Bachelor of Science In Family And Consumer Sciences (Food and Clothing) personal statement example

Personal statement example

On our compound, three school uniforms hang on the same line every Saturday: mine, my brother's and my sister's. They are meant to be the same shade of brown, but by the end of a term they never are. My brother's shirt, bought from a cheaper roadside seller, goes pale first, and the colour leaves unevenly, lightest across the shoulders where the sun falls. Last year I decided to find out whether this was the fabric, the dye, the washing or simply the sun.

I asked Auntie Efua, the seamstress whose kiosk I help at on Saturdays, for offcuts of the two uniform materials she uses most. I cut each into strips, labelled them with a marker on masking tape and pinned half to a board on our roof, keeping the other half in a drawer for comparison. Every week I washed some strips with bar soap and some with powdered detergent, then compared them against the stored pieces in the same morning light. I had no colour meter, so I photographed every strip beside a printed brown card and kept a notebook. After eight weeks the blended fabric had held its colour better than the cotton, but the cotton was noticeably cooler to wear, which my siblings confirmed without being asked. Detergent faded both faster than bar soap. I know a homemade test like this proves little on its own, but it showed me why buying clothes involves a trade-off between durability, comfort and price, and why families on tight budgets often cannot afford to make the choice they would prefer.

Working at the kiosk has taught me more than any single experiment. I sew on buttons, press finished garments and take measurements when Auntie Efua is busy. I have learnt to read a customer's request carefully: a mother asking for a uniform "with room to grow" needs deeper seam allowances, not simply a bigger size. Watching Auntie Efua cut along the grain so that a skirt hangs straight made sense of a topic from my Clothing and Textiles lessons that I had previously only memorised.

Food interests me in the same practical way. In Foods and Nutrition at school we studied the Maillard reaction, which explained to me why my grandmother insists on roasting gari slowly until it smells nutty rather than hurrying it. Out of curiosity I stored small portions of the same gari in a sealed plastic jar, a tied polythene bag and an open bowl in our kitchen, checking smell and texture each week. The open bowl turned soft and stale quickly, and the polythene bag attracted weevils sooner than the jar. Most households near us buy gari in polythene, so I would like to understand properly how packaging and storage affect food quality and safety, rather than just observing it.

Outside school I play goal defence for my school netball team and help my mother manage the household. Each morning before school I iron uniforms for my two younger siblings, which is a small job but one that has made me notice how quickly fabric wears at collars and cuffs. Planning the week's meals with my mother, and seeing how prices at the market change our plans, has made me interested in how families make decisions about food and clothing with limited money.

I want to study Family and Consumer Sciences because it joins the subjects I already care about: how food is prepared and preserved, how textiles behave and how households use their resources. I am careful, patient with repetitive tasks and comfortable working with my hands as well as from books. I would like to learn the scientific methods behind the questions I have been testing on my roof and in my kitchen, and eventually use them to give families clear, practical advice.