In this blog post, I have revised the original personal statement submitted to the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Dankook University’s College of Social Sciences to improve readability. I have restructured the text to make it easier to read by correcting the context and spelling, and by organizing the answers naturally for each question.
Academic Efforts and Learning Experiences During High School
Starting to Study at Dawn. I’ve always been a heavy sleeper, so it was very difficult for me to concentrate in the evenings. By 8:00 p.m., I would be so sleepy that I couldn’t even participate in evening self-study sessions. After repeatedly feeling fatigued and fainting, I underwent a medical examination and discovered I had low blood pressure. When my teachers kindly exempted me from evening self-study, the biggest problem I faced was the reduction in my study time, so I decided that securing a study schedule comparable to that of my peers was my top priority. So, I decided to get up early in the morning to study. Taking advantage of the fact that my mind is clearest in the morning, I developed the habit of waking up early. At first, I often found myself just spacing out, which made my morning study sessions less efficient, so I started planning my morning assignments the night before and going to bed with them already mapped out. I set specific goals for what I would study each morning and how that study would impact my grades, created a checklist, and reviewed it daily. I prepared handouts on my desk and kept a notebook nearby to create an environment where I could start studying immediately upon waking up, and I marked days when I finished my studies on the calendar to boost my sense of accomplishment. Thanks to this routine, my concentration improved, leading to greater learning efficiency relative to the time spent, and the consistent marking served as motivation, allowing me to stick with it. As a result, my grades, which had dropped due to illness, recovered, and by finding the study schedule and planning method that suited me best, I was able to achieve good results.
Meaningful Extracurricular Activities (up to 3)
As student council president, I focused on mediating the relationship between the school and the students. In my freshman year, I served as class president, and after witnessing conflicts with the sophomore student council president, I realized that student opinions were not being properly reflected. I ran for student council president with the commitment to serve the students and the school responsibly, and I was elected with the support of those around me. The first pledge I made was to clean the trash area—a task everyone dreaded. Although no one wanted to do it, I arrived an hour early every morning to take charge of the cleaning and fulfilled my term without missing a single day. Through this process, I deeply realized the importance of responsibility. I also worked hard to improve communication between the school and the students. Although the school had welfare policies in place, they were not well known to students, resulting in low utilization rates; furthermore, complaints and distrust had been building up due to inadequate facility inspections. I created a Student Council Facebook page to regularly provide information on welfare policies, available facilities, and school rules, and I designed and posted seasonal posters. I collected students’ suggestions and relayed them to the school administration, and by persistently raising issues such as broken streetlights and safety concerns, we were able to address them one by one. As a result, communication gradually improved, and student satisfaction with the school began to rise. Although not all problems were completely resolved, a year of consistent effort yielded positive results.
Examples of Consideration, Sharing, Cooperation, and Conflict Management, and Lessons Learned
Organizing the “Ana-bada” Campaign. I was impressed by the phrase “Use sparingly, share, repurpose, and reuse,” which our social studies teacher introduced, so I proposed that we put it into practice together with the students. I believed that during high school, there were still plenty of school uniforms and supplies in good condition that we could share with one another. As students advanced to their senior year, many still had items left over from their sophomore year, and I judged that collecting these would allow the “Ana-bada” campaign to run smoothly. I explained the purpose of the initiative to the class presidents and began collecting items; without exception, my classmates brought in items that were in good condition. I voluntarily took on the task of moving the collected items to the basement and spent my breaks organizing them. The items piled up until the storage room was full, and when we opened a school flea market based on this collection, even students who initially preferred new items began participating after checking the condition of the used items.
As volunteer activities—led primarily by second-year students who cleaned and repaired the items—gained momentum, the quality of the items at the market improved, providing significant help to students who needed to purchase gym uniforms and school uniforms. Through this experience, I was deeply moved by the realization that even a small effort can create meaningful change when many people join in, and I developed a strong desire to actively participate in similar opportunities in the future.
Motivation for Application and Academic/Career Plans After Enrollment
I want to live a life of “participation.” During high school, when I faced difficulties due to poor health, I received a great deal of help from my friends, and that experience left a deep impression on me. Thanks to friends who would walk behind me to lead me into the shade during PE class and share their notes with me on days I couldn’t attend evening classes, I was able to fulfill my role as class president successfully. Receiving that support inspired me to become someone who helps others and actively participates in the community, leading me to take an active role in student council activities and the “Anabada” movement. This inclination is also what motivated me to choose the Department of Political Science and International Relations. I understand that the Department of Political Science and International Relations trains professionals by teaching the principles of politics and diplomacy while developing communication and mediation skills. I am deeply interested in resolving problems that arise when society fails to communicate effectively. Having personally experienced a lack of communication at school and the resulting issues, and having witnessed diverse aspects of life through volunteer work, my desire to address communication problems on a larger scale—such as conflicts and mistrust between nations and within societies—has become firmly established. Once admitted, I plan to focus intensively on political and diplomatic theory, international relations, and negotiation theory, while actively participating in discussions and mock conferences to develop practical skills. In the long term, I aspire to take on a role as a mediator in the fields of diplomacy and international cooperation, working to help diverse stakeholders collaborate in finding solutions.
