Intrest in doing Phd in management and professional goals - 825 Words

Intrest in doing Phd in management and professional goals (Admission Essay Sample) Content: Surname:Institution:Date of Submission:PhD (Management) Personal Statement: University of Massachusetts AmherstWorking as a project manager at the John Hancock Financial services, from the summer of 2008 to date, has been tremendously exciting, capping over ten years of a successful work life in corporate America thus far. I have had an exceptional opportunity to put to practice my knowledge and skills, in an environment where I not only learn and advance my career, but I am also well compensated and appreciated by my colleagues and clients alike. However, such is my incessant fascination and thirst for more knowledge that career advancement and good perks would not stop it. My interest to pursue a doctoral degree was also in part inspired by a burning interest to unravel strategic decision making in corporate America, which has always baffled me.I am a Nigerian citizen who came to the United States with the sole intention of advancing my education and career, in orde r to go back home and help not just my own country, but many other African economies in their respective countrys development efforts. I intend to have attained my doctoral degree (Management) in five years time, after which I will head off to my country, where I purpose to take up a teaching and research position. These have been my long term goals, in part inspired by my prior teaching experience, where as an undergraduate in Nigeria, I taught Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics at High School level which afforded great satisfaction and joy when my students excelled. I came to America advance my education and career but most importantly, conducting research, teaching and publishing are more in line with my desire of giving back to society as against pursuing a career in the corporate world, which is mainly driven by money. America is a deeply entrepreneurial country, with what I believe is a virtual success formula and path followed by the majority of businesses and corporations fr om their inception, growth, expansion and maturity. Although I think this template may be fraught with ethical difficulties, I am convinced that a PhD would equip me with what it takes to device a similar if not better template, suited for young entrepreneurs in African economies. Entrepreneurship is particularly close to my heart, and little gives me more excitement that the feeling of getting an idea to reality, through uncertainties and challenges. This is what drove me into starting two businesses of my own, and even though one failed, I believe the experience equipped me with knowledge and to steer the other venture, which is still in the implementation phase to success.At the John Hancock Financial Services (JHFS), I was charged with the management of complex IT projects, planning, monitoring and scheduling of the same, as well as managing resources, besides the analysis of key system applications in order to determine and document intricate business needs that cost effectivel y meet the customer demands. My skills and knowledge in project management methods has come in handy in performing my duty in the identification, analysis, mitigation, documentation and control of project risks as well as other project aspects right from the project initiation to its completion and perhaps most crucially, preparing reports and presentations to senior management on project activities and status. The JHFS has allowed me to perfect my skills in customer relationships development, collection of information from clients to facilitate the identification and solution of problems, project team workload coordination and management as well as education of team members among numerous other areas. Prior to joining the JHFS, I had worked as a systems of...

The Demise of the 19th Century American Liberal Representations in ”Benito Cereno” and Our Nig - Literature Essay Samples

For the abolitionists and intellectual opponents of slavery during the 19th century, fruitless sympathy from the â€Å"enlightened† liberals of northern states was simply not enough. In the literary works â€Å"Benito Cereno† and Our Nig, authors Herman Meville and Harriet E. Wilson argue that sentimental sympathy towards racial injustices does not necessarily translate into social amelioration. In both accounts, Melville and Wilson employ characters with embedded stereotypes to demonstrate how such preconceptions can deter liberals from realizing the complexities of life. Naà ¯ve benevolence skewed reality, they claim, and thus was a detriment to the cause. Melville and Wilson both approach the slavery issue as fundamentally wrong—this is a given—however, they are slow to credit liberals solely for â€Å"having their heart in the right place.† Unlike Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose sentimental novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a deliberate attempt to make readers â€Å"feel† the right way about slavery, Melville and Wilson argue that the sentimental liberal response to slavery was as flawed as the system itself. â€Å"Benito Cereno† and Our Nig are works that attack liberal condescension and pity in order to make a statement that such an approach to the issue of slavery—or any social cause for that matter—was inherently futile. In â€Å"Benito Cereno,† the liberal hero Captain Delano is moved by the plight of the San Dominick slave ship, and thus departs his own vessel to provide aid to the gravely malnourished crew. Though Melville repeatedly describes the man as good natured and just, his morally upright intentions never translate into appropriate actions. While aboard the San Dominick, Delano observes a number of occurrences that should lead him to believe that a slave revolt occurred on the ship. His condescending and naà ¯ve stereotypes about the Blacks on the ship block him from being critical, as he cannot fathom the slaves are the source of the problem. Describing the relationship between Benito Cereno and Babo, Delano says:Sometimes the negro gave his master his arm, or took his handkerchief out of his pocket for him; performing these and similar offices with that affectionate zeal which transmutes into something filial or fraternal acts in themselves but menial; and which has gained for the negro the repute of making the most pleasing body-servant in the world; one, too, whom a master need be on no stiffly superior terms with, but may treat with familiar trust; less a servant than a devoted companion. (169) Delano’s belief that slaves like Babo were content, if not happy, with their predicament severely skewed the reality of the situation. He would later find out that Babo was controlling the weakened Cereno—not to mention threatening his life. But Delano’s naivetà © never allows him to adequately consider any of his suspicions. Through out â€Å"Benito Cereno,† he talks himself out of such theories before looking far enough into the situation to realize its reality.[I]f I could only be certain that, in my uneasiness, my senses did not deceive me, then—Here, passing from one suspicious thing to another, his mind revolved the strange questions put to him concerning his ship. (190) The paradox of Delano and other enlightened liberals of time was that the very benevolence that he believed might better the lives of others was actually leading him astray from the realities of the world—and hurting the cause of those he tried to help. Wilson presented a similar situation through some of the characters in Our Nig. In the book, Miss Marsh, Mr. Bellmont, Jack and James are all introduced as liberal heroes in the same vein as Delano. Though these figures were sympathetic to Frado and the cruelties she suffered at the hands of Mary and Mrs. Bellmont, their kindness never does any tangible good for the mis treated servant girl. In the following passage, Mr. Bellmont demonstrates justice and kindness toward Frado, but quickly exits the scene and leaves her at the hands of Mrs. Bellmont and Mary.‘How do we know but she has told the truth? I shall not punish her,’ he replied, and left the house, as he usually did when a tempest threatened to envelop him. No sooner was he out of sight than Mrs. B. and Mary commenced beating her inhumanly; then propping her mouth open with a piece of wood, shut her up in a dark room, without any supper. (33-34) The defense of Frado, followed by the subsequent lack of any real-life solution to her problems, forms a recurring pattern throughout Our Nig. Wilson argues that the sympathies of northern liberals does nothing to improve the situation of Blacks like Frado, and thus they should reassess their approach to the injustices. Emotional support, she argues, cannot be a credible means of achieving tangible social change. Melville and Wilson bot h took issue with the liberal sentimentalist approach to social change—and today’s social critics might regard many Americans as people of â€Å"intent† rather than â€Å"action.† Social liberals might agree that poverty and AIDS are bad, and that world hunger is a grave issue, however few actually take steps beyond sympathizing with the efforts of others. Historically, social change has only come about when people put their intentions into action—a political trend with roots tracing back to the 19th century.