Research and evaluation are fundamental in advancing knowledge and practice. They provide mechanisms by which enhancement can be made to provide the most effective informal interventions and resources. Additionally, research and evaluation guides intervention/projects, improves them, and ascertains whether the intervention/projects can achieve their intended outcomes. Working as a Program Data & Evaluation Specialist at Riis Academy and as a research assistant to Dr. Clarke, I have witnessed the importance of research and evaluation. My work has given me the opportunity to utilize data and evaluation for purposes of guiding the organization on how best to set benchmarks, challenge the existing organizational culture, determine new areas for growth, and indicate the impact that existing programs have on the youth. I witness how the results obtained from research and evaluations are used to positively affect literacy as well as improve program performance. My current position has made me realize the important role that data has in the planning and implementation of educational programs. Knowing the importance of data and having worked in the field of research, I have experienced many challenges in my career; challenges in conceptualizing and measuring the interventions, determining the proper research design to implement, and dealing with the unpredictable interaction of particular development settings. The foregoing challenges arise from my lack of knowledge in the field, hence the reason for my application to join your program. I am convinced that by attending the Research Methodology Doctoral Program at UCLA, I will get the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to become a better researcher and evaluator. Having stated my reasons for wanting to attend the research methodology doctoral program in your university, I will dedicate this section to briefing you on some of my personal knowledge and accomplishments that will contribute to the university’s diversity mission. I believe I fit in the diversity criteria because I come from a foreign background, having been born in Haiti. Notably, the Haitian culture is very different from the larger American culture. Despite the differences in my home and host cultures, I have successfully attained educational success while studying in the United States of America. I have also learnt to co-exist, communicate and create good working relationships with fellow students, faculty members, colleagues and my superiors wherever I have studied or worked. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to live and work in different social set ups, and this has made me more appreciative of other people’s worldviews and cultures. Over the years, I have developed an ability to navigate through cultural differences successfully as I pursue different endeavors. I therefore believe that my foreign background and my education and work experiences in different cultures makes me ideal for admission in the university in line with its diversity mission. Among some of my educational-related achievements include research in social aggression among 7 th graders which my university facilitated through a summer grant. The research findings were included in Dr. Hongling Xie’s research and Bing Shi’s article titled “socialization of physical and social aggression in early adolesc