Mission Statements

Personal Mission Statement I wish to go to college to learn electronics and computers in order to give myself a viable future and to fulfill my dream of a college degree. Throughout my life I have worked two or three jobs at a time and have never really had the time, money, or motivation to go to college. Even out of high school, I was too busy working to really look to the future and apply myself towards these goals. Now, twenty years later, I've finally learned that if I continue to wait for the right opportunity, it will never come. If I want to go to college, I just have to make the opportunity to do so. One of the ways that I add to the diversity of a college campus is by bringing the experience and wisdom of twenty plus years of working without a college degree. Most students have not really faced adversity such as "Where will I sleep tonight?", or "How can I pay my bills and eat?", and the like. As it is, having gone through times like that before, I've learned how to survive during a time akin to attending college full time. The costs of school on top of the costs of everyday living are much more than a non-college graduate like myself can afford but I do believe that I can be stubborn enough to make it work. The reasons that I will make it through college are that I have learned to do without some physical pleasures, like food and sleep, for long periods of time so that I am able to work full-time as well as go to school full-time. I also have a very positive outlook on life and tend to, not only enjoy the magic of everyday life all around me, but really have fun with it. I am also a very quick learner and have been waiting a long time to achieve this dream. Long enough that I'm not going to let anything stop me now that I've started. Other traits that will help me in achieving this goal are my ability to adapt, be open-minded, and be trusted. Another aspect of my personality that I bring to Heald College and the professional workplace is my attitude towards prejudice and teamwork. You might even say that I have such a profound prejudice against racial prejudices that I have developed an ability to mold people of various heritages, lifestyles, and beliefs into outstanding teams. Of course, there is not much racial prejudice here in Hawaii, but I definitely get to enjoy working with a very broad cross-section of cultures. Finally, with my successful completion of a college degree program, I will be better able to help my community by teaching through example. Ideally, (I do know this is not an ideal world) my graduation from college will allow me to increase my income, and therefore free up more time for me to interact with the society that I live in. The combination of my open-minded beliefs and my ebullient, positive and childlike outlook on life does have an effect on those people that I come into contact with, and brings the world around me closer to the Community Unity that is missing across so much of the United States.
Individual Mission Statements My first purpose in attending college is to maximize my potential to learn in order to find a career in which I can be challenged mentally or physically, not just financially. In connection with this purpose I plan to use this to find a career that will challenge me to grow and still allow me to possibly nurture a family. My second purpose in attending college is to utilize my brain instead of just working minimum wage/ minimum thought jobs. In connection with this purpose I plan to use all the resources at college that I can in order to learn above and beyond what is being taught and at a pace that I can be more comfortable at. My third purpose in attending college is to meet new people, young people with fresh ideas in order to stimulate my creative abilities. In connection with this purpose I plan to encourage teamwork with my schoolmates, to be outgoing socially, to tutor and be tutored where necessary, and to impart any wisdom gained from my years of experience in doses that can be ingested by my mostly younger schoolmates. While in college, there will be some difficult choices to make, all of them with financial considerations: I bought a new car at the beginning of last year. With my car payments and full coverage insurance, I cannot afford to pay rent, or even go to an inexpensive restaurant like Taco Bell once a week to eat. Furthermore, if I sold the car, I would be throwing away all of the money that I've already paid and yet still owe on the loan. My present employer has agreed to help by reimbursing some of my college costs, but not until after the second quarter. In the meantime, the pay scale is too low to pay for both the car and school, even without paying rent. I have given up both tobacco and caffeine due to the financial situation. For those of you who have either habit, I'm sure you understand what that can do to a person. So far, so good. I'm not too grumpy or losing my hair. I am a very quick learner and supposedly highly intelligent. This is my first serious attempt at college and I just can't learn enough. I also am a little older than most of my schoolmates and have over twenty years of experience in the working world. Hopefully, I can impart some of the wisdom that I've gained over the years to my schoolmates. I am honest to a fault. This helps me in passing some of that wisdom on. I also have the talent of being trusted. I'm not sure how to describe this except that people tend to trust me with even their most personal issues right from the very moment I meet them. This can be as much a negative as a positive, but I have had this ability all my life and have learned how to keep it as positive as can be expected. I am unique mostly because I care. Totally and honestly I do care about everyone. It shows on my face somehow and this leads back in to the total trust by even complete strangers. As far as success in life, I haven't succeeded at all professionally but still have managed to leave my mark on the world by changing the outlook of people that I've met all over the country. I've shown many people how to look at life in a child-like manner and to see the magic and wonders that are all around us every day. Even more difficult, I've diminished the learned prejudices that many people develop from their parents and peers as they grow up. That is probably what I'm most proud of. Since I have yet to succeed past high school academically, adversity is a constant in the working world. Without a college degree you have to be willing to work very hard to achieve anything professionally and at the same time be lucky enough to find a situation in which the employer will not just use that willingness without any consideration of the future. In the workplace the world has become more and more disposable and that includes the way workers are hired. Many companies do not want to have to pay anyone retirement so they tend to try to burn out all but the top few employees and sometimes even them. In the community, I work at a local electronics retailer and spend much of my free time helping others understand how to hook up and operate many different electronic products. I also am a "Big Brother" to a special person and through him work with the Special Olympics. The past five years I have sponsored two South American families through Children International. I would love to do more but being there for my friend and my neighbors tends to take up almost all of my free time. I add to the diversity at Heald College and at everyplace I've ever been by my attitude. With my sense of humor, my tendencies to be honest and trusted, and the way people can tell that I sincerely care makes me; a novelty, a minority, a sucker, and a popular (or at least very well known) person. With my attitude towards prejudice and teamwork, those people around me tend to be as diverse as you can get for the given area. For example, in the southern United States, blacks and whites just didn't mix socially. Though I had friends of all races myself, we could not all go to any public places together. In the southern United States one black person with a group of white people was frowned upon but acceptable. One white person with a group of black people was treated the same way and then you could throw in Oriental and Hispanic people too. Where I was comfortable in any of the above situations, and most of my friends became comfortable in those situations, there were always others that were so against intermingling that there would be trouble. Please understand that not everywhere is as bad as most of the southern United States and most of the other places I've been I've been able to improve racial relations by removing learned fears about people of different heritage. With the training that I am receiving at Heald College I will be better able to support myself without working two or more full time jobs. This will lead to more free time in which I can actually spend helping the community through organizations like Big Brother/Little Brother, American Red Cross, YMCA, etc. I've always believed in community unity and am personable enough to run for public office (yet wise enough to not want it), so the more free time I would have, the more I can help my community bond together. I have had that effect in other places, where people actually get to know their neighbors instead of hiding in their homes, watching TV or surfing the net. Community Unity. I wonder if I can copyright that phrase. I have received a few awards for excellence in the workplace, sportsmanship in a amateur league, or academic achievement, but each were specific to the job or league. In the academic award category, I have been out of school since 1981 but was in the top 0.1% nationally throughout my primary education years. Recognition, that depends on how you mean it. I have had enough of an effect on so many different people that I probably would never have to work the rest of my life if I could stand to take advantage of the friendship and trust that I've earned. I could easily make a list of 1000 people who would not only take me in, but would turn any visit I made into a family reunion. If by recognition you mean being put on local, state, or national honor rolls, then I have successfully managed to avoid any recognition. I like the first type much better anyway. I'm intelligent, a quick learner, personable, able to communicate and teach, a hard worker, and generally well disposed towards life and everything that happens in it. The biggest negative that I have is that I'm honest to a fault. If that can be coped with than I am the ideal student/employee. I do have fun at everything I do and this tendency raises morale everywhere I've been.