How to add my volunteer experience into my SOP?

[jlee306]

Howdy! I do volunteer work at a pregnancy center doing counseling. I am applying to Specialist in School Psychology programs and I'm not sure how to tie in this experience to how it will benefit me as a Licensed Specialist in School Psychology? These young women that I work with come into the center wanting pregnancy tests. Before they get the test, we have to sit them down and counsel them (trying to see what their current situations are and if they are planning on aborting, parenting, or adopting out). When I first started working there, I was real shocked to find out that many people think putting a baby up for adoption is worse than abortion. Since I was adopted, I do counseling for those who don't want a baby but feel guilty just thinking about putting their child up for adoption. I try to give them the perspective from the baby's point-of-view: me and my personal experience. Then I continue counseling them through the whole adoption process and help them to see that what they are doing is best for their child, depending on their unique situation. As a LSSP, I want to work with children helping them with their learning disabilities along with many other things. School Psychologist and School Counselors are two different things...if I were going to be a School Counselor, I could see how to tie this in. However, School Psychologist do do counseling, but it is just not the same. So if any of you have any advice on how I could tie this in, I would greatly appreciate it!

[rogue]

I don't know anything about counseling or school psychology, so I can't help you tie it in, but have you considered just listing it on your resume/CV, or having one of your LOR writers mention it? That seems to be a good solution for things that ought to be communicated to the ad com but don't, for whatever reason, work in the SOP.

[jlee306]

Yeah, it's on my CV. I just wanted to be able to talk about experience in the SOP. This SOP is kicking my butt!

[rogue]

I feel your pain... mine is making me pretty miserable right now. Good luck!

[fuzzylogician]

I can't help you with any specifics, but having been on this comm a while now and having read a whole bunch of SOPs, I can tell you that if you force the issue in where it doesn't fit -- it'll be easy to notice. If you don't feel you can tie this experience into your current situation or your future plans without damaging the flow of the essay, then just don't. Leave it on your CV and maybe have a LOR writer mention it.

This is of course not to say that you won't be able to tie it in well. It's the nature of SOPs to change and grow, and maybe after you've spent some time thinking about this experience and how you've grown and learned from it, you'll see how it helped mold you current views. If it did influence your choices and helped steer you in your current direction, it could be a nice opener.