Child Life Specialist Personal Statement

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Every day, children, adolescents, and their families experience the stressors of disease, injury or disability. In some circumstances, these children are sent to the hospital and trapped in a world where doctors, nurses and other health care workers come in and out of their small rooms poking, prodding and talking in a medical language that is foreign to them. With the assistance of a nurse to treat and care for the child, a Child Life Specialist (CLS) can help reduce these challenges and promote healthy coping skills and development. As a Capella student, my academic goal is to earn my Master’s in Psychology with a focus in Child and Adolescent Development. In conjunction with the practitioner-scholar learning method, the development of …show more content…

Although my aunt is not a psychology professional, her hands-on experience with my cousin exemplifies her knowledge of his disorder and ability to care for him. Her strength and aptitude accompanied by my cousin’s optimism inspired me to learn more about the human mind and how it works. Along with my involvement in “Best Buddies” in high school, I frequently was exposed to other types of mentally challenged students that had autism, Fragile X syndrome (FXS), cerebral palsy and ADD/ADHD. Best Buddies is an international organization that creates one-to-one friendships between individuals with or without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD); that offers social mentoring and provides an improvement in the quality of life to the special needs population (Best Buddies International, 2017). Our organization would sponsor activities such as dances, after school activities, and provide tutoring. It was very gratifying for me to help and change the lives of these students. With my personal experiences, my passion for caring for these extraordinary individuals grew stronger. My purpose and vision in life are working with children, especially the mentally challenged; to get the help and support, they require to face the difficulties of life. By earning a Master’s in Psychology in Child and Adolescent Development, I will be able to provide the knowledge, theory, and best practices …show more content…

Learning can occur by design, through study or instruction, or unintentionally simply through experience (Driscoll, 2015). Capella University graduate programs build from the reflective-practitioner model to the practitioner-scholar methodology of learning. All U.S graduate degree programs are designed by faculty experts in their fields and involve advanced, focused study in a scholarly experience that goes beyond the bachelor’s degree. According to Gullahorn (2004),
Students' active involvement in the learning and discovery process is promoted by faculty mentoring and frequent interaction between faculty and students as well as among students in structured and informal settings. Together, the faculty and students form a graduate community of scholars that enhances learning and discovery as well as personal growth and professional socialization (p. 204 – 207).
The practitioner-scholar learning model will allow me to use my cognitive skills to approach any problem that may arise throughout my studies and professional career. Together with my personal experience and expansion of knowledge in the Child and Adolescent Development field of psychology, I will be able to utilize my skills to my greatest ability as a

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