1 - Getting Started ~5 mins
Halfway through Year 2, you are reflecting. Your personal statement was written before the community work, the volunteering audit, the enterprise investigations and the collaborative design-thinking task. Today you hold that statement against what community engagement has taught you about who you are, and then you write it again. The new version is saved as Personal Statement V3, and beside it you write a short change note: half a page saying what you took out, what you added and what you kept because it is still true.
2 - Key Terms ~5 mins
Three terms you will use while you revise.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Personal statement revisit: a planned return to your statement with new evidence from later learning | Today you rewrite so community and collaboration show up as evidence, not as a bolted-on paragraph | Adding a specific moment from the collaborative task instead of the line "I am a team player" |
| Community learning: what community work has shown you about your values, skills, and how you work with others | Your V3 should prove something a reader could only know because of Strand 2.1 | Noticing you stay calm when a group idea has to change mid-task |
| Version control: labelling drafts so change is visible and the current version is clear | Save V3 as its own document; do not overwrite V2. The change note explains the gap between them | Personal Statement V3 beside Personal Statement V2 in your Strand 2.1 folder |
3 - Revise for Community and Collaboration ~35 mins
Study how Aoife revised her statement after collaborative community work. The worked example on this step shows her earlier draft beside the revised version, with the moves that matter marked one at a time.
Then open your own current personal statement, the latest version you have banked, and work from it. If you cannot find one, open your Lesson 1 Tell Me About Yourself baseline instead, or the latest draft you do have, and build from that; you still save the result as Personal Statement V3, and you say in the change note what you started from.
You have about eight minutes on Aoife's example, then about twenty-two minutes to rewrite the whole statement, and about five minutes at the end for the change note. Two documents leave the room with you.
- First, Personal Statement V3, saved in your Strand 2.1 folder: a full revised statement that takes in what community engagement and collaborative work have taught you about who you are. Keep your own voice and your own detail, and add real evidence from this strand, such as a named moment from the collaborative task, from volunteering or from enterprise work, rather than a vague claim about "caring about community".
- Then the Personal Statement V3 Change Note: half a page covering what changed, which experiences drove the change, and one sentence on what stayed because it is still true. Finish it with one sentence to your future self on why this rewrite was worth doing before the workplace strand.
A reader who only knows you from your earlier draft should see a clearer person after V3.
Personal statement: Aoife, before and after Strand 2.1
4 - Think About It ~10 mins
Talk these through with the person beside you, or sit with them quietly.
- If someone who read your statement last year read V3 today, what would surprise them most, and is that surprise fair to who you actually are?
- Which line in V3 would fall apart if you removed every Strand 2.1 experience? If you cannot find one, the revisit has not landed yet.
5 - What You Covered ~5 mins
In this lesson you:
- Revisited your personal statement through a community and collaboration lens
- Studied how a strong revision turns Strand 2.1 moments into evidenced lines rather than vague claims
- Produced Personal Statement V3 and a half-page Personal Statement V3 Change Note in your Strand 2.1 folder
- Named what changed, what stayed, and why the new version is a fairer picture of you now
Your V3 stays live for the next major portfolio reflection and for the later personal-statement revisit in the workplace strand.
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