From the beginning, I have always wanted to help people feel better – in my interactions with my friends and family, as well as out in the world with my fellow man. Since I was young, it was my sincere goal to do whatever I could to improve the lives of the people around me, and help them towards a positive outcome to whatever situation they may be in. When it came time for me to pick an undergraduate program, I opted to work towards a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Analysis from the University of South Florida, due to a fascination that I have always had with interpersonal communication and how that can affect our well being.
While there, I was particularly inspired by a Human Relations Skills Counseling course taught by Dr. Katherine Fuerth, currently an assistant professor at Barry, who taught me the importance of open communication among individuals. It was my opinion that this was the best way to help people, and everything I have done until now has been geared toward that goal of improving people’s lives via communication. At this level, I feel that my next step is to get a Master’s degree in Counseling, as that will allow me to further pursue my goals.
Once I receive a Masters and get licensed as a Mental Health Counselor, I would like to work in the Marital/Couple/Family specialty. I have always carried a genuine interest in couples and family therapy, because I believe the key to a lasting relationship is effective communication and understanding the way we behave. Despite the problems that can arise during a marriage, there are steps and appropriate measures to take in making the relationship work by re-establishing a satisfying bond through evaluation, assessment, and intervention.
Following some work in that field, my next step is to become certified by the International Childbirth Education Association as a childbirth educator, moving on to gain my PhD in counseling education, using that to start a care program that would specialize in providing couples therapy in addition to prenatal education and planning. This practice would provide a comprehensive and beneficial outlet for family planning and counseling in the face of the addition of a child to a single parent or family’s lives.
In my undergraduate work and beyond, my volunteer interests have always been geared toward helping people in some fashion. I was a member of Phi Theta Kappa Upsilon Eta Chapter at Florida State College in Jacksonville, where I participated in a number of group activities whose main objective was helping others through cooperation and teamwork. One event that inspired me in pursuing counseling, for example, was volunteering at local hospitals such as Shands Jacksonville, where I assisted the staff by providing service and general assistance to patients and visitors in all areas of the department, including offering care, emotional support and courtesy services to patients and their families.
Once I knew I wanted to play a greater part in the lives of others and partake in this ambitious plan to further my education in the science of helping people, I began to search for a school that could provide me the education, real world training, and smaller class size that would allow me to learn on a more personal basis from my instructors. Luckily, I came across Barry University, which, I found, provided me all of those things, as well as the specific concentrations in marital, couple, and family counseling that I was searching for. Not only can I learn the academics of my field, I can put it into practice with the onsite clinic that is provided at Barry.
If I were to be accepted into the MS program at Barry, I would place all of my energies, as I have up to this point, into striving for excellence and utilizing the varied and quality resources of the university to their greatest potential in order to further my learning. It is my sincere belief that, with the help of Barry University, I can be provided with the tools I need to help people in the best way that I possibly can.
