The joint JD/MBA Program at Florida International University is my first choice for graduate study for various reasons. Most of all, it is the thoroughgoing international focus of your program, combined with the vast resources of XXU. Since I finished my undergraduate degree at XXU, I am also well established here, and this will help me to excel in your distinguished program. In particular, I very much look forward to becoming involved with the Latin American and Caribbean Center, LACC, assisting our new director XXXX in the development of new directions and activities. I especially admire XXXX’s work with the Defense Department in response to the earthquake in Haiti. I hope to dedicate my own professional life to working to unify our region, politically and culturally but especially economically, putting a high priority on humanitarian considerations in the development of public policy.
Born in the United States to parents from El Salvador, I would grow up part of the time in the USA and amount of the time in Central America. This helped me to become completely bicultural as well as bilingual, something that I hope to put to good use working for the economic development of our neighbors south of the border. As someone with a solid background in business development over the last two decades, I feel strongly that my extensive professional experience will also enable me to make valuable contributions to discussions in both law and business as I hope to take full advantage of the marvelous opportunity represented by your joint JD/MBA Program.
I want to put my language and business skills to good use from San Salvador to Miami, working on behalf of projects that are highly socially responsible and provide valuable services or goods to their communities, promoting those companies as models throughout the Americas, with a particular focus on Central America and the Caribbean. I now have 20 years of management experience in the Printing and Marketing industries, something which will serve me well in the future. I am also a highly responsible member of my own community whose volunteer efforts have been spent primarily on church visits to families from our ward.
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spending large parts of my childhood there, beginning to recognize that I was somehow different from the light-skinned and fair-haired children around me is among my earliest recollections. Frankly, my childhood and adolescence were a troubled ones. I even ended up with a brush with juvenile detention. Much of this was due to the stress and cultural adjustment of being shipped back and forth from the US to El Salvador, changing school systems, countries, languages, and the absence of my father in my life. I finally ended up in military boarding school in El Salvador, where I learned to value and cultivate discipline and self-respect. Looking back, I think positively about my experiences insofar as they helped to make me empathetic, and to appreciate the need for a stable home for children to realize their optimal potential. I also now more fully appreciate the beauty and value of becoming completely bicultural as a child, as well as bilingual, which should also serve me well in my professional future.
I only really had a chance to get to know my father well when I finished high school. We will be business partners in the area of printing and marketing for the next 20 years. I became a father myself, and, in fact, my 16-year-old lives with me at present. I decided to return to school at XXU and earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management partly because I wanted to be a good role model for my son. My father passed away on January 27th, 2012. He taught me the importance of helping others, and, no matter what, never giving up.
I have always wanted to be a lawyer from the first time I was in front of the judge as a juvenile. I see lawyers as the movers and shakers, and I want to participate in progressive change in our societies on both sides of our border in the most effective way possible. My central focus will always be on economic development, and I think that I might be most beneficial to a progressive, large corporation that wants to invest in Latin America and the Caribbean, helping to foster economic productivity in a way that respects human and labor rights and helps to improve the lives of all those involved. This is why I am most interested in the healthcare sector.
It is my bilingual, bicultural voice that is my most significant asset, and I have worked hard to develop my speaking skills, as noted by my being awarded first place in a contest by Toastmasters, and second place in a university speech competition.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for considering my application to your program.