying questions such as whether or not the Supplemental Security Income Program reduces disability in the elderly, which is similar to examining the physical, health, mental, and social benefits to receiving food stamp allotments. Residential environments and obesity also intrigue me. I was unable to delve into that during my graduate work at Central Michigan University. I look forward to completing the study of theories and witnessing how observational studies inform policy interventions. I have seen it first hand in the House of Representatives. Now, I would like to examine those interventions from outside the political arena, within the scholastic realm.
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