Professional and Personal Growth

1. What personal qualities and life, work and school experiences do you bring to a graduate program that I will benefit and add value?

This program seems to serve the interests of the experienced professionals who are willing to get more insights and in-depth perspective. I consider myself to be a suitable candidate for this program, as I indeed possess a quite rich experience in everything related to the services in the US Army. For years after finishing my studies at the university I have been employed at the US Army specializing in the military service and anti-terroristic operations. I have also participated in peaceful missions in Qatar and other countries. All of these have taught me the following things that I would love to develop and share within the classroom settings. 

During my career as antiterrorist officer and military officer I have learned the features of psychology of many people as frequently my life depended on the ability to identify the worse things in the character of others. On the other hand, I have upgraded my communication skills since I have had to find common ground with many people with totally different cultural or social background. This ability has been especially tremendous in working with the subordinates and motivating them to put their lives at peril in the name of the state and for the greater purpose. Thus, I commit myself to be as open-minded and tolerating at this course as possible with people with different past or present features. 

Another important skill that I have gained during these years is active listening. As I have mentioned, I have come through several extremely difficult and dangerous moments in my life while being assigned to various peaceful missions. And in such hazardous situations it is extremely important to consider the offers of even the most ordinary people, as they might be crucial for the tactics or for the capture of the terrorists. As a result, while communicating with the people I try to be extremely included into the conversation and show the things of it to others. Reflecting on that, I should have to say that I also commit to switch on my active listening skills during the workshops and trainings and contribute to the learning process while applying my techniques. 

Apart from the everything mentioned above, I have also an in-depth experience and personal view of the issues related to the everyday routine of the military service including the planning, vulnerability assessment activities, mission completing and drafting; threats analysis and managing of the response activities etc. All of this, I am assured is precious for the younger participants of the program and all of this could be easily shared with them in the course of the work in the teams or on the team projects. 

The experience in team building will also help me to create the comfort atmosphere within the classroom so that everyone will enjoy the process of learning and interactions. The relaxed team environment, in its turn, contributes to the greater achievement in the academic field. This ability to build the teams with the use of humor I have trained while being on the mission in Qatar. We experienced many tense situations and it was important to calm down the emotions of the team members some of which where indeed frustrated with everything that happened. I do not use humor on constant basis, but diffuse the atmosphere in case of the tense moments that usually occur during the late-night study sessions. 

2. How will the graduate program help my professional growth?

The graduate program I am applying for is beneficial for both my professional and personal growth. Taking a glance at my resume, one can notice that I am quite experienced as I have been involved in many operations on different continents. I have multicultural intelligence and I know how to deal with the strangers or how to motivate people to perform their work even better. Yet, the knowledge I possess is not categorized or systemized. Instead, it is very much chaotic and, thus, the decisions I make are frequently based on the intuition or reflex than on the knowledge. 

As a result, I make the decisions that could not be referred to as informed ones. I am assured that this graduate program will provide me with the opportunity to get the more insight view on the different aspects regarding my field of work and that I would have the possibility to discuss the most urgent issues with the professionals and experts. 

On the other hand, this course is the perfect chance for making contacts. No wonder, networking is nowadays ranked among the most important things in career growth. Additionally, on such courses it is easy to make friends or to meet the people one wants to become in the future. In other words, here I can see the positive examples of the successful people and learn from them a lot in terms of personal or professional development. Networking could also be used for the future projects or cooperation. 

Finally, despite the networking practices and knowledge that is to be gained, I perceive these studies as another challenge that would help me to grow professionally and personally. I would have to manage my time after greater pressures and try to follow the order of things that I have already established. Secondly, I would have to communicate with many people and try to avoid conflicts. Third, the expertise that I will receive in the classroom should be then transformed into the realities of my workplace.