Janna Donahue Statement of Purpose UVM Graduate College Admissions Essay March 23, 2008
As an educator, I have had the wonderful privilege of working with students as they experience learning about the world around them. As my students are learning objective facts, they are also learning how to respect each other and adults, how to make good decisions, and the importance of bettering oneself through initiative and the pursuit of education. It is within my education of others that it has been ingrained within me how important it is for me to take every opportunity I can to make myself a better person, citizen, and teacher. In order to help myself achieve excellence, I am pursuing a degree in Educational Leadership. An integral part of preparing for graduate school is identifying areas in which I can improve myself as a student and an educator. At the University of Vermont, I hope to expand my leadership skills within educational programs. I am strongly devoted to serving the common public, giving opportunity to more than just those who are financially privileged enough to pay for opportunities beyond mainstream education. In order to be effective within these programs, however, I need to learn the structures of such programs and how they run. I feel it is important to experience many different approaches to education. I earned my Bachelors of Science at Georgia College & State University, a program which emphasizes the importance of experiential education. My teaching experience has been in a place where I was granted the freedom and resources to be able to teach entirely experientially, however, I understand that many educational programs are restricted with testing requirements and state regulations. I would like for my education at UVM to help me incorporate experiential education creatively into more strict structures of education. Another skill I would like to improve is my ability to prioritize opportunities that are made available to me. Coming into an educational program, I understand that any student is expected to have an established skill set. This is especially true within a graduate program, to ensure that a student can get the most out of the education being offered. I have been very fortunate to have discovered something I love doing early in life, and therefore have had some opportunity to practice teaching in several different settings. I have had the opportunity to work for and with many different styles of educators, and to be mentored by educators in different roles. My ability to work well with and understand others has served me to network with many people and organizations that I feel are beneficial to my career. I also believe that crucial to education is a passion for helping others make decisions to better themselves and their surroundings. This, for me, is the foundation on which my pedagogy lies. As a teacher in an outdoor education setting, I used my limited time with my students to get them excited about the things they are learning, with the hope that eventually they would not think such things were mundane, but interesting, so that they would take the initiative to learn about the world around them on their own.
With a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Vermont, I feel I can advance my career and whichever organization I choose to work for. Ideally, I will be able to use my skills to benefit a program which serves students from many different socio-economic statuses, different cultural backgrounds, and who have different skills to offer. I would like to work within a program that helps these students to use the skills that they have to benefit themselves and others through responsible decision making. I am most familiar with outdoor and environmental education settings, and I have really enjoyed seeing the benefits of these programs, however, I am open minded toward any program that helps a student realize his or her full potential and does that in a way that is wholesome and holistic. I look forward to my graduate studies helping me to attain this goal.