Statement of Purpose

Hello Everyone,

I am an ardent followed of this site. I learnt many things from this site from last 2 years. I didn't know how to make a proper sentence in English without mistakes . The reason being, I am not a native speaker. But, now I realized that, not knowing English is not a lame excuse. Hence, I started rigorous practice to learn it.

Now, the reason why I am writing here is? I need to submit my Statement of Purpose to an university in Belgium for the Masters program with in this week. Could anyone correct the mistakes and make necessary suggestions regarding the same.

The rough draft of my Letter is as follows:

From a 25 years-old Fisheries student in the midway to seriously puzzle together the small and big bits of his achievements, challenging himself to get where he wants, and where he has the potential to be needed.

My name is Aathreya, I graduated from the College of Fisheries, Karnataka Veterinary Animal and a Fisheries science university in India with a Bachelor of Fisheries science degree. I remained at the same university about to receive a master degree (by May 2012) in Fisheries Microbiology. I am a life-full, enthusiastic Indian, who has known the most of his life what the rest of it would be about: Plants, animals, ecosystems. I am a life lover with a whole new range of perspectives of professional opportunities in one of the most fascinating branches, or perhaps rather life styles.

My journey started already in high school. My plan was to become a marine biologist making global scientific researches. I wanted to study abroad to be able to aim globally, even though my home country’s education is excellent. Right after graduation, I took almost 5 months to startup my own enterprise to become economically independent. During this mean time, I had an opportunity to travel all along Indian states. While in the process, I observed the current scenario of declining species diversity among aquatic animals (marine and fresh water) is due to climatic changes; Large dams and reservoirs affecting the dynamic nature of estuaries and marine ecosystems down the line, combined with numerous anthropogenic activities have led to a great deal of adverse impact on breeding migration of several ichthyofauna.

During my collegiate career I have been exposed to many symposiums, workshops and volunteered in organizing them which has enriched my knowledge of the current research and developments. At many instances, I feel, I have heard about theoretical aspects of ecology, conservation, a lot. But, when it comes to implementation part, how much of these are practiced in our daily life. Likewise, I started questioning myself countless number of times about various meanderings of marine biology, ecology and conservation. Later on, I realized that, if I have to choose my thrust area of work, It should be for filling up the gap in the existing scientific skill development world. Specifically, there is shortage of technically qualified experts in the assessment of impact of climatic change in India. Such shortage is reflected in the clear absence of scientific attempts to assess short and long term impacts of climatic changes, weather fluctuation, pollution, etc.

My future aspiration is to travel and speak with people, hold talks and workshops at schools, join national projects, and finally expand my leadership skills by organizing and developing the local group so it would get bigger and functionally better, locally, nationally and regionally in India. To contribute is at the same time the concept I’m working on to understand. My ideas, my still small but growing knowledge, my work, my life, should be directed towards what I think is important. Fortunately, money earning is not a concept that rules my future plans, but life. Life itself, and I want to protect it. The world I want to work for is the one with sustainable resources, nature full of life and fare societies. This is so long, of course, a utopia, but working towards it will be my profession. I’m aware of some of the many environmental and social problems on Earth, and I want to get to know more. All the aspects of the society have to be set together to get to a sustainable consensus. The beginning of the way is to understand the matters, locally and globally. Then not work against the problems, but towards the solutions.

Now I have almost achieved my first 2 goals, finished my bachelors and Masters (undergoing in Department of Fisheries Microbiology ( UNESCO MIRCEN ) for Marine Biotechnology) from my home country. The Masters program will be finished with a thesis project on “Climate change and its impact on microbes associated with phytoplanktons” in the Arabian Sea. The work is done in collaboration with the Marine Ecology department of the Gothenburg, Sweden. In addition to working on my Master of Fisheries degree, I have spent my college career working, volunteering, remotely managing my enterprise and also advancing my other skills. This challenging and newly developed project gave me many insights about carrying out my research work with more comfort.

What is the next step? What do I really want to take as a master program, and do with my life? What do I, in practice, want to work with, and where? I want to learn about the society we live in, why do we behave as we do, and in the mean time work for the conservation of our ecosystems. Healthy populations across numerous protected freshwater and marine ecosystems with high natural value should be one of our time’s biggest priorities. I don’t want to just be worried about it; I want to make that change, to love my work the rest of my life still living a great life, feel that what I do is much more important than money and believe that my future kids will be proud about my work, just as me.

This is my idea of what my profession could be about. Although now I have some insights in master level about how better it ecological issues can be assessed, managed and conserved, my idea of this matter in other parts of world is almost null. If I want to go back to a country with temperate ecosystems worth to be conserved, I have to start taking my first steps on that direction. Therefore, I am now aiming for the master of “Marine and Lacustrine management”, which suits perfectly with my plans and goals. Currently, as I hope it’s obvious above, I have the energy, the keenness and the capacity to do something important, but I am just starting to see and make the way. I want to join this programme to get the incomparable education and practical experience; to interact with amazing students from different cultures sharing our life with each other, being part of a global network with the same interests; and also to concretize my professional plans and thoughts. I am confident that this course will be my new guide on the road, so I can improve my directions, and know what to do in future, while still enjoying the way.

Date 00/01/2012 Sincerely,
Mangalore (Aathreya .H .J)