Hi all,
I thought I'd post my personal statement on here for any constructive comments. This is only the first draft, so it may be a little rubbish:
What fascinates me about history and politics is their impact they have had on our society over the course of many years. Growing up I was initially influenced by my father’s own interest in both history and politics. Even though my opinions are different to his, my enthusiasm for these subjects still remains.
As cliché as this sounds, I do genuinely love history and politics. After completing my GCSE’s I was adamant that I was going to study History and Government & Politics at A Level, along with English Literature, a subject choice that was influenced by my interest in history and politics, due to the nature of some of the topics, such as war poetry.
Studying History and Politics at A Level increased my enthusiasm for the subjects. One particular period of history that never ceased to grab my attention during my A Levels, even after studying it at GCSE, was post-WW I Germany, and in particular Hitler and the Nazi Party and the events that led to the Second World War. I find it so fascinating because despite the fact that the world had just come out of one of the most brutal wars in history, Hitler was still brought to power. Not just that, but this happened only 75 years ago, in a cultured, civilized country, yet the world was plunged into another world war which cost the world an estimated 60 million lives, most of which were innocent civilians. To gain a more in depth knowledge of this subject I have gone on to read Laurence Rees ‘The Nazis’ and Ian Kershaw’s ‘Hitler: 1889 – 1936 Hubris’ & ‘Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis’. I have also recently visited the Imperial War Museum to view the current exhibition marking the 90th anniversary of the First World War, which has given me an insight into the war, which I didn’t completely gain when studying at A Level. At some point next year I hope to go to Berlin and other parts of Germany, to immerse my self in the history of the Nazi Party and key events surrounding the Nazis and the Second World War, which I hope can further my knowledge of this time period.
I chose Government & Politics alongside History at A Level, because in my opinion they are very much intertwined, and we can’t have one without the other. Many significant historical events have happened because of politics and many different aspects of politics are shaped by significant historical events. Politics, as does history, shapes the society we live in today, through political decisions, just as history shapes the present and our futures.
I feel I have a significant amount of work experience for someone of my age. While at school and college I worked as a volunteer for the Backdoor Music Project in Rochdale, being awarded for over 200 hours voluntary work. After I completed my A Levels I took the decision not to go straight to university. Instead I started work for the local authority, which, although I never intended to work for them for a long period of time, has given significant work experience. During my time at the local authority I worked within different teams, picking up different skills. The skills I gained were research and analysis skills, workload management, effective team working and efficient communication with colleagues, all of which would help in my studies of history and politics at degree level.
While working for the authority I also completed an NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration, teaching me even more workload management due to the fact I was taking on extra work in my NVQ while working in a full time job.
Studying history and politics at a degree level would give me the opportunity to further develop the skills I have gained while studying at GCSE, AS and A2 Level, as well as keeping up my passion for the subjects, and allowing me to follow a potential career in teaching or another potential career path I could choose.
I thought I'd post my personal statement on here for any constructive comments. This is only the first draft, so it may be a little rubbish:
What fascinates me about history and politics is their impact they have had on our society over the course of many years. Growing up I was initially influenced by my father’s own interest in both history and politics. Even though my opinions are different to his, my enthusiasm for these subjects still remains.
As cliché as this sounds, I do genuinely love history and politics. After completing my GCSE’s I was adamant that I was going to study History and Government & Politics at A Level, along with English Literature, a subject choice that was influenced by my interest in history and politics, due to the nature of some of the topics, such as war poetry.
Studying History and Politics at A Level increased my enthusiasm for the subjects. One particular period of history that never ceased to grab my attention during my A Levels, even after studying it at GCSE, was post-WW I Germany, and in particular Hitler and the Nazi Party and the events that led to the Second World War. I find it so fascinating because despite the fact that the world had just come out of one of the most brutal wars in history, Hitler was still brought to power. Not just that, but this happened only 75 years ago, in a cultured, civilized country, yet the world was plunged into another world war which cost the world an estimated 60 million lives, most of which were innocent civilians. To gain a more in depth knowledge of this subject I have gone on to read Laurence Rees ‘The Nazis’ and Ian Kershaw’s ‘Hitler: 1889 – 1936 Hubris’ & ‘Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis’. I have also recently visited the Imperial War Museum to view the current exhibition marking the 90th anniversary of the First World War, which has given me an insight into the war, which I didn’t completely gain when studying at A Level. At some point next year I hope to go to Berlin and other parts of Germany, to immerse my self in the history of the Nazi Party and key events surrounding the Nazis and the Second World War, which I hope can further my knowledge of this time period.
I chose Government & Politics alongside History at A Level, because in my opinion they are very much intertwined, and we can’t have one without the other. Many significant historical events have happened because of politics and many different aspects of politics are shaped by significant historical events. Politics, as does history, shapes the society we live in today, through political decisions, just as history shapes the present and our futures.
I feel I have a significant amount of work experience for someone of my age. While at school and college I worked as a volunteer for the Backdoor Music Project in Rochdale, being awarded for over 200 hours voluntary work. After I completed my A Levels I took the decision not to go straight to university. Instead I started work for the local authority, which, although I never intended to work for them for a long period of time, has given significant work experience. During my time at the local authority I worked within different teams, picking up different skills. The skills I gained were research and analysis skills, workload management, effective team working and efficient communication with colleagues, all of which would help in my studies of history and politics at degree level.
While working for the authority I also completed an NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration, teaching me even more workload management due to the fact I was taking on extra work in my NVQ while working in a full time job.
Studying history and politics at a degree level would give me the opportunity to further develop the skills I have gained while studying at GCSE, AS and A2 Level, as well as keeping up my passion for the subjects, and allowing me to follow a potential career in teaching or another potential career path I could choose.