Personal Statement:

     Growing up with both parents as self-employed business owners, I experienced the benefits of entrepreneurship firsthand. I learned to love the freedom and responsibility that comes with running your own business. When I was eighteen years old, I started my own business in the travel industry. At nineteen, I started my own vocal and music studio. I planned on becoming an enormously successful expert so that I could train other entrepreneurs in business. When my mentor asked me if I would like to become a missionary, I thought that would be a distraction from my plan. As a Christian who loves Jesus with all of her heart, I have always been involved in church and ministry. However, I had no intention of doing that as a career. Thankfully, God got a hold of my heart in January 2018. As a Christian, I love sharing the gospel with others. I love talking about the grace and love of God. I realized that the role is a perfect fit for my talents and skill set. I am excited to journey towards a career as a full-time missionary staff member for Epic Movement.

     My Ultimate Mission: to win people to Christ, help them grow in their relationship with God, and send them out to reach the world for Christ.

     Full-time missionary field staff responsibilities include sharing the gospel, starting movements within communities, and leading Bible studies. In addition, I would have the opportunity to take teams of new missionaries around the world on short-term missions trips. These trips support international missions work in countries like the Philippines, Kenya, and Vietnam. Additionally, I would utilize my communication, entrepreneurship, leadership training skills.

     As a Communication Studies scholar, I have learned that human communication is truly an art. It is not just a science. You cannot simply plug the right ingredients into a formula and expect the same result every time. Human communication is fluid. It changes from moment to moment and from situation to situation. An expert communicator knows that human communication is an art. Like an artist paints with a practiced hand and emotional awareness of their work, an expert communicator sends messages with a refined voice and is constantly adapting to the emotional environment around them. As I strive to grow in my artistic ability as a communicator, I have been maturing in my personal and professional life.

     The Communication Studies department at San Jose State University is built on four cornerstones: Democracy, Diversity, Technology, and Globalization. While I was very familiar with the cornerstone of diversity, my time as a student helped me to define and identify the cornerstones of democracy, technology, and globalization. I’ve learned to locate each cornerstone in current events and in professional contexts. My coursework at San Jose State University has empowered me to grow and mature as a communication artist. The program at SJSU categorized my courses into three important arenas.

1. The Foundations category aimed to provide me with an intellectual foundation of my field by educating me on theory. In an Organizational Communication class, I learned to examine organizations and their communication methods through the lenses of organizational metaphors and theories.

2. The Inquiry category encouraged me to learn research methods used by communication studies scholars and to conduct my own research. I had the privilege of conducting a quantitative research study about the effects of survey instruction length on response rates.

3. Finally, the Practice category gave me experiences to practice my communication skills in the community. In my service with the Franklin McKinley Children’s Initiative, I had the opportunity to use interpersonal and intercultural communication skills in an underprivileged community.

     The cornerstone of diversity and my intercultural communication skills has made me an extraordinary candidate for missionary field work. Because Epic Movement is geared toward reaching Asian American college students, intercultural communication is used on a daily basis. I can interact with Asian American communities using culturally sensitive methods. I have experience serving as a bridge between Asian Americans and other cultural groups. For the past two years, I have organized an annual cross-cultural Christian event for approximately one hundred students. Since I will lead various teams, my training in organizational communication will also help me to excel in the workplace. Within a team, I can be relied on to complete projects on time, foster a culture of friendship and support, and train teammates to adapt to the environment.

     Most importantly, I feel that God has placed a calling on my life to participate in missionary field work. This field allows me to live in my giftings, my talents, and my passions. My education at San Jose State University has supplemented my calling with excellent training particularly in the fields of organizational and intercultural communication. Using my training in these two arenas, I am an exceptional candidate for the position of missionary field staff at Epic Movement.