Personal Statement
While my current CV explains what I have done in my career up to this point, the personal statement I wrote when applying to the SU MA program explains most sincerely why I decided to pursue this career expansion a few years ago. Below is the statement I wrote in 2013, one that is still very accurate today, though it does not include more recent accomplishments such as spending a year in Malaysia as the Academic Director of an English Language School.
I am ecstatic at this point in my life to investigate expanding my twenty-five years of high technology experience to include the ability to teach English language skills to others. Rather than abandoning what I have learned in industry over the last quarter century, I hope that by adding TESOL mastery to my accomplishments I may be able to teach English as well as business management and technology literacy to others.
To help explain why this transition feels so meaningful to me, I’ll offer a short biographical sketch. I entered young adulthood as a linguist in the US Air Force. After graduating from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California with Russian language proficiency, I obtained aircrew certification and flew on reconnaissance missions against the former Soviet Union during the Cold War; I was awarded the USAF Air Medal for this effort. My last year of service was spent at Fort George G. Meade in Maryland where I worked on a daily basis in the National Security Agency. Among other things, this started my lifelong fascination with languages and linguistics.
Following my time in service, I completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Physics (Nuclear Emphasis) at the University of California, Davis, while also working part time in the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory on campus.
After college, I entered the world of high technology with stints in companies both large and small:
● Member of the Technical Staff at Watkins Johnson
● Engineering Manager at Apple Computer
● Engineering Director at Aventail and MFN
● Release Director at Philips, Telocity, and Minerva Systems
● CEO of a small electronics business, employing 15 technicians
● Senior Program Manager at Microsoft
While in industry, I have had an ongoing opportunity to interface with peoples of other nations, including in-depth dealings with Japan, China, Taiwan, Ireland, Czech Republic, India, Brazil and Mexico. From this experience, I am extremely well-versed in the challenges and rewards of international collaboration.
At this point in my life, I am making an active and conscious decision to change the trajectory of my career, not abandoning the knowledge I have gleaned in high tech, but rather adding the ability to teach English to non-native speakers so that I may help them understand not simply the constructs of the language but also the business and technology skills necessary to compete in the world economy.
My years of experience in business should prove insightful to others, allowing me to teach not only the English language, but also important general business skills such as:
● Presentations
● Budgets
● Business correspondence and email
● Persuasion
● Negotiation
● Market Analysis
● People Management
Insights such as these are fundamentally necessary in the business world economy, regardless of the size or nature of the company.
In addition to the general business skills above, my engineering and technical knowledge of the R&D process as well as manufacturing and service operations would be very valuable to any company or individual dealing with the product development and release processes . In developed nations for certain, and even in many of the emerging economies, the teaching of specialized business English could be greatly enhanced based on my domain knowledge of areas such as:
● Hardware Design and Development
● Software Design and Development
● Design Validation
● Supplier and Vendor Management
● Quality Assurance and Testing
● New Product Introduction and Ramp
● Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) and Original Design Manufacturing (ODM)
● Documentation and Change Control Management
At many times in my career I have felt a longing to do something more meaningful, with more permanence, than working on the next generation high-tech product. While developing laptops and consumer entertainment systems has been exciting, at this stage of my life I have found those efforts, per se, to be unfulfilling: The latest technology and the most groundbreaking software will, in a few years (if not merely months), be obsolete, with a need to be supplanted. By growing into a teacher or mentor role, however, the skills I impart will last others a lifetime.
Beyond the business and professional rationale listed above, I’ll add that my youthful linguistic experience, coupled with my international exposure throughout my professional career, have fostered an unfaltering interest in other lands and other cultures. My vacations are filled with travel to Europe, Asia and the Middle East as I find myself longing for any opportunity to learn more about these and other parts of the world.
In short, my goal is to teach not only English vocabulary and grammar to others, but beyond that to afford others with insights into the world of business management and high technology. Combining the ability to teach the English language with my established business and high-tech experience would enable me to provide others a solid foothold in the world economy, while also rewarding me professionally, personally, and spiritually.