Personal Statement

Having found the greatest pleasure in the construction of abstract models for tackling the widest range of social administrative problems for a long time, I have noticed great excitement from grasping the methods of analysis required for a given problem, drawing knowledge from different domains as well as finding an elegant solution. When I entered Zhongshan University, it was unsurprising that I chose a discipline in which I could construct even more complex and meaningful models: public administration.

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Encouraged and developed during the undergraduate years, a student of public administration should base his or her reasoning on a strong integration of both theory and practice so that he or she could be an excellent planner of public administration.

I had ample opportunities to braid these skills together during my research, especially the most notable one during my participation in “Reflections on Public Administration Research in China,” a major humanities and social science research project sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China. After drawing upon the canonical literature on public administration, I was placed in charge of a significant survey on the cultivation of new talent and the development in Guangdong. After delving into the relevant social research theories – most notably those of Earl Babbie and David de Vaus – I have realized that conceptualization would serve as the second step in the design of our study, after a well-defined purpose is set up. To that end, after organizing several brainstorming sessions and drawing from a wide range of theoretical documents, I defined “talent” in the field of public affairs through a variety of criteria, identifying students majoring in public affairs, scholars in the field, and staff working in different departments and NGOs throughout China. This definition is fairly novel in the field of public affairs. In order to attain conclusive results, I had to overcome the challenge of quantifying data, and face with the daunting task of converting social data into a numerical form for statistical analysis. Yet, by revisiting the GSS code book to determine a framework for consideration, I refined our research purposes, consulted academic materials, brainstormed with my teammates, and compared our ideas with those generated abroad and elsewhere in China. It was through this diverse set of processes that I developed a system of categories with regard to Guangdong’s local specificities. With great excitement, my supervisors were so thrilled with my emerging system used in turn a critical part of our solution.

Beyond integrating the diverse skills of survey design, I broadened my experience in different domains, including evaluation of model construction and the challenges of public health care. In my graduate work, I worked on specific projects aimed at identifying key qualities of leaderships. Working under the supervision of my advisor, Professor Guo, I joined a project entitled “Establishing and Designing Basic Health Policy for the Floating Population in Guangzhou City.” In this work, I was responsible for a wide range of academic functions, such as organizing symposiums, policies, and meetings with colleagues from diverse academic backgrounds. Working with scholars from the fields of economics, political science, sociology as well as law, I delegated tasks to appropriately-informed individuals. I assigned my colleagues in economics to work on tax policy and public finance consideration, those in political science to analyze the relationships between politics and health policies, and so forth. By establishing a set of checkpoints for each day of the conference, I was able to analyze and systematically review our progress. Drawing from each individual’s expertise, I assisted our conference find great success, and the conclusions of our research project attracted positive attention from the Guangzhou municipal government.

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With the purpose to further deepen my practical understandings of public policy, I have also participated in a diverse set of extracurricular activities, one of which called “United for Medicine,” wherein college students go to rural areas to spread knowledge, offering medical service to farmers. As a volunteer leader for the program, I led some members in observing the operations of grassroots governments, such as the living conditions of basic citizens and the educational situations in each district. The project was fraught with obstacles, particularly from the local governments at different levels. Yet these challenges were exciting, I had the opportunity to implement my plans after coordinating with government officials. For nearly ten days, I devoted myself to completing the investigation, which gained official confidence and gave us new chances to notice the actual conditions of the citizens. Later, being working as an assistant at Peking University’s Center for Public Participation Support, I began to help collect and analyze the public views on the Fuel Tax Reform and Health Care Reform.

I am drawn to the doctoral program at Rutgers’ School of Public Affairs and Administration for its superlative faculty, resources, and its opportunity to work alongside students with diverse academic and personal backgrounds. I am eager to work across cultures and borders during my graduate work in public affairs, and hope that my own perspectives from Chinese contexts would be valuable to my future peers. I am eager to devote myself to the pursuit of public administration study in theory and practice, and would be deeply grateful for the opportunity to face these challenges at Rutgers.