Personal Statement- Rough draft Forum

[Anonymous User]

This is a very rough version of my PS. Can anyone offer any feedback?


Tree-hugger, hippie, liberal: just about any slightly derogatory term for environmentalist that you can name, I’ve been called it by everyone from my peers, to my professors, to my father. I suppose that I have earned those titles. Ever since my childhood, I have been drawn to nature. This passion has carried on throughout my life. I have learned to appreciate nature for its own sake but also to look forward to creating and enforcing new and better methods to improve environmental and economic outcomes, particularly in energy production. However, because an environmental focus has not always been the most popular school of thought, I have faced a lot of opposition from my family and those close to me.
Six years ago, during my sophomore year of high school, after researching the inhumane and unsustainable practices in American meat, poultry, and fish farms, I decided to become a vegetarian. This decision causes me to receive comments and questions everyday about why I’m passionate about this and what I think I’m helping. However, this decision and interest has been a huge driving factor in where my environmental interests would progress. Through this I have studied topics such as the looseness that the government places on the term “organic” and the huge amounts of fossil fuels that are dedicated to processing and shipping agricultural products. The agricultural industry is one of many domains that are heavily dependent on the decreasing mass of petroleum available.
Throughout college, I have studied environmental and energy issues independently and through courses as an Environmental Biology major. I have studied the production of renewable energy sources and seem the dramatic impact that it could have on the reliance on natural resources that is so prevalent in many industries. I want to focus my work on encouraging the expansion of alternative forms of renewable energy, particularly focusing on the regulatory frameworks of these developments.
My career goal is to become a public interest environmental lawyer. I see myself one day either working for the government, dealing with renewable energy promoting policymaking, or within the non-profit sector, working on environmental impact planning and sustainable growth and development. I also possibly see myself as a future in-house counsel for a renewable energy company. This field of work would combine the progressive environmentalism that I am interested in and with a focus on renewable energy. It would allow me to utilize my interest producing better environmental outcomes through the law.
A large part of why I am interested in environmental law is because of how the concept is still relatively new. The resistance and questioning I have received about my beliefs and my goals has opened my eyes to how low of a priority environmental legislation and enforcement is still placed at. This is something I want to change. I want to be able to both broaden the horizons and reaches of environmental policymaking but I also want to make a difference and positive impact on both the lives of citizens and on the environments of the country. If a lawyer successfully challenges a permit for a harmful development, she wins that day, and importantly, she makes a genuine, lasting impact in the lives of the people who would have been injured by that project. It also opens the doors for a broader understanding and appreciation of environmental concerns. My passions for revolutionary environmentalism and renewable energy will allow me to bring a unique voice to the law community.