SocialWorkStatement.com
by Dr. Robert Edinger
* Helping Applicants Since 1995 
drrobertedinger@gmail.com

Sample introductory paragraphs for the MSW Degree Personal Statement of Purpose with a military background.

A middle-aged African-American woman, a very hard worker and a highly responsible professional, I have spent many years in health care management. I want very much at this critical juncture in my professional advancement to make a career change to the area of social work because for many years now, I have closely observed, investigated, and come to very much appreciate the critical role that is filled by the social worker in our society. As a veteran who very much enjoyed her time in the military, I am also a patriot who sees no greater good or more important social priority than the care of our military personnel, veterans, and their families. This is why U__ is my first choice for graduate study because of my profound appreciation for your special MSW track of Military Social Work. My understanding of the social work profession and its core values suggests that the safety net that we seek to provide for all of our people in America, looking after vulnerable families and their children in particular, is something that we have a special duty to provide to military families with parents generally separated from their spouses and children for over a year at a time, and numerous complex burdens that we ask our military families to bear in order to protect the freedom of us all. I hope very much to be admitted to your distinguished program at U__ so that I may have the opportunity to become a professional who specializes in the well being of America’s military families. I am especially pleased that U__ even hosts its own Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families.

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I want to earn the MSW Degree as a foundation for becoming a recognized expert in the area of PTSD. I am especially interested in doing research in the future and publishing my work concerning military veterans who suffer from PTSD and who have also had traumatic childhoods. As a 25-year military veteran and someone who has worked extensively in Washington DC with the Disability Evaluation System, I feel that I have unique qualifications to undertake research in this area and to make important contributions to our developing understanding of the roots and development of PTSD. My inspiration for lifelong study in this area is also inspired by my own quite difficult childhood and the struggle that I have had throughout my lifetime to heal these wounds.

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I am a very hard working African-American woman whose undergraduate studies and early professional experience are in the area of criminal justice and our justice system. For the past six years, however, I have worked as a Nursing Assistant for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Pittsburgh, PA. Increasingly, I have come to love my work, to such an extent that I find it difficult to disengage when my shift is over. Much of this has to do with the sheer emotional intensity of my responsibilities as a Patient Observer for our veterans who are seen as at risk for suicide or injury to themselves or others, requiring certain precautions which can involve restraint, seclusion, fall, safety, and flight risks, etc. I have had ample time to reflect throughout the course of these years in which direction I want to make my career push for the balance of the time that the Lord has plans for me, hopefully several more decades, and how I might give my all, make my greatest contributions to the well-being and recovery of our traumatized veterans taking into consideration what I have already learned concerning the enormous mental health burdens that they carry. I have decided, for a variety of reasons which I detail in what follows, that I could best realize my full potential by earning the MSW.