I believe that my love for education is due mainly to the fact that I was born into a teaching family. Both of my parents and my elder sister are teachers. I embraced the love of learning at an early age, excelling as early as elementary school when I was chosen as one of only three students admitted to the best middle school in our province. My role model and inspiration has always been my father. My father was born into a very poor family and was the only child to survive while all of his brothers and sisters died of disease and malnutrition. My grandmother (over the objections of my grandfather) insisted that my father go to school rather than to work in the fields. Since then, he has continuously studied the agricultural field for years and wrote the first ever laws and regulations in China regulating the agricultural economy while simultaneously earning the respect and appreciation of high-level government officials in the ministry. My father has always encouraged me to achieve and excel, even though as a female in China such a pursuit is usually discouraged, if not impossible. His will to survive against all odds and his never-ending pursuit of education have given me the inspiration to follow his example and never let adversity stand in the way of achieving excellence to the fullest of my abilities.

"The Confessions" by Rousseau stated that the least knowledge acquired by humans is knowledge about humans. Knowing yourself and fellow mankind are extremely important in life as well as in management. Through earning my Ph.D. from your school, I hope to be able to contribute to other people, my country, society and life as a whole by realizing self-actualization and self-fulfillment through the study of organizational behavior.