Personal Statement
In a way, I think I was lucky. Since I struggled with ADHD and dyslexia in my childhood, I never had the opportunity to be intelligent in a traditional way. After shifting between special education and gifted & talented through most of my elementary career, I learned to embrace different ways of thinking, which inspired in me a lifelong curiosity about human behavior and motivation. Also, I learned to appreciate and apply an understanding that people have different world views and skill sets, and that made me very successful working with different types of people, including those considered outside the “normal” range. This has been helpful in creating and supporting working teams such as those that utilize both the techies from science/engineering, and those coming from a business background.
I think at the core of any person who wants to change the world, is a person who is unhappy with the world in some way and wants to fix it – whether it’s for themselves or others. I am no exception.
My parents were unconventional and believed in pushing boundaries. I went to a Waldorf prekindergarten class in southern Mexico while my Mom collected research for her dissertation. The first half of my …show more content…
But my understanding and experience had progressed to a point where I concluded that social marketing as a tool, at best, was marginally effective and, at worst, it was counterproductive. I think I believed if you could define what was best for people, and use persuasive tactics in social marketing, you could change their behavior for the better. However, for social marketing to be effective you almost need to raise a new generation with a different set of values. I knew my goal was to create systems to inspire positive human behavior, but I didn’t know the best way to do
In a way, I think I was lucky. Since I struggled with ADHD and dyslexia in my childhood, I never had the opportunity to be intelligent in a traditional way. After shifting between special education and gifted & talented through most of my elementary career, I learned to embrace different ways of thinking, which inspired in me a lifelong curiosity about human behavior and motivation. Also, I learned to appreciate and apply an understanding that people have different world views and skill sets, and that made me very successful working with different types of people, including those considered outside the “normal” range. This has been helpful in creating and supporting working teams such as those that utilize both the techies from science/engineering, and those coming from a business background.
I think at the core of any person who wants to change the world, is a person who is unhappy with the world in some way and wants to fix it – whether it’s for themselves or others. I am no exception.
My parents were unconventional and believed in pushing boundaries. I went to a Waldorf prekindergarten class in southern Mexico while my Mom collected research for her dissertation. The first half of my …show more content…
But my understanding and experience had progressed to a point where I concluded that social marketing as a tool, at best, was marginally effective and, at worst, it was counterproductive. I think I believed if you could define what was best for people, and use persuasive tactics in social marketing, you could change their behavior for the better. However, for social marketing to be effective you almost need to raise a new generation with a different set of values. I knew my goal was to create systems to inspire positive human behavior, but I didn’t know the best way to do