Letter of Intent

Sehoon Jo 20 December 2010 It has been seventeen years since I came to the States from South Korea hoping to get a PhD and return to my home land to join the faculty in the university from which I did my undergraduate degree in public administration. But somehow I ended up working in the completely unrelated field software engineering for the past 15 years after I graduated from BYU majoring in the master's program in public administration. My life has been busy meeting the daily tasks and fulfilling the family obligation. To improve my professional life in the computer software field, I got the master's degree in the information system from an adult night school while I was employed full-time. After I joined the LDS church workforce four years ago, I have been seriously questioning about my future and the goal that I had before I came to the states. Now I determined to pursue my PhD in education before I get too old, so that I can go back to Korea and be a motivational speaker giving hopes to the students and adults of various ages. In recent decade Korea is experiencing an influx of female foreigners who get married into the native Korean families trying to live in the country having a dream that we, Americans, used to have in the states from the very birth of this country - the American dream. They brought various complex and unique cultures with them and collided with the existing culture. Not only it affected their lives, but also affected the lives of others and especially their descendants who have both of the cultures in them in a society that has been identified as uniform culture and doesn't easily accept the foreign ones. The reality of the growing melted cultures in an one facet culture of thousands years of history is growing rapidly than the society itself can tame the negative aftermath of the uncontrolled fusion of multicultures. Many are suffering from the breakdown of the system. With the experiences and the knowledge that I gained so far and the authoritative and systematic education that the department can offer, I can be better equipped to be a public motivational speaker and offer solutions to them and to the situation that is unique in Korea at the moment. It is like the time of the civil right's period in the states. The nation is needed a person like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who can bring out the problems openly and fairly and drive the society to adopt the best known solutions. It is my only desire to go back and serve them with the advanced skills and visions that I might systematically gain and organize from the education in the department. I realize that the life is given only one time for this life and I really want to do more than I simply work for the retirement in the states. Please provide me a chance to realize the once in a life time opportunity to make the things better and to make huge difference in the lives of thousands whom I may serve for the remainder of my life. Thank you. Sehoon Jo