From my personal statement:How does your desire to enroll in this program align with your sense of yourself and your life aspirations?

Today, I want to show you my answer for " How does your desire to enroll in this program align with your sense of yourself and your life aspirations?" This was second question in personal statement, which JFKU admission suggested.

My life aspirations are to work globally doing exciting things and to contribute to the world using my own unique knowledge and experiences.

Since I was a little child, I have always had a desire to work on an international level and do valuable things for the world. Since I was 12 years old, I wanted to become an international lawyer for International Court of Justice in The Netherlands*. But this dream of mine changed at 18 when I had the opportunity to study business in one of the top universities of Japan- Hitotsubashi University, where I got this motivation to be an international business person. Now, I am an international tax consultant, so my dream has come true in a way. However, through my daily work, I felt that my view of things was becoming narrow where I wondered whether my work was really contributing to the world or not. This is where I said to myself “I want to get away from this daily routine at any cost.” or “I wanted to change myself by all means.”

During my struggle to find a new myself and a better way of contributing to the world, I found about this MA program in Integral Psychology on the internet and something screamed within my mind “This is what I really wanted!!” I believe that Integral Theory is a meta-theory and has a much broader range of applications than any other theory. Therefore, I believe this program provides me a golden opportunity to nurture my skills through, develop a deeper understanding of psychology and contribute to the world in my own way.

*When I was a child, I thought working at International Court of Justice is most prestigious in the legal profession.

What brought me to apply to the MA in Integral Psychology?

I'll show you my essay which I wrote down for JFKU admission. I'd like you to know me more reading this. I'm very happy that you read the following my personal statement.

1. What brought you to apply to the MA in Integral Psychology?

There are mainly two reasons for applying to the MA in Integral Psychology at John F. Kennedy University.

The first reason for my application is that I would like to study Integral Theory which Ken Wilber proposed. In our own day, I think that there are multitudes of problems all over the world. For example, cruel wars, disastrous environmental problems, financial crisis, etc. In regard to these problems, I have had some internal conversations with myself, for example- “What can I do for these problems?” or “How can we solve these problems?” However, I did not have any clear answers for these questions, and for me, these problems seemed to be very difficult to tackle. When I was feeling short on my ideas, I came across Ken Wilber’s book- A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality by accident, and I was very impressed with his theory and his way of looking at the world. Therefore, I became keen to study Integral Theory in a proper and more detailed way.

The second reason for my application is that I would like to apply psychological theories and integral theory into the business field in order to build a better business world. I have had an experience of working for one of the biggest accounting firms in the world- Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, for around two years and I noticed that there were a lot of areas in the workplace where I could apply psychological approaches. For instance, I noticed that psychological approaches could be applied on areas of employee motivation, stress management, management of a team, etc. More specifically, I think that I can apply some of the humanistic psychology’s theories such as hierarchy of needs theory of Abraham Maslow to motivate employees, apply some of the social psychology’s theories to analyze the corporate culture, or apply some developmental psychology’s theories to evaluate the consciousness levels of CEO or employees. In addition to the above ideas, I also have some other ideas of applying psychology to the business world. Integral Psychology’s program at your prestigious university covers a variety of psychology areas, and being able to study the same will be very fascinating for me.

With the above mentioned reasons, I am applying to the MA in Integral Psychology at John F. Kennedy University to gain a deeper understanding of psychology, not only theoretically, but also to implement the same in the business world and elsewhere.

My inner feeling now

Previously, I always enjoyed new challenges in my life. So, when I did something new, my inner feeling ratio was “expectation: anxiety=100:0” at all times. Yes, I was very positive, I think.

However, this time, to study abroad in America, is a big challenge for me. To tell you the truth, my inner feeling ratio was “expectation: anxiety=30:70” one month ago, and now is 51:49.

Anxiety is still high, because I’ll definitely struggle with a communication in English.

I wish the ratio would be 100:0 soon.

To improve my writing skill

Alan Wilson Watts

Nowadays, I copy out Ken Wilber's books on my notebook, because I want to acquire sophisticated writing skills like Ken. Ken Wilber said that he also wrote down all Alan Watts books, who was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience.

Now I transcribe “The Essential Ken Wilber-An Introduction Reader”. I recommend this book because this book really includes essence of his philosophy.

After I copy out it, I’ll write down “The Simple Feeling of Being Embracing Your True Nature” which is an amazing book…..includes a lot of breathtaking poetic words.

I made it !

I made it ! I was accepted to JFKU. I'm very happy to study Integral Theory and Integral Psychology at JFKU.

I'm looking forward to my life in America.

Submitted all documents

Eventually, I submitted all required documents for JFKU admission !!

All I can do is to wait for a good result.

recommendation letter

Today, I received a recommendation letter from my friend.

Yes, I need two recommendation letters in order to submit to administration office.

The one is from my manager and the other is my friend

Actually, I asked my professor who taught me in my university’s seminar but he already retired and now he is in the employ of the Japanese government

He said “I’m so sorry I already retired and now I work in the government office. Considering my position, I can’t write it.”

I was reluctant to understand what he said…

Instead of my professor, one of my friend who graduated from same university and have known me very well agreed to write it for me!!

I appreciate him.