This personal statement must employ a “show, not tell” writing style. Showing its readers, the applicant’s personal life experiences through narrative descriptions of the applicant’s anecdotes and childhood memories. The statement’s writing style must also show the applicant’s analytical and critical thinking abilities. The paper format is 11-point Times New Roman, 1-inch margins and double pacing. Writers DO NOT NEED to include topic and title of this personal statement on the actual papers.
The statement must highlight 2 main themes: homelessness, and struggling childhood with gambling addicted father and schizophrenic mother. These two themes must coherently link together to implicitly show the applicant’s desire to become an attorney for human rights and social justice.
Applicant’s demographic: Asian, male immigrant from Viet Nam to the US in 2005. He graduated top 1% of his high school class; summa cum laude from college while serving full time in the military; top 3% from his MBA class while serving full time in the military.
Theme 1: homelessness background information:
The applicant was working 2 part time jobs to fully support himself through college education and living expenses. In 2009, he was let go of his 2 jobs, which forced him into homelessness. He didn’t have money for food, became a beggar at traffic stops. He slept on street pavements, in the parks, underneath freeway overpasses. He was robbed of his belongings one night in October. Not having enough clothes, he suffered a severe fever. He was able to drag himself to the ER, then collapsed at the entrance. He was hospitalized for two days. At the hospital, even though recovering, he felt saved. He was excited to have the only one chance to take a shower. He was then released from the hospital to a homeless shelter. He was eager to be able to live under a roof and have some heat to keep him warm. But then, he was sexually harassed and abused by his counterparts in the shelter. He was too embarrassed and ashamed to tell anyone. He left the shelter to be back on the street.
Theme 2: struggling childhood
The applicant was born in a poor family in the south of Viet Nam. His father was a manual laborer. The father made a living by ferrying passengers on his leased Vietnamese tricycle. His mother was a housewife. The family was discriminated by the Socialist Vietnamese government due to its involvement with the South Vietnamese Army before the fall of Saigon in 1975. The father struggled to make ends meet. The family could not afford rice or meat. They lived in a single shed, whose walls and roof were made from weaved coconut leaves. They survived on sweet potatoes, which could be found on an empty field near their shed. The father became a gambling addict. He was indebted to loan sharks, whose threatened the family’s lives for late payments. The mother had nervous breakdowns and developed schizophrenia. One time loan sharks’ life-threatening got so bad that his father had to stay away from the applicant and his mother. The applicant was forced to mature before his age. At 8 years old, he took care of his mother, cooked, did laundry for the family and attended to his education.
